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2004 Focus Rally Build

90K views 133 replies 40 participants last post by  DirtyDave 
#1 ·
At the beginning of April I embarked on my 2004 Ford Focus Rally Build. New to Ford in general and have really enjoyed building the car to date. Just a few more months to go..... intend to write about the good, bad and the ugly when it comes to building your own rally car.

Here it is after driving it back from the auction. Cost to date: $1200



 
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#5 ·
Let the gut out begin. Didn't cost much except some man-hours. About 10 hours if I remember right, this included removing all the sound deadening material. Thankfully there was not very much of it. A few hours with a heat gun and scraper. Dry ice place was closed...









 
#6 ·
The engine is the 2.0 Zetec. Current plans for the engine are 11:1 CR JE Pistons, K1 Technologies Rods, Stock Crank, MAHLE Clevite Bearings. Will most likely be going with a Massive Ported Head shaved 0.04 with 0.04 head gaskets, ARP main and head bolts. CR should come in around 12.5 CR. Will primarily be run on Motorsport 109 fuel with a 93 map created purely for a commute to a show, etc. There are many other bits involved but this is a quick summary...









 
#9 ·
Suspension I am running JVAB 50mm Coilover Struts in the fronts, a little over 8" of travel. The rear I converted over to coilovers as well with spherical control arms all around and Massive camber arms. After putting the whole thing together I decided the whole set up would be awesome for the track but there were too many points of failure for Rally. Also the travel in the rear was almost 10" and the stock geometry experiences way too much toe in and toe out movement at the far end of bump and droop. Switching over to McPherson set up in the rear as well with a custom sub frame and lower control arms, etc. I'll post more pictures up tomorrow when I can size them for forum viewing.
 
#10 ·
Very interesting...

Saw you over at rallyanarchy....

Hope you post up either here or there with details on the Mcpherson rear.
I can see where there could be toe issues with the stock geometry with longer travel.

But most Foci rally drivers are doing ok with either the stock flimsy arms and spares or spherical as you've done already.

Are you working with John at JVAB on the Mcpherson rear?
 
#11 ·
Will you be doing something similar to Eric Burmeister's Mazda3 rear suspension as shown here?

 
#12 ·
John is making me the struts for the rear, I am making the subframe and LCA's. That is a nice set up as well on the Mazda 3 and I considered making something very similar. Decided to do the McPherson set up once I decided to start from scratch on the rear.

Anyhow, I'll try to duplicate some of these posts over at Rally Anarchy when I get a little bit of down time.

So, on to the cage. Decided to make the cage from scratch because I wanted to do it at least once. The cost for all my DOM tubing came to $1400. I could have bought the Custom Cages kit for around the same amount plus shipping. It would have saved me about 40 hours of work but hey, cutting, bending, notching DOM is fun... right? I even have the scars to prove it. I haven't learned how to TIG very well yet, so I hired a guy to come in and do the welding. That ran me about $2000 for time, equipment, expendables such as wire and gas. Total spent to date: $4600

Here are some pics of the build process. Final pics of the completed cage coming soon.











 
#13 ·
After the paint shop, wish I had more pics in between but hey you get the point... it's white..











This was fun. Someone told me that fiberglass was easy to do. Yeah, not so much... dashboard before sanding...



The payoff was a nice smooth flocked dashboard

 
#14 ·
It's been awhile since I updated. Other than sending everything out for powder coating I finished up the rear McPherson Strut setup. It's pretty straightforward and largely bullet proof. Here are a few pics:

Roughing in the strut tower. Using Subaru Vorshlag Camber Plates with a custom plate for the top of the strut tower.



Here is a bottom view shot.



More pics to come with a step by step breakdown.
 
#17 ·
Wow..no more trailing arms........Interesting..looks nice!

Curious how this holds up...your design?

And what's the make/model of that spindle?
 
#18 ·
The knuckles are 2005 Ford Focus Front Knuckles. I chose these because I am also running them in the front and it allows me to run the larger rotors both front and rear, compared to the 2004 knuckle. The whole design is basically the front suspension setup. I made the lower control arms longer than the fronts to try to minimize the camber loss on droop and bump. Everything is made from DOM tubing and/or steel plate, so hopefully everything will hold up well. I still have about two months before I can fully start testing the car but looking forward to it.
 
#19 ·
Nice...You need a thread on rallyanarchy!
 
#25 ·
Since all WRC cars run a McPherson set up in the rear whether it's tarmac or gravel I'm sure it would be fun on the street as well. Now whether it's worth converting a street car I don't know. The biggest knock on a McPherson set up is camber changes on extreme bump/droop. The longer your arms the less of a problem this is, and with shorter travel of tarmac suspension probably not a huge deal in performance. For tarmac set up, you can run a shorter damper and spring.
 
#22 ·
A little more of an update on the rear suspension. In Gravel Rally mode, the suspension travel is a little over 9". This was maxing out the 3/4" high misalignment spherical bearing at max droop. So, I made a new set of lower control arms with a bend in it to take the load off the bearing. Also another note, the current sub-frame was made up to verify all the geometry. I'm going to make a more streamlined tubular one using bends, instead of cut angles and welds. This sub frame uses the stock sub frame mounting points. The new one on the drawing board will use some new mounting points.

 
#27 ·
Once I finalize everything the components are pretty straightforward to make and I plan on publishing the dimensions. The biggest thing is welding in the strut towers but if you're comfortable cutting out your wheel wells, notching the frame a little and welding it in then I'm sure I can make a set of everything. I'll probably make another set of everything for myself as spares so maybe making a few sets could be more economical.

PM your info and I can keep you posted.
 
#35 ·
So rear suspension issues?

Sorry about all the questions but...binding and flexing of the rear links?

Were you running stock links/arms /control blades in back or any reinforcing or tubular arms?

Did you "double skin" the rear subframe or just stock?

Stock inboard spring or coilover?

Thanks!

Mike
 
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