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The Loft / EvoM Car Talk CornerThe landing pad for automotive discussions, news, articles, and opinions. A place for the community to kick back and chat.
not really lol. usually they do hide as much as possible for the room to the under body protection etc. Also because the different set ups in the same type of cars, usually they dont even look a like besides the tip and the cat. So its not like you make a same exhaust 10 times or more.
When you see one, you have a good guess the car been molested engine wise, and being modifyed more then just a simple. swap on the exhaust system.
you could have just said that in the first place when I asked whats so special about a "rally" exhaust. they way you worded it (even if you didn't mean it that way), it sounded like a rally exhaust was a completely different animal to any other exhaust out there
as far as changing the exhaust in a rally car being an indication that the engine has been modified... maybe with a developed car thats actually being raced. saying that this car had the engine messed with just cause it has an exhaust is quite the leap in my opinion, even if it is a rally school owned car. Have you seen the Vorshlag thread? I'm thinking O'Niel saw the same crap factory exhaust and decided to replace it with one that doesn't get smashed to a flat 1" pipe in places
I was pretty excited about the Focus RS but this article points out a few issues . Its still a badass car, but I think ford missed the mark. A factory car should be able to be tracked out of the gate at least in stock form IMO
I'd like to thank Vorshlag for continuing to test and add to the community . They have been involved with the Evo/STI platforms and I value what they have to say. Granted its only one review but it comes from a very creditable source.
Incase this hasn't been posted , it is really informative.
Cliff notes, car is fast but see's 300 Degrees F oil temps after a few laps and has to cool down. Upgraded cooling will be needed. Probably not too hard to improve cooling as long as there is room for an oil cooler and bigger radiator.
RDU overheats also and as a safe guard it goes into FWD only mode. Hard to say if the RDU can be plumbed for a cooler, also if there is even enough room for a cooler large enough to keep that little diff cool. Also, there is no temp sensor, so the heat induced shut down is purely an algorithm. So even with a cooler, the AWD module will likely need to hacked so this algorithm can be overridden or removed. Then a real temp sensor with a gauge would need to be installed so the driver can monitor diff temps since temps seem to be an issue.
Driveshaft is pretty small so that may be a concern making power later on. That small part, now that I have looked more closely, is where the shaft goes into the CV joint. The OEM 3 piece shaft on the Evo has a similar neck down going into the CV joint. Makes me wonder how small the Evo one is.
Rear diff was compared to what you would see in a small ATV. Undersized diffs are hard to keep cool. Even with a big cooler (if there is space), you can easily get into thermal run away.
Rear suspension is stamped steel trailing arm torsion blade and the author compares its construction with a 1960's CW bug. It looks like this torsion arm could be replaced with a tubular link with a spherical bearing at one or both ends. It is only there to locate the tire front to back, so it could be made pretty light weight. This was a modification done to those early VW's the author mentioned.
Wheels/tires are "only" 235-35-19 and weigh 51.5lbs. Another set of small wider/lighter wheels would be excellent. 255 or 265/35r18's would probably be pretty good. If they can be made to fit. The FoST can fit 275's, need someone to test fitment on the RS.
Stock tires weren't happy on track. Everyone should expect that out of the PSS's, they're really just a street tire.
Responses in bold. Simply discussion points. Not arguing.
Cliff notes, car is fast but see's 300 Degrees F oil temps after a few laps and has to cool down. Upgraded cooling will be needed. Probably not too hard to improve cooling as long as there is room for an oil cooler and bigger radiator.
RDU overheats also and as a safe guard it goes into FWD only mode. Hard to say if the RDU can be plumbed for a cooler, also if there is even enough room for a cooler large enough to keep that little diff cool. Also, there is no temp sensor, so the heat induced shut down is purely an algorithm. So even with a cooler, the AWD module will likely need to hacked so this algorithm can be overridden or removed. Then a real temp sensor with a gauge would need to be installed so the driver can monitor diff temps since temps seem to be an issue.
Driveshaft is pretty small so that may be a concern making power later on. That small part, now that I have looked more closely, is where the shaft goes into the CV joint. The OEM 3 piece shaft on the Evo has a similar neck down going into the CV joint. Makes me wonder how small the Evo one is.
Rear diff was compared to what you would see in a small ATV. Undersized diffs are hard to keep cool. Even with a big cooler (if there is space), you can easily get into thermal run away.
Rear suspension is stamped steel trailing arm torsion blade and the author compares its construction with a 1960's CW bug. It looks like this torsion arm could be replaced with a tubular link with a spherical bearing at one or both ends. It is only there to locate the tire front to back, so it could be made pretty light weight. This was a modification done to those early VW's the author mentioned.
Wheels/tires are "only" 235-35-19 and weigh 51.5lbs. Another set of small wider/lighter wheels would be excellent. 255 or 265/35r18's would probably be pretty good. If they can be made to fit. The FoST can fit 275's, need someone to test fitment on the RS.
Stock tires weren't happy on track. Everyone should expect that out of the PSS's, they're really just a street tire.
Responses in bold. Simply discussion points. Not arguing.
I agree with all of that. The only real issue that's in the air right now is if/how/how expensive the aftermarket will deal with the RDU. Everything else is typical production car stuff that usually needs to be upgraded anyway to reliably track a car.
Had a few minutes to read the article as was not surprised by the findings:
While the RS is popular with the auto journalist types, it is also a hugely popular car on the internets. The Focus forum fanboys are extremely unforgiving of anyone saying anything critical about this car.
Had a few minutes to read the article as was not surprised by the findings:
While the RS is popular with the auto journalist types, it is also a hugely popular car on the internets. The Focus forum fanboys are extremely unforgiving of anyone saying anything critical about this car.
Like I said, similar neck down. Not sure the size on the RS since we got a comparison to a finger, not a measurement.
yah i know, i was trying to back up your claim with pictures and measurements. Clearly people are achieving some pretty high HP numbers without having to upgrade their driveshafts on the evo, so i would imagine it wont be a problem on the RS.
If attracting woman with your car is a goal... well....
I never said the evo had any pull either. Just joking about this guys reasons for not wanting it is all. The obvious thing to do if your just trolling for booty is to get a BMW, doesn't really matter what model lol
I never said the evo had any pull either. Just joking about this guys reasons for not wanting it is all. The obvious thing to do if your just trolling for booty is to get a BMW, doesn't really matter what model lol
That's what I got from it with his GT350 comments. the FoRS doesn't adequately display his "status"...lol
