Introducing myself, "My Story" Good content inside.

Brian04SVTF

New Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2012
Messages
5
Location
Brighton Michigan
Hello everyone, My name is Brian. I'm 23 and live in Ann Arbor Michigan, I've had a couple SVT Vehicles in my driving years. It all started with a 2004 SVT Focus ZX5 which i bought when i was 18, i absolutely fell in love with everything about this car, i was amazing to throw through turns, although with only 170 hp it didn't go anywhere fast but was phenomenal in the twisties if you kept the revs up, there aren't many things to do to these cars to make power other than throwing boost at them and the car had 170,000 miles on it so that kept me from going that route so i stuck to simple bolt ons, did an off-road pipe with an FSWerks Catback, Ksport Coiliovers and a CFM Adjustable Short Throw, just those little mods made the car just that much better than it already was.
IMG_7461.JPG



Sorry if the photo quality is terrible, had to dig these up off of my 4 year old Photobucket. The car had well over 205,000 miles in these photos right before i sold it

Fast forward to 2014, I'm 21 and feel as if it's time for me to make my first brand new car purchase, naturally coming from a SVT Focus, what's the car i want to buy? If you guessed Focus ST then you guessed correctly, I've worked at a high volume Ford Dealership for since i was 18, and for the past 6 years of my life. Many of you probably know that working at a dealership comes with many perks, heavily discounted prices on parts, great employee discount on new and used vehicles etc..

So, October 2014 I bit the bullet and purchased a brand new 2014 Focus ST with the fully optioned ST3 trim package (Factory HID headlamps, heated full leather Recaro seats).
IMG_6524.JPG


I drove it through that winter :( michigan winters suck.. That spring the modding began.

With about 4000 miles on the car the first thing i did was purchased a Cobb Accessport along with a 93 Tune from Randy at Mountune along with a 3" catless turboback exhaust consiting of a ATP Turbo Catless 3" Downpipe as well as a 3" Roush Catback as well as a replacement Green Filter. The car was a ton of fun with a simple tune and exhaust. It really woke it up and made things fun for a little while. Couple months later i purchased a set of 18x8.5 +42 Avant Garde M310 wheels as well as a set of Fortune Auto 500 Series Adjustable Coilovers to give it a nice stance and improved handling. Gave the car just the look i was wanting.

IMG_6194.JPG



Fast forward again, about 2 months later, as much as i digged the look, naturally i got bored and i got sick of cleaning the black wheels so i decided to order a new set, I went with the same spec (18x8.5 +42) WatercooledIND SY10 in a brushed face/silver pocket finish,



IMG_4579.JPG



Did a few cosmetic mods along the way up to this point, Triple R composites front/side splitters, Maxton Design rear diffuser and Boomba Racing Wing Riser kit. as well as a custom Deep Dish grille one of only 20 produced.



These little changes kept me settled for a the rest of the summer/fall. Back comes shitty Michigan winter time.. figured i didn't want to drive this car through that mess again. i know i know.. just a Focus right? Yeah well it's my pride and joy. So i set out to find a fun winter beater/daily driver, again naturally what am i going to do? look for a SVT Focus.. luckily being around the Metro Detroit area these cars are a dime a dozen unlike most places, did a little searching and came across a 2 owner 2002 CD Silver ZX3 with 185k miles but a full list of service records from new, as well as a month old fresh clutch and timing belt. Guy was only asking $2000 for the car so i couldn't pass it up, surprising to me i got him down to $1800 and ended up making a deal.

IMG_3173.JPG


Surprisingly clean for a 14 year old daily driven Michigan car with 185k on it. Still have this car as my daily, currently has 208,000 miles with not an issue. I was super happy to be back in an SVTF!

So now that the ST was parked for the winter i got to enjoy this old gem every day, and started thinking up some plans for the ST come spring. I had the car where i wanted it asthetically, but it was not where i wanted it power wise, at this point the car was ful bolt on, exhaust, intake, tune, big front mount intercooler, oil catch can, short throw shifter as well as a polyurethane lower torque mount but just not what i wanted, the stock turbo hit really hard down low but really fell on its face about 4500 rpm, so i convinced myself it was time to make the jump to a bigger turbo.

I ended up purchasing a full direct bolt on kit from ATP turbo as well as a host of other fun goodies,

Turbo Kit
ATP Garrett GTX2863R .64 housing (53mm wheel) good for 425 whp

Extras:
TiAL MVS 38mm External Wastegate w/open dump tube
TiAL Q 50mm BOV
AEM v2 Water Methanol Injection System w/ progressive controller

IMG_1773.JPG


Once early March rolled around and the snow and salt washed away me and a buddy got at getting this swap done, took us all of two days to have everything bolted up and the car running on a start up tune, and ready to datalog for final revision, got the tune all situated that week and the car was out of this world compared to what it was before,
it went from hitting a peak of 22 psi at 2200 rpm and falling off to 13 psi by 4500 to hitting 29 psi at 3200 rpm and holding that 29 psi all the way to 7200! and did i mention the sound from the open dump wastegate? pure eargasm. About a month later i had the car on the rollers at Walsh Motorsports in Wixom Mi, some of you may be familiar with the name Donny Walsh, the car made 401/380 to the wheels spinning the tires on the dynojet. Pretty impressive from a stock bottom end 2.0l ecoboost, over 200 HP per liter! And let me tell you this car is a riot, and one thing it loves to do it hurt big v8 feelings, just an absolute blast.

Nothing changed all summer until it was coming to a close and i found a deal on a full Air Lift Performance Series air suspension kit that i once again couldn't pass up. Took about a week for the kit to arrive and it was all installed the following weekend with no issues.

IMG_5340.JPG


Unfortunately i only got to enjoy the car on air for a couple months before good old winter came on back, at this point i told myself "I'M DONE" with modding the car that is, i mean what more could i want, it has all the power i could need, or even use for that matter, had a nice set of wheels i liked along with a kick ass looking and performing air ride kit. So i was set on being done.

Lets get real.. is there ever such thing as "done" for a car guy? i didn't think so. Much to my delightful surprise i posted on a few pages that i was looking for a new set of wheels and was looking to off my current set, out of nowhere a company by the name of BC Forged got in contact with me saying how much they loved the car and how they would like to be a part of the build. They make high end 2 and 3 piece forged wheels, they told me they would provide me with partial sponsorship and willing to sell me the wheels at a HIGHLY discounted price, seeing as i already had a confirmed buyer for my current set i agreed and picked out a set of 2 piece wheels from their awesome selection. I ended going with their HCS-04s model with the spec of 18x9.5+35 in full "Brushed Clear" finish with black exposed hardware along with black lug nuts to match, i never thought i could have fallen more in love with the car than i already had but bo was i wrong. These wheels absolutely complete the look of this car IMO

IMG_6949.JPG


The wheel change was the last change i made to the car, and i haven't had any second thoughts or ideas of what to do next, all there really is left to do is wait for that 29 pound of boost to wear that stock bottom end out and put a hole in the block and the full build!

Getting back to the part about working at a dealership having its perks... about a month ago i had walked out of the showroom to see a gorgeous Torch Red with Ebony Stripes 2008 Shelby GT500 sitting on a set of Forgestar F14's with a 6/4 piston Wilwood BBK sitting behind them, so naturally i had to go check it out, turned out to be a customers car that was in looking at new Super Duties, checked the car out for a minute or two and went on with the day, fast forward to the next day, pulling back in from lunch break and what do i see.. the same GT500 back again, BUT with no license plate on it... :cool:

So i hurry up and park and dash inside to the used car manager and ask him what was going on with the car and he told me that the owner had traded it in on a new 2017 F-350, heres where it gets better, the dealer i work at allows employees to purchase any used car that comes in on trade for $500 above trade in.. I told him to say no more, $20,000 was all it took to own a one owner 2008 GT500 with 42,000 miles. Below is a current photo from a week ago, only thing i had done to the car was tint the windows as i do all of my vehicles with 18% SunTek Bronze film all around.

IMG_7378.JPG




The car rolled off the line a factory stripe car with the Black/Red accented interior as well as the awesome Shaker 1000 Stereo. Before i made the deal i obviously had my mechanic put it in the air and check it out, where at that point things got even better than i thought the could have, with the car in the air we noticed a host of upgrades,

Engine Modifications:
C&L Cold Air Intake
C&L 2.60 Pulley
Stainless Works 1 7/8" Longtubes
Stainless Works 3" O/R H pipe
MRT Interceptor 3" Catback

Driveline/Suspension/Brake Modifications:
Barton Short Throw Shifter
Ford Racing/Tokico Adjustable Shocks/Struts
H&R SS Lowering Springs
BMR Adjustable Panhard bar
BMR Adjustable Lower Control Arms
BMR LCA Relocation Brackets
Ford Racing Diff Cover
ACE Racing Powerforce Twin Disk Clutch
Ford Racing Torsen T-2 Differential
FRPP 3.73 Gear Set
Wilwood Superlite 6/4 Piston BBK
20x9, 20x10.5 Forgestar F14 in Matte Black
255/35/20, 295/30/20 Michelin Pilot Super Sports

I was lucky enough to be able to speak to the pretty in depth about the car and all that was done to it, he was cool enough to bring me the couple of extra parts he had for the car which were the factory shift knob which i put back on in place of a huge awkward feeling MRT ball knob, stock knob FTW, also a brand new in box front chin spoiler that he ordered but never installed after scuffing the original on on his driveway curb, as well as a inch thick book of service record and parts receipts from Watson Racing as well as MRT for installation of all the aftermarket add ons, score! The car had just a basic SCT flash tune for the mods, which i was not comfortable with whatsoever since i hear these cars are very picky with tunes and the last thing i wanted was to get into this thing and end up breaking it because of a garbage canned tune.

Last week i reached back out to Donny Walsh to get a nice safe dyno tune in it, we worked out a deal on a SCT x4, as well as a custom tune. I dropped the car off this past Wednesday 8/9/17 and he got to working on it the next day, Donny called me that afternoon to let me know he had the car on the rollers and was getting started on the tune, also let me know that the tune in it was pretty lean and almost unsafe, he ended up getting it all wrapped up Friday afternoon and called me to come pick it up, he also threw a set of NGK TR6 Plugs in the car and got it to make 556/496 with 93 octane on a terribly humid 85 degree summer day, needless to say i am absolutely thrilled with this car and the tune Donny and Justin put together for me, the car runs like a raped ape with no hiccups. If you are relatively close to SE Michigan i absolutely recommend taking your car to Donny for a Dyno tune.

IMG_7455.JPG




Short little dyno pull video below for you guys, FYI smoke behind the car during the pull is a mix of a bit of tire smoke and exhaust soot, nothing serious :D


Thanks to those of you for took the time to read my short novel, it's a product of sitting at home on Friday night with nothing better to do, Glad to be on the forum and share my little car story with you! Please leave some feedback i'd love to hear what you guys have to say!
 
Last edited:

CobraBob

Authorized Vendor
Established Member
Premium Member
Single Barrel Sirs
Joined
Nov 17, 2002
Messages
105,349
Location
Cheshire, CT
Hi Brian. It's Saturday morning and I just read through your entire "novel". I normally wouldn't read that much text, but with every paragraph I became more intrigued with your vehicle history. I enjoyed it all. Your Focus ST is gorgeous in it's present state. Nice mods. 401/380! Love the paint. Love the wheels and the air-ride suspension. And nice deal on the '08 GT-500. Impressive mods and very nice (uncorrected) numbers after the new tune.

So you now have three cars in your stable?
 

TK1299

Meh
Established Member
Premium Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2017
Messages
6,427
Location
Houston, TX
I did enjoy reading that actually. I'm not a Focus guy but the last pic of it looked awesome. You did a good job modding it. Nice pick up on that Shelby GT500 Cobra.
 

Brian04SVTF

New Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2012
Messages
5
Location
Brighton Michigan
Hi Brian. It's Saturday morning and I just read through your entire "novel". I normally wouldn't read that much text, but with every paragraph I became more intrigued with your vehicle history. I enjoyed it all. Your Focus ST is gorgeous in it's present state. Nice mods. 401/380! Love the paint. Love the wheels and the air-ride suspension. And nice deal on the '08 GT-500. Impressive mods and very nice (uncorrected) numbers after the new tune.

So you now have three cars in your stable?

Thanks for taking time to read through it! I appreciate the nice comments.
Yes, I have 3 cars currently, the SVTF, ST and the GT500
 

CobraBob

Authorized Vendor
Established Member
Premium Member
Single Barrel Sirs
Joined
Nov 17, 2002
Messages
105,349
Location
Cheshire, CT
I thought so. You've come a long way in a short time, vehicle wise. :)
 

PaxtonShelby

iamdrab
Established Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2010
Messages
5,434
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Great intro! That ST is as nice as can be. I drove one my buddy leased - same color (nicest choice IMO) and it was a FUN car in stock trim. I had a CO 2003 ZX3 EAP SVT for about 6 months. I loved it. Borla exhaust - upgraded wheels. Heated Recaros. Tons of fun. Only reason I sold it was to buy my brother-in-law's 2004 F150 that he owned from new. It was a deal I couldn't pass up.

Nice buy on the Shelby. Talk about a different animal from the ST! Enjoy!
 

Zedeater

Good from far
Established Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
352
Location
Oh Canada!
Welcome to the forum, that was a good read. Congrats on the deal on your GT500, its got a great list of mods already done to it.
 

gimmie11s

I Race Pontiacs
Established Member
Premium Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2004
Messages
18,488
Location
la la land
400whp 4 bangers will in fact hurt a lot of feelings.. very well done!

Nice score on the Shelby... sweet car!
 

Users who are viewing this thread



Top