My Ford Focus ST500

[thehappyotter]

I've been a member here for a while and have spent quite some time enjoying the Readers Car's forum and having a nosey. I'm not sure if mine is quite in the same class as some here but I shall post a few pics anyway.

Owned since June '09 I've put 18,000 trouble free miles on the beast and it still has the ability to make me smile every time I take it out.

It's a special edition ST500, one of 500 made for the UK market at the end of the pre-facelift era. It features all the goodies of the ST3 along with limited edition silver on black paint, red leather heated Recaro seats and auto lights/wipers as standard. Mine's also been spec'd with touch screen sat-nav and dual zone climate control. For a Focus it's quite a nice place to be.

I've fitted a Dreamscience remap, running the DSCi map, along with a K&N Panel Filter and Eibach Pro springs. The map has really brought the car to life, it just pulls and pull and the springs have stopped a lot of the pitching whilst accelerating or braking it had with standard suspension.

All in all, aside from the average of 21mpg, a highly recommended motor

[thebigmacmoomin]

I realy like the red leather in these. Keep thinking that they should have done black stiching aswell. Does yours have the 500 badge?

Does the remap improve the drive around town. I want mine remap'd but unsure on which & if it would help the mpg around town as thats 99% of my drive.

[thehappyotter]

It did have an ST500 badge until two weeks ago when some little fker stole it overnight whilst parked on my drive. The last one to go on ebay went for £102! I've got a spare '500' but the ST part is missing and is slightly smaller than the standard one. Gutted!

Most reports tend to say they've seen an improvement of 0.5-1 mpg on average. If I take the long A road to work mine has improved by 2 mpg.

The driveability around town is just as good as standard, the DCSi remap has plenty of midrange and top end and you get to watch the boost gauge go right the way up . I didn't get on with the race or race+ maps though, they seemed to just be about giving a big 'whack' in the back from the turbo boost and then died off.

Overall I can't fault my DS. I picked it up on ebay with 4 lives left for just over £300.

If you're not already then I'd highly recommend joining focusstoc.com and having a read of the reviews on the forums there. There's nothing that the users there don't know between them.

[thebigmacmoomin]

I am on focusstoc but the membership ran out & never renewed it. Will have to re join soon as i have questions; need to fit my auto dim mirror & how to do tracking after lowering as mines too low.

[pinchmeimdreamin]

Looks very good mate


When you get bored though get an orange one everyone knows they are the fastest

[thehappyotter]

That's just childish rumour, everyone knows black is by far the fastest

[ikonic]

thehappyotter said:

It did have an ST500 badge until two weeks ago when some little fker stole it overnight whilst parked on my drive. The last one to go on ebay went for £102!

£102?!?!?

Can you not buy them from a Ford dealer? Surely they can't be THAT pricey?


Nice car btw.

[thehappyotter]

As far as I understand it, Ford made 500 ST500's so they also made only 500 badges.

They're almost impossible to get hold of

[DiscoStu]

No thats not true. If you bump your car and it requires a new badge Ford must surely be able to supply a new one?

Dont forget they did the Fiesta ST500 aswell so theres at least 1000 badges in circulation lol.

Nice car, looks great

[Stedman]

thehappyotter said:

Overall I can't fault my DS. I picked it up on ebay with 4 lives left for just over £300.

I'm confused. Did you buy a softloader that has a certain ammount of uploads before it dies?

nice car though

[thehappyotter]

Stedman said:

thehappyotter said:

Overall I can't fault my DS. I picked it up on ebay with 4 lives left for just over £300.

I'm confused. Did you buy a softloader that has a certain ammount of uploads before it dies?

nice car though

Aye. It contains 5 different maps which you can swop as many times as you like on your specific car. It remembers your VIN and has to have the standard map put back before you can use it on a car with a different VIN. It can be used on 5 different vehicles before it locks out and you have to get Dreamscience to reset it.

[thehappyotter]

DiscoStu said:

No thats not true. If you bump your car and it requires a new badge Ford must surely be able to supply a new one?

Dont forget they did the Fiesta ST500 aswell so theres at least 1000 badges in circulation lol.

Nice car, looks great

I've rang my usual dealer and another nearby and they both say no chance. I forgot about the Fiesta though so there's still hope.

I only need the 'ST' bit. It's very frustrating.

[dan19evans]

Seen 2 of the 500 before.. got to love the red interior

[ambuletz]

If thats the case, then surely that's a lack of foresight from ford? They should have expected people would nick ST500 badges, and produce spares. or if they dont want them to be nicked, they'd etch it into the back of the car, or similar

[thehappyotter]

You'd think so wouldn't you!

[Stedman]

thehappyotter said:

Stedman said:

thehappyotter said:

Overall I can't fault my DS. I picked it up on ebay with 4 lives left for just over £300.

I'm confused. Did you buy a softloader that has a certain ammount of uploads before it dies?

nice car though

Aye. It contains 5 different maps which you can swop as many times as you like on your specific car. It remembers your VIN and has to have the standard map put back before you can use it on a car with a different VIN. It can be used on 5 different vehicles before it locks out and you have to get Dreamscience to reset it.

very cool!

[rb5230]

lovely car, i used to have a blue st-3 (blue ones are easily the fastest) it was a great car but my only gripe were the amount of interior rattles on a brand new car, sooo annoying, and ford say trim is not covered by warranty, oh and the cd changer was a bit temperemental sometimes and they would not fix it unless it happened to them whilst in the dealers even when i showed them a video on my phone of it happening and the fact it was a common fault. aholes.

[thehappyotter]

The trim's not too bad on this, nowhere near as bad as the rattly LX base spec's we have at work. They're terrible!

My radio has the odd moment too, every now an again, probably once a week or so, it pops up with "Vehicle ID does not match, please contact dealer" or similar for about 5 seconds then it goes away and works fine again.

It's the original unit and has never been removed to my knowledge, just a little quirk I guess.

[Gareth350]

For the ST500 badge, give Martin at Team Torquesteer an e-mail, have used them for lots of genuine bits for my 09 RS & claim to be able to get any badge for later Fords! Top quality company!

[Gareth350]

For the ST500 badge, give Martin at Team Torquesteer an e-mail, have used them for lots of genuine bits for my 09 RS & claim to be able to get any badge for later Fords! Top quality company!