Maxxd.com – Modified and Performance Car News

  • TIME ATTACK MK2 FOCUS RS: TRACK HABIT

    James Allen has an all-consuming addiction measured not in tenths of an ounce but in tenths of a second… This is his Time Attack Mk2 Focus RS.

    Feature first appeared in Fast Ford magazine. Words: Ben Birch. Photos: Matt Woods

    Hands up who’s done a track day, been hooked, and now counts down the days to their next outing? It’s a common story, especially in the world of fast Fords as with a bit of careful tweaking, our humble cars can push much more expensive machinery around the circuit.

    James Allen’s Mk2 Focus RS has gone well beyond “a bit of careful tweaking” however. What you see before you is the result of a man and his friends’ OCD obsession around every minute detail, in the pursuit of quicker lap times and a growing trophy cabinet. We’ll let James begin the story with a confession. “I was a Vauxhall man”, he admits with a laugh, “I had a modified Astra VXR, a road / track day car that I had my heart set on competing with in some kind of motorsport.” A trip out in a friends Focus RS thankfully made him see the light, big time. “I went for a spirited drive in his car and I had to buy one – it felt so solid, had amazing road presence, and had tons more grip than the Astra despite the Astra having a diff and loads of chassis mods… it was simply night and day a better car.” An Ultimate Green model with 20k on the clock was purchased, and the plan was to keep it as a standard weekend road car, right James? “Erm, that was what I told myself,” he grins, “but by day one I’d already fitted an intercooler, and then I was introduced to Rob at SCC… the rest is history!”

    Time Attack Mk2 Focus RS

    Rob and James quickly became good friends and decided to build a competent street and track toy using as much off-the-shelf hardware as possible. “We wanted to show what was achievable for everyday punters like me,” he explains, “even today, most of what we’ve done to this car you can buy the exact same parts and do to your car”. Revo software took the RS to around 400bhp, and track days became a regular thing. The rear of the interior was stripped to accommodate a half roll-cage, and James started to get the bug. “It didn’t help that around the same time, Rob and another one of my mates with an Evo decided to enter Time Attack, and I started helping them as pit crew at the weekends.” Being in that environment and around the buzz of a race weekend, eventually tipped James over the edge! “In 2016 I entered as a one-hit wonder for three races in the Time Attack entry class,” he remembers, “Pembrey, Snetterton and Oulton Park.” Officially, the only changes needed to the car in the rule book were a harness and an extinguisher. But before entering Pembrey, James’ competitive spirit took over. “I stripped the car completely, a mate and I welded in a six point cage, I took out the rear and front crash bars to remove weight, and I removed a load of the rear wiring too.” In what would become standard OCD fashion for the rest of the build, James spent one and a half days on that wiring job alone, but it was worth it as he saved 13.5kg!

    Time Attack Mk2 Focus RS

    Needless to say he loved the three taster events, and entered properly into the Club 2wd class, where he spent another two years improving the car and also himself as a driver. “My eyes were opened when I bought a Racelogic V-Box datalogger, and started to check my section times, when I was going on and off the throttle, poring over reams of data. I started to go through a process of; improving myself, thus finding the limits of the car, then improving the car, and starting the process all over again”. As a consequence, big leaps forward in the car’s development came thick and fast starting with the diff, coilovers, a SCC rebuilt engine, and more weight saving. “The hours I spent underneath the car pressing holes in the floor and swaging them for strength is ridiculous,” James remembers, “I took out the roof brace as I have the cage and carbon roof, and I filled up boxes and weighed every last gram”. The car now weighs 1175kg with 30-litres of fuel and the driver on board, and when you consider the SCC engine makes up to 550bhp, you have a very serious 450+bhp/tonne. But James doesn’t rate the straight line performance as the biggest game changer. “My advice to anyone is to develop a really good chassis setup before you even bother to get more power,” he urges, “set the chassis up, learn to drive it fast first and then add power – I have 10 boost settings but I only use up to setting 5.”

    Time Attack Mk2 Focus RS

    The three most fundamental differences to the car were the change to slick tyres, the Quaife gearbox, and the ECU mapped by Gary at APT. Starting with the latter, the car was always good on the Revo software but there are limits to what it can do, and James remembers the day Gary mapped it on the new ECU. “It came alive,” he smiles, “a massive difference.” The gearbox was a bit of an obsession after seeing the demo unit at Autosport International. “I bugged the Quaife rep for ages who said they needed a distributor, then bugged mountune for ages when they became the distributor – I actually sent 133 emails to the poor guy before he caved in!” he laughs. The effort was worth it though, as the ‘box offers shorter ratios and much quicker changes, in a mostly bolt-in solution. “The car accelerates out of the corners like an animal now,” gushes James, “it really is an amazing enhancement”. The slick tyres are the king of the mods though, as they’ve made the car quicker in braking, around corners, and allow him to get on the power more quickly. “But we’ve had to tweak every aspect of the car around them,” explains James, “we had to play around with the suspension, the arms, the fuel system… the slicks took everything else to its limit”. Luckily, Rob at SCC has been spannering for the BTCC teams over the past few years, so he picked up a few tricks for chassis tweaks along the way. “Rob and I played around with the settings as the car was now rolling and squatting too much with the increased grip from the slicks. We ended up leaving the bump on hard, softening the rebound, and lowering the rear ride height. It worked like a dream!” They also noticed from pictures that the wheels were moving around in the arches under cornering. “ARC made us up some tubular arms – fully rose jointed so taking out any play in the normal bushes. They made a big difference, and also enabled us to dial in more camber than before” says James. He runs 4 degrees negative on the front and 3.8 degrees negative on the rear, toe and castor are set up to the mountune RS500 Focus settings. The final issue caused by the slicks was fuel starvation –enter Pro-Alloy. “Alex and the guys there made the baffled fuel tank, and also all of the intercooler, rad, boost pipes etc,” says James, “everything is an absolute work of art, I almost didn’t want to put it all on the car and get it dirty,” he laughs.

    Time Attack Mk2 Focus RS

    The sum of all of this modifying, and testing, and waking up in the middle of the night to write down ideas, is a car that has chopped almost six seconds a lap from its times, from when it was in the Club 2wd Class compared to today – the Pro Extreme 2wd Class. That is huge, and so is James’ well-earned success. “This is our first year in the Pro Extreme 2wd Class, and we’ve won our class!” Yes, that’s right, James has recently been crowned Pro Extreme 2WD Champion 2019. “Every time I get in the car I have a huge smile on my face,” he grins, “don’t get me wrong it’s 10% actual driving, with 90% planning, tweaking, improving, but the Focus is now such an amazing all-rounder and we have a great time when we’re all away for a weekend.” Fast Ford congratulates James and everyone involved in the build, it’s great to see someone making that leap from track days to motorsport, and even more so they are winning titles in a good old Blue Oval!

    Time Attack Mk2 Focus RS

    Tech Spec: Time Attack Mk2 Focus RS

    Engine:

    SCS Delta 800 ECU, Bosch 1000cc injectors, custom turbo-back side-exit Milltek exhaust system, Anembo billet inlet manifold, Newman Stage 1 cams, Pro-Alloy breather system, 90mm induction kit, 90mm cross over pipe, header tank, ‘Ultimate’ intercooler, big boost pipe kit, radiator and custom fuel cell, Walbro GST450 fuel pump, modified return fuel rail, Turbosmart FPR1200 fuel pressure regulator, Garrett GTX3076R turbo, SCC tubular exhaust manifold, Tial 44mm wastegate, Tial 50mm BOV, Setrab 405mm 13-row oil cooler, Wiseco pistons, K1 con-rods, 70mm throttle body, block mod, WRT billet crank pulley and WRT air-con delete pulley, potted lower inlet manifold

    Power:

    450bhp – 550bhp depending on boost level

    Transmission:

    Quaife QKE45Z M66 sequential gearbox, Helix 6 paddle clutch, 3J plated diff with 3.5:1 final drive

    Suspension:

    KW 2-way Competition coilovers, custom ARC tubular rose jointed wish bones and track, toe and camber arms, Whiteline front and rear anti-roll bars, rose-jointed drop links

    Brakes:

    Revo/Alcon 6-pot front calipers with 380mm floating discs, SCC /Wilwood rear 330mm disc kit, Ferodo DS UNO pads

    Wheels & tyres:

    9x18in et35 Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2, 265/645/18 Pirelli P-Zero slicks and wets

    Exterior:

    ACR Composites carbon fibre roof, WRC vents, WRC body kit and Evo splitter, carbon fibre bonnet, M-Sport carbon fibre WRC wing, M-Sport carbon fibre hot climate mirrors, Polycarbonate windows

    Interior:

    Custom Cages T45 6-point Clubman roll-cage, OMP steering wheel, Sabelt harnesses, Cobra Suzuka bucket seats, Motec c125 data-logging dash, Liteblox carbon fibre lithium ion battery

    Source

  • All-wheel-drive VW ID.4 revealed, will feature GTX badge outside US

    Volkswagen on Wednesday revealed a new range-topping version of its ID.4 battery-electric compact crossover.

    The version is the ID.4 GTX which features a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive system good for an estimated 302 hp, plus some sporty design elements inside and out.

    VW has confirmed that the ID.4 GTX won’t be sold in the United States, though we’ll get its same spicy powertrain in a model to be known as the ID.4 AWD Pro. The ID.4 AWD Pro reaches dealerships later this year with an 82-kilowatt-hour battery and starting price of $44,890.

    GTX is VW’s new branding for electric performance vehicles, similar to its GTI, GTE, GTD and GLI badges used on performance vehicles fitted with internal-combustion engines.

    Volkswagen ID.4 GTX (Euro spec)

    Volkswagen ID.4 GTX (Euro spec)

    VW didn’t say why the GTX badge isn’t being introduced here. Perhaps it’s because the automaker didn’t want to remind local buyers of its Jetta GTX from the early 1990s. VW may also be conscious of drawing associations with the Plymouth GTX muscle car.

    Claimed performance estimates for the ID.4 GTX include a 0-62 mph time of 6.2 seconds and a top speed governed at 112 mph. Expect similar numbers for the ID.4 AWD Pro.

    The ID.4 started sales in the U.S. earlier in spring. It’s priced from $41,190 and comes as standard with the same 82-kwh battery as the ID.4 GTX, but only a single motor at the rear generating 201 hp. The EPA-rated range for this configuration is 250 miles.

    Buyers not in a hurry can look forward to a lower starting price in 2022 when production of the ID.4 starts at VW’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. VW said the starting price will be dropped to around $35,000 once local production starts. Currently the ID.4 is sourced from a plant in Germany.

    Source

  • WIDEBODY MK5 GOLF GTI: SIMPLES

    The Mk5 Golf may have been around for a decade and a half but it can still look pretty damn fresh, especially after a few choice mods as Ryan’s widebody Mk5 Golf GTI will now demonstrate…

    Feature first appeared in Performance VW. Words & photos: Jon Cass

    It’s hard to believe the Mk5 Golf has been around over 15 years now, but in that time, it’s made its presence felt on the show scene for sure. Twenty-three-year-old Ryan Willows has been a huge Mk5 fan right from the start and he’s taken his latest widebody Mk5 Golf GTI further than most would dare. “Even while I was at school, I wanted a Golf GTI,” Ryan recalls, “I had a vision of a wide arched Mk5 which I hadn’t seen on the modified car scene before.”

    By 17, when most of us would be considering a miserable three-cylinder one-litre granny mobile, Ryan was already rocking a Mk4 Golf 1.6 SR which he soon modified with lowering springs, 19” BBS LM replicas and a full R32 bodykit. “I fitted a twin cherry bomb exhaust and resprayed it in Jazz blue House of Kolor glitter,” he adds.

    Widebody Mk5 Golf GTI

    Despite taking the Mk4 to an impressive level so quickly, it was the respected Mk5 that Ryan really lusted after, the Mk4 was sold on and in its place came a 1.9 Mk5 TDI. “This soon became a full GTI replica and was the first car I bagged,” he points out. On went a set of 3SDM 0.06 rims and Ryan soon became a regular at shows.

    The progression to a Mk6 seemed only natural and once funds allowed, Ryan soon had the keys to a Mk6 1.6 TDI. Yet again, this one didn’t remain stock for long and was treated to a full R20 bodykit and Rotiform TMB alloys. The Mk6 experience wasn’t to last however, within a year Ryan realized he preferred his older Mk5.

    Widebody Mk5 Golf GTI

    This time around and armed with a few more years no claims on his insurance, Ryan began searching for the best Mk5 GTI he could find. “I’d been looking for a while and came across this 2005 GTI in Tornado red, three hours away in Newcastle,” he recalls, “it had a couple of areas of minor rust, but it was stock and unmodified, perfect for what I had planned.”

    The bagged look of his previous Mk5 had gone down really well and Ryan decided to take the same route with his latest Mk5 GTI which runs an Air Lift Performance v2 system. Now, a bagged Mk5 GTI is nothing unusual these days, but the next step was certainly more extreme to say the least! “The bodywork was in fantastic condition, but I was still keen on the idea of running a wide arched look,” Ryan recalls, “this meant I had to cut out the original arches to fit the larger ESC Tuning carbon fibre arches.”

    We should point out here that Ryan is a bodyshop technician by trade, but even so, he was admittedly nervous when it came to butchering the bodywork on his beloved GTI! “I really didn’t know what the end result would be,” Ryan laughs, “I knew if I messed this up it’d be very hard to rectify!” Luckily, his worst fears were never realized and the carbon arches fitted perfectly at the first attempt. The original GTI rims would now look more like castors, but Ryan already had a set of Rota MXR rims waiting in the wings. With a 10″ measurement at the front and 11″ at the rear, he’s managed to nail that perfect stance while also filling those wide arches once the car is dropped into the weeds too.

    Ryan could easily have left things there and received plenty of admiration for his handiwork, but he was keen to ensure the remainder of the bodywork had a purposeful and aggressive look to match those arches too. “I adapted a Focus ST front splitter to fit the GTI front bumper than grafted on an R32 rear diffuser which helps support the custom twin exit exhaust I had made,” Ryan points out.

    Widebody Mk5 Golf GTI

    The Mk5 remained in that guise for a year, still wearing its tornado red paintwork. Without a doubt, it was already beginning to stand out from the pack, but not quite enough for Ryan. By chance Steve Kempster was building himself a widebody Mk6 around this time and helped Ryan keep motivated.

    “The standard rear spoiler now looked out of proportion and I considered a small carbon extension,” Ryan explains, “then I saw an ad for the big BYC rear wing and knew that would have a much bigger impact.” Not many cars could pull off wearing a rear wing this size, but combined with the clever selection of upgrades Ryan had already added, we can agree it really doesn’t look out of place.

    Working in a bodyshop has its advantages and Ryan was able to use the  spray booth from his day job to create a dramatic colour change. “Stealth grey had always appealed to me,” he explains, “I’d been inspired by Focus STs wearing this colour and reckoned it would suit my Golf.” He was right too and combined with the black wheels and trim and that freshly smoothed tailgate, he’s now achieved the look he envisaged all those years ago.

    The Mk5’s TFSI turbocharged unit is a strong performer out of the box, but Ryan was keen to extract a little more power from the 2.0. “I’ve had it remapped and fitted an Audi R8 coil pack along with a bigger Audi S3 intercooler,” he points out. Along with the custom Powerflow exhaust, this lot brings the power up to an impressive 250bhp. He’s also added an Audi S3 engine cover and intake to ensure his GTI stands out from any standard example.

    With that aggressive exterior , you may expect to see a fully stripped out interior and excessive full roll cage. While that might sound the natural direction to take, Ryan still drives this car every day and covers a load of miles. Thoughts of a deafening 200-mile journey and back seat passengers left behind don’t really appeal, so a compromise has been met by swapping the original GTI seats for a pair of leather Recaro wingback seats, the carbon fibre trim hinting towards the motorsport theme. Ryan’s adaptive handiwork has again come in useful for the neat iPad build linked to a Kenwood stereo. Perfect for those long-distance road trips to shows!

    The response to Ryan’s wideboy Mk5 Golf GTI has been positive and just as he intended it attracts attention wherever he takes it. “There’s always plenty of thumbs up and photos being taken, its great,” Ryan smiles.

    Routinely he’d have moved on to his next project by now, but considering the colossal amount of hours he’s poured into this one over the last three years, he’s decided he’ll hang on to it for some time yet! Having said that, he confessed to a classic VW being an exciting proposition or maybe even a Golf R…

    Widebody Mk5 Golf GTI

    Tech Spec: Widebody Mk5 Golf GTI

    Engine:

    2.0T GTI with Audi S3 intercooler, custom Powerflow exhaust, Audi R8 coilpack and remap, Audi S3 engine cover and intake

    Chassis:

    10×18” and 11×18” Rota MXR wheels, MK5 Golf Air Lift Performance v2 management

    Exterior:

    BYC wide wings, ECS Tuning carbon fibre arches, Focus splitter, R32 rear bumper, shaved bonnet notch, smoothed tailgate and full respray in Stealth grey

    Interior:

    Recaro leather wingbacks and carbon fibre trims

    Audio:

    iPad build linked to a Kenwood stereo

    Source