Author Archives: Brandon

Racetech Sno*Drift Review

by Bryan Redeker

Photo’s by Brandon Redeker

2010 Sno*Drift Rally

2010 Sno*Drift Rally

Racetech Performance spent the weekend in Atlanta Michigan to watch the Rally America 2010 season opener, the famous Sno*Drift Rally. The team drove the 2010 Ford Fiesta about 4 hours north to spend Friday night in Gaylord Michigan. Once we got the hotel, our phones starting buzzing with updates from SS7 saying the Monster World Rally Team Ford Fiesta had suffered a suspension failure, and was done for the event. Our main reason for going to the event was now over, and we would not be able to see the Ford Fiesta compete in a rally. The rest of the night would be spent with friends, drinking beers, and talking about cars. Outside our hotel room, the sounds of snowmobiles and boxer-engined Subaru’s could be heard while we sat around and talked cars. Every few minutes we could hear people stopping and talking about the Fiesta that was parked on the other side of our hotel room door. Comments could be heard until around 2:30 am from people interested in the car.

Saturday morning started at 4:45am as we got ready and headed into Atlanta to see the rally cars in Parc Expose’. The frigid cold did not stop an army of fans who swarmed the Subaru of Travis Pastrana. There was talk everywhere about where Block was, and how nobody could find the Fiesta rally car. Most fans were probably unaware of the late night suspension failure that took him out of the event. Besides the Fiesta I was driving and one Raptor truck, finding a Ford oval was rare in the sea of spectator Subaru’s. We made it over to talk to Andrew Frick, who was piloting the blue Ford Focus, and checked out the Terra Firma sponsored Focus driven by Dillon Van Way. With the Fiesta retired, we would be cheering for the remaining Fords in the event.

We continued on to the first spectator stage, where the Fiesta had a chance to navigate down a very icy, twisty, tree-lined two track road. I would have to say that the highpoint of the event was driving the Fiesta down and back from that stage. If I could have turned off the electronic babysitter (traction and stability control) the Fiesta would have been even more fun to drive! The computer was fighting me for control around corners, and did not understand my use of the handbrake. At the spectator stage, we were bombarded with questions concerning the Fiesta I was driving, and what had happened to Ken Block’s Fiesta. Regardless of where we went on Saturday, a crowd of people were always around the Fiesta asking questions and taking pictures. I had way more people asking about the car than at any car show I went to last year.

After the Super Special Stages, the team had decided that it was getting late and we should make our way back home. A quick stop in for dinner in Gaylord, and then we were off heading south. I let my friend Erik Barber take the pilot seat in the Fiesta for the way home so he could get some seat time. I watched over Twitter on my phone and updated the team on the results of the closing stages of the rally. While the Subaru team was spraying Champaign, the MWRT Fiesta was back in Dearborn and the Fiesta I was driving was heading home. Hopefully next year we will stay for the Champaign celebration, and it will be a Fiesta parked in P1.

Click on the image above to open the photo gallery.

Fiesta Fun!

By Brandon Redeker

picture-2This past weekend I was able to log some time in the Fiesta. On Saturday we had the Fiesta Welcoming Party, and had a great turn out. My girlfriend is training to run a 25k, so I took the Fiesta and would meet her every 2 miles with water and something to eat. Along the way I took some pictures, click the link to see them. Now some of what I am about to say is the same thing Bryan has already said, however this is such a great car, it needs to be said twice, or three times or more.

The fit and finish of the car is top quality, from the interior panels to how the doors close. How you use the trip computer is great, everything right at your finger tips. How the HVAC controls feel, if your not using the voice commands. Everything is just great. It takes some time to get used to the voice commands, still working on it.

The FUN factor of this car, is well, you have to drive it to know what I am talking about. Every time I get into it to drive, I can’t help but smile and giggle a little. Going through the gears in corners is a ton of fun. My girlfriend just doesn’t understand, but she enjoys the ride none the less. The suspension rolls a little then its like the SVT Focus where it doesn’t anymore and the grip just seems to be never ending. The tires help a lot, they are very quite and smooth and gives a top of grip. When it comes time to autocross, the limit will be found. For the street they are great, even in the rain!

For me personally the shifting is a bit sloppy, I can’t feel the gears or the clutch pressure point. Going from 1st to neutral is about the same as going from 1st to 2nd in my Focus with the Steeda STS. You can tell the computer is thinking a lot on this car and trying to control everything, the rev’s don’t seem to be fluid, it is almost too precise. This all put together makes it hard to heel-toe-downshift. It also seems that is hard to modulate the brakes. That might change it gets driven more. The brakes do work really good, the initial bit is really good, don’t know how they will hold up when they get hot, but cold, they work very well.

Technology, well it’s got a lot for a small car, and it takes some time to get used to it. Once you do, you will start to wonder where it is at in your normal car. Key less start, great, no more dealing with keys and key fobs. No more sound of keys clinking when driving, no more reaching in your pocket to unlock the car, it’s great! The sound system sounds really good, could use a sub for better low end, but for stock, its sounds really good. Using the USB port to connect the iPod and flash drive is really great, still learning how to use it. I would never buy a car just for the technology, but it is a big selling point for a great car.

It’s time for a Fiesta!

_dsc5067Well the time has come, we now have a Fiesta! Bryan, Sara (Bryan’s wife), and myself set out Friday early afternoon to go to Chicago for the Fiesta Movement. Traffic was not really a problem, we got to the hotel about an hour before the event started. Bryan went to the training and Sara and I walked around the town. On Saturday Sara and I went to the Field Museum while we waited for Bryan and the Fiesta Movement team to get to the cars. The cars were at the Adler Planetarium, so when Bryan called we left the Museum and walked to the Planetarium. The Fiesta is, well I don’t know how to put it into words. The looks is like nothing else, and I really like it, so does just about everyone else. The interior is perfect, the fit and finish of everything is top notch. The layout of the interior so far seems to be just right. We did have some problems with pairing the Bluetooth to Bryan’s phone, but worked just fine on my Blackberry.

We left Chicago around 3:00 PM EST and I was driving the SVT Focus and Bryan was in the Fiesta. Using GPS in the SVT Focus I got us out of Chicago fast. On the road the car looks great, like nothing else on the road. Bryan just kept calling me and telling me how great it was to drive. After about an hour of driving the SVT needed some fuel, so we stopped and switched drivers. After driving it, i realized I wanted one! This car is great, now I understand why people call it a little beast, it is. It is very easy to drive and very comfortable on the highway. There is almost no wind noise, it almost a little too quite, for me. It could use a little more power and a six speed gear box, pushing a lot of RPM’s down the highway. After my hour stint, I didn’t want to give it up! In South Haven, MI, Bryan took over driving again and we drove home.

We will be reporting more later, it was a busy weekend!

I can’t wait to drive it again!

Bumpsteer is set, for now!

Saturday we started around 9:00, later than normal, but Bryan and I had to do some babysitting for my sister.

After setting up the bumpsteer gauge we starting to log some numbers and we found that we were still off, so time to try some different shim’s. We found a combination that got us close, closer than we have ever been before. However we would like to move the number a little to even have less bumpsteer in bump. After about 1″ of bump it started to toe out a lot on the driver side. But we were well within what is considered good. We want better. In 1″ drop, almost no change, really good.

On the passenger side, we tried the same shim stack and we were off, too much toe out. After trying a lot of different shims to get what we wanted, we found a set of shims that got us close. We ran out of really small shims so, we couldn’t get any closer. Over all very happy with the number.

After bumpsteer was set, we put the front suspension back together, connected the sway bar and started to torque all the front suspension bolts.

The car is back on the ground, ready to be cleaned up and then for a road test!

Later we will work on getting more shims and try to get the bump steer even closer to 0 (zero) toe change.

Fiesta Movement Winner!

ford_fiesta_five_door_hatchback
On April 1st 2009, Bryan got a call from Ford to be selected in the Fiesta Movement. They are giving away 100 new 2011 Ford Fiesta’s for 6 months. We are both so excited to be getting one that we both had tears of joy when we found out. On this site we will be giving our updates about this car. We pick it up in two weeks! To watch our video entry look under the video tab on here. More information to come soon.

-Brandon