fiestaturbo.com

[tadstar]

Good morning everyone, ive just finished my new site with details about my Zetec Turbo racing car. Id like to welcome you all to take a look and let me know what you think.

http://www.tadstar.co.uk

Cheers,
Pete

[xr2i-carl]

just having a quick perusal now matey

you race int he ford saloon champs???


carl

[tadstar]

no i race in the scottish sports & saloon champ.

[xr2i-carl]

cool nice one, any other previous racing experiance?? karting or anything?


roughly how much is it costing to compete in this fiesta??


carl

[Nitemare]

Website look good!! the car look like a serious bit of kit!! Ive sent you an email mate!

[heeman10]

I like that a lot! The ZT should be a track legend by now, so versatile and relatively cheap power, so it's good to see it being used like this! How have you been doing against similar cars so far?

It looks as though you haven't fitted the lower crossmember, and there appears to be quite a lot of roll in cornering...what do you do in terms of testing and setup adjustments?

[heeman10]

Just read through your race reports, so they explain some of the mixed successes and failures you've had so far What pads were they that were fitted to the front calipers that gave you problems? I used Wilwood Polymatrix pads for the first 3,000 miles, then they expired. Now using Ferodo DS2000s, which are much quieter and don't require the same temperatures before they start working hard. I also have the Billet Dynalite 4 pots.

With regard to rear brakes, I think you would benefit from having discs out back. If you have a bias adjustor the 85:15 front:rear braking bias can be played with once the rear discs are on, and you can fine tune it to give the best braking the car can achieve. It's too easy to put too much braking the front and waste all the available braking potential at the back of the car - plus you'll load up the front more than necessary, wear pads down faster etc etc. The Escort RS2000 setup fits on the back of the Fiesta with few modifications, and you'll need a larger master cylinder and servo.

If you click my sig, it'll take you to my long thread about my ZT Fiesta. There's a fairly helpful index on the front page, and if you scan through you'll see the pages where I fitted the RS2000 rear discs and uprated master cylinder if you're at all interested

[tadstar]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. The car has been good with no engine reliability issues this year. The engine power is currently at a safe level of 302bhp however this will be SAFELY increased over the winter however the last thing I want is to jeopardise reliability.

The cost is something I didn’t think would be too bad however I was so far out on my estimate for running the car for a year. This years racing has cost in excess of £12500. However this can be justified as ive just had an offer to sell the car to someone for 10k. I have sponsors for the car so the cost wasn’t that hard on me as I had financial backing.

I personally have had very little race experience and this is my first year of racing so to be sitting 2nd in my class I cant complain.

Can I ask you heeman which crossmember is it your referring too??
As for set up we have many adjustments that can be made such as ride height, spring rates, damper rates, adjustable camber, tyre pressure etc.

Heeman, the brake pads I was using were wrongly supplied by a Wilwood distributer which shall remain nameless we were running with fast road pads rather than racing pads which made a huge different as the pads would overheat very quickly under hard braking. We are now using discs and bells supplied by Compbrake which I can only describe as incredible. We are working closely with Compbrake and are in the process of developing a total braking solution for next year which includes new custom front calipers and a rear disc conversion using Audi TT calipers with a new pedal and no brake servo!

[heeman10]

Can I ask you heeman which crossmember is it your referring too??

The XR2i/FRST had an S-shaped crossmember that bolts through two holes in the lower arm carriers at the rear of the car, into the chassis, and through two other holes in the lower arm carriers towards the front of the car, using captive nuts housed in the lower arms carriers themselves. The crossmember braces across the two lower arms.

As for set up we have many adjustments that can be made such as ride height, spring rates, damper rates, adjustable camber, tyre pressure etc.

Same goes for me in all aspects, and I've found that small tweaks, even on bumpy, uneven roads make huge differences, I just wondered what you've been able to do in terms of testing, and finding setups for different tracks. This all stems from me seeing how much body roll you seem to have - that front inside wheel is barely touching the tarmac on the hard corners.

Heeman, the brake pads I was using were wrongly supplied by a Wilwood distributer which shall remain nameless

I think I know who you mean! I used a US dealer and got the race pads - they're good when cold, but brilliant when hot, if bloody noisy

Are the two-piece Comprake discs using a larger diameter rotor then? If so, are you using different caliper brackets? I found I couldn't use a disc bigger than 280mm without mounting the caliper further out, the disc comes right up to the roof of the caliper on the 280mm rotor.

Great news about being offered £10k for the car!

[tadstar]

Ok I understand which crossmember you mean now. Although you cant see it in the pics its definitely there!!

The pictures on the site were taken when the car was using Gaz coilovers. As the year has progressed I have learned that the Gaz coilovers aren’t good enough on this car for racing with my particular driving style (I am in no way saying Gaz coilovers aren’t good they just weren’t what I was looking for). I now have Leda suspension which I haven’t used on the car yet as I am getting the corner weights measured today and correctly weighted Eibach springs sent. I have my final 2 races on Sunday at Knockhill so I will be able to see what difference the new suspension has made to cornering.

As for the discs, they are 283mm diameter to be exact. These are the biggest I could fit with 15” wheels. The new calipers that are being made aren’t any larger in diameter however pad area in contact with the disc is much larger.