[drewp317]

Im wondering if anyone has a good set up with their focus for rallycrossing. Im doing it with the SCCA and would like to set it up for the prepared class.

 

[mlbbaseball]

what are u talking about suspension? tires? weight?

 

[HilloNative]

^^^ i think that he is talking about that

 

[drewp317]

im talking about all of it. Im sorta the driver type not the fix my car type and i want to learn.

 

[mlbbaseball]

first you will need to get a good set of tires, bf goodrich makes a couple of nice sets. you will then want to go for the suspension setup, get a good set of adjustables rom koni or tein. this will allow you to adjust suspenion components for different setups. you will want skid plates and a stiffer body, so a roll cage isn't out of the question. try to relocate what you can to the rear of the car, especially the battery. You may also want rear disks to help w/ e-braking. not needed but it helps.

 

[drewp317]

Thanks thats very helpful.

 

[mlbbaseball]

o, and don't forget, a custom skid plate over the gas tank, thats the important part!! lol, last thing you want is..........



BOOOOOOM~~~~

 

[drewp317]

Why would i want to relocate the weight to the rear of the car?

 

[mlbbaseball]

if you have a balanced car, the car is easier to control, if ur rear end is too light, then it will be all over the place!

 

[drewp317]

Ok. Now for suspension im looking at the tein's and what is a coil-over damper kit, and how is it compared with a spring.

 

[mlbbaseball]

a coil over setup is nice cause you can adjust the height. a basic setup which is not coilover just has the dampers and springs.

Don't rip on me for pullng off a yota website, it was the first one i found.

http://www.toyotapartsstore.com/images/coilover_matrix.jpg

 

[Riverratrider]

ok you mentioned about adjusting the height, has anyone ever raised it to allow for larger tires/more suspention travel? Not so much for on road, but looking for off-road

 

[stoopidsteve87]

stock suspension is honestly the highest i've seen a focus ride, lol. i did see someone else posing this question for similar reasons recently, though i didn't see any real solution come up. the adjustable suspensions may or may not allow you to go a little higher, i honestly don't know, but i'm sure that even if they do...it wouldn't be much of a raise. you really aren't going to be able to go too horribly large without custom body work to the fenders and wheel wells and whatnot, though you probably don't need to go all too big anyways.

 

[Riverratrider]

I found a really good deal on some BF Goodrich All Terrain Tires. The size is 245/75/16

What do you think I would need to do to get a tire like that to fit ok, and a suspention that would allow enough travel to not get washed out by the washboard? Do I even need to raise it to fit? What about control arms and such? Should I worry about replacing them when I do the suspention? Basically I was thinking about doing the whole bottom end...shocks, brakes, and whatever else you ralley guys can help me with.

Keep this in mind...I am not rallyeing this car, or anything like that, just want to be able to see some of the dez/forest that you can't see from the highway...I spend allot of time outdoors.

 

[purpleskunk]

you should run 15'' steelies,with dirt/gravel tires. also rear drum brakes are fine for rally cross. i would also recommend stock springs with polly upper and lower spring isolators,the thickest you can find. that will add enough ride hight and save some cash. put the money you save into some bilstine or adj.shocks. add a 25mm+ rear sway bar for over steer. and front strut brace,maybe a rear too. also a good race seat is worth its weight in gold in any racing.
good luck, rally-x is a blast.

 

[klodkrawler05]

you should run 15'' steelies,with dirt/gravel tires. also rear drum brakes are fine for rally cross. i would also recommend stock springs with polly upper and lower spring isolators,the thickest you can find. that will add enough ride hight and save some cash. put the money you save into some bilstine or adj.shocks. add a 25mm+ rear sway bar for over steer. and front strut brace,maybe a rear too. also a good race seat is worth its weight in gold in any racing.
good luck, rally-x is a blast.

^^^^
yup some 15"s with good rally gravel tires would be the best setup.
you dont need to go much higher than stock for rallying from what I've seen
also hankook makes some great rally tires that are relatively "cheap" for a race tire.

try finding some rally forums to get a better idea of what exactly would be needed to rally cross since most of the guys on this forum are all about lowered street performance cars (at least where the focus is concerned)

 

[Riverratrider]

remember that I am not looking for a ralley cross set up. I am looking for a good general set-up that I can also take down the fire service roads and light duty off-road driving. I want a good set-up that travels well on the highway and surface streets, but can handle the dirt roads too.

 

[kimbo305]

remember that I am not looking for a ralley cross set up. I am looking for a good general set-up that I can also take down the fire service roads and light duty off-road driving. I want a good set-up that travels well on the highway and surface streets, but can handle the dirt roads too.

There is no need to raise your front ride height if you don't need performance for dirt roads. The stock ride height is fine. On a service/dirt road you're just moving on, there's no consideration for going fast, so just go slower and you're fine.

Avoid very soft snow tires. They have very weak sidewalls and could debead or get wedged with rocks and dirt more easily.

Why would i want to relocate the weight to the rear of the car?

If you think the Focus has trouble rotating on loose surfaces, you just need to experience it to believe it.

The Focus has a decently strong oil pan in front, so it won't puncture like most. You don't have to get a front skidplate if you don't want.

When you buy your coilovers, you want to make sure that you can raise them up and still not be at the extreme of the shocks' working range. Raise the stock ZX3 ride height by about an inch. Having the engine (and the weight bias of the car) higher off the ground will give you better modulation in weight transfer. What that means is, when you get on the brakes, you'll have more control over how much the rear end slips, and thus how much rotation you're inducing.

Of course, that's all theory. Not trying to insult you, but you probably wouldn't be able to get that to work your first time out. On top of that, a lot of rallycross courses are tight for safety, where it is very hard to initiate brake-in-turn rotation. The natural reaction people have is to lift off the gas and give it more steering input, which simply won't work.