I'm not crapping on your pride and joy. I'm not. Honestly.
When were the suspension collape recalls made? I know there were several severe recalls made in the "early years". Otherwise I've heard that the SVT Focus would be reclassified by SCCA due to its performace exceeding their initial evaluation.
Can't beat a light car with a nice motor!
edit: What kind of brake pads do you use? Anything "special"? Also, this is no drag race car. More of a road course or auto-cross car. Have you done any heel-toe downshifting practice. It's really quite spectacular once you got it down. No one will ever forget a ride after that. It "sets the tone" for a ride.
Hey JimmyM,
I haven't heard anything about a suspension collapse recall, but there have been a few other recalls, particularly on the 2002 model year. As with most cars, the first new model year usually sucks horribly for reliability..I know first hand that this is true since I had a 1999.5 volkswagen jetta and I can't even count how many things randomly FELL OFF the car..like the glove box, and the window shattered when it randomly fell in the door.
By 2004, though, they had fixed most of the problems. One problem that was prevalent was the clutch. For some reason, the clutch had problems again mostly on the 2002 model, but mine started making a funky noise after a little while owning the car, so it went right to Ford and they did the clutch under the TSB recall.
I haven't put ceramic brake pads on or anything like that, but they have semi-metallic pads that Ford installed. The front rotors and pads were done a couple months ago, and the rear rotors were turned and resurfaced about 6 months ago. Unfortunately, the semi-metallic pads cause the car to squeel sometimes. I can't figure exactly the conditions that cause the squeel, but I have gotten so used to it that I could care less anymore, especially since the brakes work so well.
You're right about one thing though..this car handles SO well. I have practiced heel-toe shifting a little bit, but I try not to drive the car too fast mainly because I'm terrified of taking out a pedestrian or something..I can't think of anything worse. There are some really nice roads around this area to test the cars handling capabilities and I will admit that it feels like it was made for the twisties.
Since it has 6 gears and such a tall first gear it is not much for a drag racer. I think they quoted 7.2 0-60 stock, and with my setup I would guess it is in the mid 6's to 60 MPH, but first gear doesn't top out until about 42 MPH, and it's a high strung motor (10.5:1 compression ratio), so 5000-7300 RPMs is when it really pulls. But for a 2.0 liter 4 banger it makes a lot of torque from 3000-5000 too. From a standstill until about 2800 RPMs it doesn't do much though, so climbing hills is a pain if you're not in the right gear, and it really eats gas if you don't drive it right.
I love it though, it's such a fun car to drive and it is so forgiving on the road that I think my next car will HAVE to be a BMW because anything else would just be a step in the wrong direction.
Oh yeah, and I think you guys can all appreciate the HID headlights
I'll never go back to incandescent.
As far as the wheels go, they came stock with the car. They are a part of the EAP: european appearance package which includes heated REAL leather seats from Recaro, heated mirrors, an engine block heater, a sunroof, the sweet looking wheels, and the HID headlights.
For those who do not know, Ford in Europe has a far better reputation than it does in the states. For some reason we get stuck with crappier models, while the Europeans get the RS focus, the ST focus and a few others, which are far superior. In Europe, the SVT Focus is sold as the "ST170" model and it is basically the same car as the SVT Focus, with most parts developed by Cosworth Racing, but the difference is that the ST170 is made in Germany, and the SVT is assembled in MEXICO (yuck).
It is a world-class auto-cross car though, but I wouldn't want to punish poor Silvia like that!
