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.

Bumpsteer is what goes bump in the night

What a fun Saturday morning Brandon and I had! It started out being ok, but quickly made a turn for the worse. We set-up the bumpsteer gauge and began to take measurements based on the toe change over the range of motion of the front suspension. The initial shim stack was causing too much toe out as the suspension moved, so I went looking for the shorter shims. After 20 minutes of digging thru boxes, I realized that the shims were sitting at home in my garage. Oh well, we can try to get close using the shims we currently have. Next we added more shims, which we borrowed from another component, and ran the suspension thru its motion. The suspension was now toeing in under bump, which is bad. Time to take everything apart again and retry with less shims and see what that does to the measurements. Using the smallest amount of shims we had with us yielded too much toe change. Ok, we know that not enough shims is bad and too many shims is also bad. Checking the time, we realize that it is time to meet my wife for breakfast. Brandon and I quickly leave the shop to meet up with Sara, Jen, and our friends Todd and Jackie. By the time we were done eating and left the restaurant, it was past noon, which is past the time I can work on the car.  Hours of working on bumpsteer basically yielded nothing more than too many or not enough shims is bad. Great, we are now behind schedule and still unsure of how many shims it will take to get us zero toe change for 2” of droop and 2” of bump. If any of you have measured bumpsteer, you realize that is one of the most frustrating things you can do to your car. If you get it wrong, the car could spin under braking because the wheels are turning as the front suspension compresses. This has to be perfect.

 

Next time we work on the Mustang, Brandon and I will be trying to finish setting the bumpsteer for both sides of the car, adjust the exhaust so it will clear the tires, torque 240 fasteners, install the roll bar padding, and clean it. That is a lot of work to do in just a few hours. Did I mention this what we do for fun?

Fiesta-Fiesta!

 

I started the process of planning the Fiesta welcoming party this week, and met with a few local businesses about using their facilities. Currently, we are leaning towards having the event at the local go-kart track. I will be meeting with Craig’s Cruisers next week to see if we can have the party at their facility. People will have a chance to see the new Fiesta, and also spend time with their friends and family. Craig’s Cruisers has an arcade, go-kart track, mini-golf, batting cages, and a place to eat. The facility was determined to be a better fit for this event, compared to a city park or public parking lot. I have also been in contact with the local media about possibly covering the event, or doing a story on Brandon and myself along with the Fiesta Movement. There is still a lot of planning to get done in the next few weeks, but I am confident the event will be a success.

 

Brandon and I have also started to compile a list of possible events we will have the Fiesta at during the summer. So far we have the large Ford car show in Indiana in May, the Grand Rapids Mustang and Ford show in early June, Grand Haven car show, SVTOA at GingerMan Raceway, and Furrin Autocross at GVSU in July, Coast Guard Festival and a trip to Traverse City in August, and the autocross at the local import dealer in September. Phew, that is a lot of events!

 

Work on the Mustang will continue on Saturday, and the focus will be on tightening fasteners and setting the bumpsteer. There are a few loose ends that we need to work on before we start autocrossing.

 

It is going to be a very busy summer!

-Bryan

Mustang Projects.

Saturday morning was spent finishing the installation of the torque arm on the Mustang, and starting the alignment process. Brandon and I started the morning with a cup of Starbucks and bleeding the rear brakes. We replaced the rubber hose for the rear center brake line with a stainless steel one from StopTech. After the brakes were bled the car was moved to the alignment rack where the car could be lifted by the tires, keeping the suspension loaded. With the sitting at ride height on the lift, we could measure the pinion angle and transmission angle. The torque arm needed all of the included shims to raise the pinion angle to be within one degree of the transmission. We may need more shims if there is any driveshaft vibration, but we won’t know that until we get the car on the highway for testing. With the pinion angle set, we began to torque all of the fasteners for the torque arm. Next up was the alignment process. We started with jack stands and string to set the toe to zero and center the steering wheel. After that was finished, we used the Smart Camber gauge to measure camber and caster. The car is set at 0’ toe, -2.2’ camber, and +3.5’ caster. Next weekend we will begin to set the bumpsteer curves and finish up a couple of loose ends. We still have over 240 fasteners to check the torque on, so there is more work ahead of us.

We also had a special guest at the shop with us this weekend. Dave Kujawski brought his 2007 Mustang GT to the shop to install a new MGW short throw shifter. His brother Paul and Todd Brand were also on hand to help with the install. Pictures from this weekend are on my Facebook page, and will be on the Racetech website shortly.

-Bryan

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

Torque Arm installed!

Saturday didn’t start out too well, but got better as the day went on. After doing an oil change, which takes a long time when it is only 45 degrees out and you have 7 quarts of oil to change. We wanted to start the car to use the power steering as we moved it across the shop to finish welding the torque arm. Without power steering it is very hard to turn the wheel. Went to go start the car and, well nothing other than a click. Dead battery, or so we thought. We tried using a jump pack and still nothing. So Bryan got inside to steer and I started to push. It is not easy to push, after pushing the car, I decided I didn’t need to go running later, I got my workout for the day.

I got ready to weld and when I turned the gas on the welder on, the tank pressure was reading zero. I was hoping it was broken because the regulated pressure was reading 20 psi, and that is about where it should be. I was just about done and it was not welding as good, I looked at the gauge and it was down to 5 psi. I was done welding for the day, I did get everything welded that need to get done. We also didn’t have another tank. Later I will just touch up some welds.

After charging the battery, we went to go start it up. Same thing, just a click, and nothing else. After some quick diag. I found a bad ground. More like I never reconnected the main engine ground. After I fixed that, a few cranks and it was running. Wow, it sounds mean, this new exhaust is great! Bryan drove it around the building to make sure things were working good. With the new steering shaft, he said that there was no play in the steering anymore. I can’t wait to drive it.

Next week we will start to align the suspension and set the pinion angle.

-Brandon

Test Drive: 2009 Shelby GT500KR

Today, after working on the Mustang, we had to move a Shelby due to cleaning. The car is waiting for the customer to pick it up. After having to jump start the car, because the battery was dead from sitting so long. We realize that it had no gas, the computer said it had 2 miles to empty. So I took it to get gas and it wasn’t running good due to just sitting for so long. After pulling out of the shop it said only 0 miles to empty. I did make it to the gas station. After putting gas in it, went to restart, so too dead. Good thing I brought the battery jump pack. After I got it started, I drove it a little. It is a customers car and it is brand new, I will not drive it hard.

In town, the car is very easy to drive, clutch is easy to operate, the suspension is not too stiff, exhaust is not too loud. It does sound better than the standard GT500, it is closer to the sound of a Shelby GT. The turn in is really nice, the tyres have a lot to do with that, they pickup everything as you drive. The Shelby GT has the stock mud and snow tyres from the factory and that just doesn’t cut it. The brakes feel really nice, but it does have 14″ Brembo’s on it, so it should. You can tell that the car is heavy, and it needs that much power to get it to move and that size brakes to make it stop. I do wonder how it goes around corners. It has a lot of torque coming from that 5.4L Supercharged V8. At very low RPM’s you could just feel that it wanted to go fast. Boost builds really fast, at about 10 to 20% throttle around 2000 RPM’s in 2nd gear, the boost gauge was reading around 5 psi. The gauge goes to 15 psi, don’t know what the stock supercharger will turn out. The car is a black coup with flat black strips, it looks mean. Over all it is a sweet car, and from what I can tell, its fun to drive.

-Brandon