Keep your Mustang! Vorshlag Ford Focus RS Development Thread

[Fair]

continued from above



Todd left Vegas and drove straight to California's desert track Buttonwillow for the 2016 Super Lap Battle, a time trial event held by the Global Time Attack organization. The RS finished 5th out of 9 in the Limited AWD class with a best lap of 2:00.197. Having run with the GTA group and specifically at this track, that's a darn quick time. He also had some "hang time" with the curb jump shown above right.

TODD'S 2016 OPTIMA EVENT VIDEOS

The RS's owner Todd of MyShopAssist made some great videos from a number of Optima events, which I will share below. These include in-car video with data from the autocross, speed stop and track portions of several events:

• Optima at Charlotte Motor Speedway, July 30, 2017 - Video, bone stock RS. Todd finished 8th out of 25 in GTS class.
• Optima at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), August 6, 2016 - Video. Todd finished 11th out of 26 in GTS class. Stock suspension, tires, upgraded G-LOC brake pads.
• Optima at Road America, August 27, 2016 - Video. First time on Bilsteins and camber plates, stock tires. Todd started Left Foot braking. Todd finished 8th out of 19 in GTS class
• Optima at NOLA, Sept 17, 2016 - Video. First time on big wheels/tires + oil cooler added. Todd finished 5th out of 18 in GTS class

WHAT'S NEXT?

Todd has run the RS at some of the Optima events in 2017, but I will cover this and future developments in a later post.



We have already made two production batches of the 3rd gen Focus/ST/RS camber plates, which we are selling to folks that have upgraded to coilover suspension. The Bilstein PSS coilover set we used on Todd's car is being offered for the ST (with our optional springs/perches/rates) and we will make the production parts to fit this to the RS.



After sending the factory brake pad scans/measurements to G-LOC they made 8 compounds of brake pads for the RS foe use on the front and rear. They sent Todd the first front set in the R12 compound and he said the brakes felt noticeably better. Powerbrake already has a 6 piston, 350mmx34 big brake kit for the ST/RS front which should easily fit inside of the 18x9.5" wheels we spec'd for this car.

Thanks for reading,

 

[Champale]

Typically excellent post from you - thank you! I bought a gray RS about a month ago and am absolutely loving it and see some Vorshlag parts on it in the future for sure.

 

[VoodooBoss]

Thanks for the update. I was at a local to me dealer a couple of weeks ago and they had 8 RS's on their lot. They were all marked up $3K but I'm sure they can be had for under MSRP.

 

[Champale]

My dealership had seven of them sitting on the lot for months (at $5k over) so naturally they were willing to deal and I got mine waaaay under invoice. Same dealership I bought my Laguna from for under MSRP.

 

[Champale]

I have a question for Vorshlag about the Bilsteins - since these cars have the adjustable dampers, does removing the OE dampers trigger any sort of code or prevent the drive modes (like when removing the exhaust flapper valve)?

Also, what 18x9.5 wheels do you carry these days?

Thank you!

 

[modernbeat]

Champale, removing the OE dampers disabled one of the modes, I think it was Sport mode. We found that putting it in Drift mode used the rear diff with the best results. We didn't notice any other issues with swapping the shocks. If you are concerned, I believe someone on the RS Forum was making dummy plugs to fool the system into thinking the stock dampers were still on the car.

For wheels, we offer Forgestar, Braid and CCW as our primary brands. Then Forgeline, Fikse and Finspeed as needed.

 

[Champale]

Thank you for the update, modernbeat! I will definitely keep you guys in mind if (when) I decide to start modifying my suspension.

 

[jklapko10]

It is very interesting reading this nearly 10 years later and the criticisms seem fair. I just got one a few weeks ago and on the street it is a fun little car. I got it to do 3 things in this order: daily drive to work with my dog in the back(80% of its use), fun on canyon roads with my wife and I swapping between the RS and my GT350 (15% of its use), and my wife to get off the sidelines and start tracking it part time in the beginner groups at ProAuto (5% of its use). I have no plans to modify it except for a Schroth 4pt harness and a separate set of wheels/tires because after a track weekend I'll still drive it to work on Monday. I was looking at RS's and CTR's because I wanted a 4 door, relatively cheap on consumables car that should hold up for what we use it for. The Honda is probably a better car out of the box, but IMO it wasn't worth the extra ~$10k on the used market than what I paid for this in similar mileage/clean history etc.

 

[TMSBOSS]

Just finishing a project rebuilding my daughter’s 2016 Focus RS. 23k miles, new engine, clutch, brakes cooling system, hood, bumper and left fender. Added a DSC suspension module, love the ride now.
Fun car to drive. Putting some miles on it before trucking it back to her.
Ironically, her biggest ask for the project was upgrading the sync system with Apple Car Play.

 

[jklapko10]

Just finishing a project rebuilding my daughter’s 2016 Focus RS. 23k miles, new engine, clutch, brakes cooling system, hood, bumper and left fender. Added a DSC suspension module, love the ride now.
Fun car to drive. Putting some miles on it before trucking it back to her.
Ironically, her biggest ask for the project was upgrading the sync system with Apple Car Play.

View attachment 110802

I'm not sure if the previous owner added the dongle or if my '17 was one of the first to get it but mine has carplay. And how big of a recommendation is that DSC controller? Mine also has aftermarket 18" wheels with a 245/40 tire and I can say the ride is much better than the ones i test drove on stock 235/35/19