Most people have a limit when it comes to modifying their car. Sometimes financial, other times they just think there is little point throwing thousands upon thousands of pounds at a Ford Fiesta, they’d prefer to spend the money on something that is already faster or newer. There are a few people however that go a little further, engine transplants or major bodywork and huge rims for example. Then there are a few people that go a lot further…This is Sunny’s car, to say the spec list is impressive would be an understatement… “I’ve always been one for trying to improve things and had the mentality that if your going to do something, do it properly otherwise don’t bother” he explains. By ‘doing it properly’ he means a 2.1 ZVH, T4 turbo, straight cut Quaife box and 355mm discs and 4 pot calipers.

The car might look familiar to some of you, it used to belong to Adam Hanley who had the car featured back in 1997. “I bought the car back in August 1997, just after I saw the feature in Fast Car magazine. I looked at this car and instantly fell in love……I WANTED IT! I still remember the day I went to see it at Adam’s house wow - what a feeling! As soon as I saw the car I fell in love, I thought to myself that’s it was the one, without a shadow of a doubt! My conscious told me to play safe and take it for a spin and that was it - SOLD!”

With a huge grin on his face, Sunny drove the car back from Stevenage, people slowing down on the A1 just to catch a glipse of it. Within a week the turbo was swapped for a Hybrid T25 unit and a visit to a local Tuning company to seek advice and get some proper mods done to one of the best examples of a modified Fiesta ever produced.

“The power just wasn’t enough for me! I wanted something fast, very fast, loud and mental without going oveboard! I hate it when people have too many spoilers and graphics etc. It had to stand out from the rest, however not be over the top”.

Consultation with Ian Howell led to the removal of the previous engine and the installation of a 2.0 unit with a Zetec bottom end and a stage 3 big valve head which was gas flowed and ported coupled with a PE cam. Next was the charge cooler, injectors, another chip and AP racing clutch.

The power and torque were incredible now and Sunny knew that I had one of the quickest cars around where he lived, but still it wasn’t quite quick enough. The engine was crying out for more boost and demanding a larger turbo. Sunny had already decided what he wanted, a Hybrid T4… Now, even a T3 is a bit of a squeeze inside the Fiesta’s engine bay so a T4 would have been a definte no-go, something that didn’t fit with Sunny’s ‘Anything is possible’ mentality. The solution arrived in the form of a one off turbo built specially for the purpose. Spec’d up by Pete at Technical Tunings and assembled by Turbo Dynamics, the unit comprises of a T35 turbo with T4 internals machined to fit yet still retaining the vacuum capacity of the hybrid T4. Coupled with a -34 actuator it provided the much needed kick for the car.

Now things were begining to get serious, injectors were changed for an even higher flow rate, the engine management was remapped and it soon became apparant that other components were not up to the job. The first item to be uprated was the gearbox. Now most people would settle for a rebuilt item with uprated bearings, but this wasn’t enough. Probably the most serious cog-swapper on a Fiesta yet, a Quaife box with straight cut ratios and a 24v Cougar main shaft. Capable of taking the grunt the engine was now dishing out, the distinctive noise of the box sounds like a jet engine running up and is coupled with a one off AP paddle clutch to get the power down.

With this much power on tap the standard brakes became very feeble indeed. A trip to Hi-Spec in Dartford kitted the car out with 330mm front discs, 290mm rears, with blue anodised alloy bells and Wilwood calipers all round. 2.25” Leda coilovers replaced the Konis and Jamex springs.

A trip to the bodyshop saw a respray along with a flush tailgate, colour coded rear clusters and the plate flushed into the rear bumper. An alloy filler cap was also fitted along with the Laguna front splitter and a whole host of shiny chrome bits under the bonnet.

All of which brings us pretty much up to date with how the car looks today. The streetlights catch the paintwork and bring out the purple flip in the green. The brakes sit behind the multispoke DTM alloys, which sit tucked up in those smoothed arches. The bumpers blend seamlessly into the wings and back panel, creating the illusion that the car has been carved from a solid block of metal. Opening the delocked doors reveals changes to the Inside the car to, a Momo Millenium wheel and gearknob accompany the black Leather Recaros, and a whole stack of ICE including TV and satellite navigation. The monster amps and 15” Solobaric subs produce enough bass to have cracked the rear window and spoiler.

With all of this you might be forgiven for thinking the car is complete. Not yet! At the time of this article going online, developments are being made for it’s new engine which is being produced and dyno tuned along with a totally different engine management setup. The interior is to be stripped and soundproofed in preparation for the car’s appearance at Max Power Live in July. Perhaps already the best, and it keeps getting better…