Table of contents
Introduction
The theft of my Silverado was a devastating blow. I felt that trying to replace the truck I loved with another truck would be an impossible undertaking and that I was better off looking for something totally different. Follow along for my journey with the blue oval hot hatch: The Ford Focus ST.
I found a brand new 2016 Ford Focus ST base model for sale nearby and quickly jumped on it.
When I finally got behind the wheel, I instantly fell in love. The torque felt like a V8, the shifter was smooth, and the car felt nimble and confident in all turns. I was impressed with the lack of understeer versus other front wheel drive cars I had driven.
After the test drive, we got to negotiating and I walked away very happy with my purchase. While I would have liked to have some of the knowledge about used car purchases I have now, the purchase did not matter. I drove that ST home and babied it for the next couple weeks to break in the motor. I quickly scoured forums to learn where to start with my modification journey. From my personal experience, I had a baseline of what mods worked, but I needed to know more.
Let The Ford Focus ST Mods Begin
The first modification I did was I went back to Muffler Tech in Sacramento and had a custom exhaust done. The deep exhaust note sounded amazing and had no drone at cruising speeds!
Owning a turbo car meant that with a good exhaust, you have to get a good blow off valve too. Turbo sounds are fun and really add to the experience of driving. I purchased and installed a Turbosmart blow off valve. Unfortunately, I hated the noise and sold it to a fellow ST owner. I sourced a Mountune recirculating valve to replace the blow off valve and was much happier with the result. The recirculating valve was much better quality and I did not have to live with the infamous “pssh” sound anymore.
Later, I reached out to Cobb and purchased the V3 model so I had access to a high quality data logging and tuning device.
After purchasing the Accessport, I quickly contacted Stratified tuning to purchase one of their flash tunes. The Stratified tuning flash tune provides a couple features such as launch control and economy mode. And before you ask, no I did not get a crackle tune like other ST owners do.
Two years later, I graduated college and gained access to a car enthusiasts greatest blessing and curse: adult money.
The Ford Focus ST Training Arc
When I got my first real paycheck, I went and purchased a Mountune Intercooler, Roush cold air intake, NGK iridium plugs, and a Steeda Rear Sway Bar. While waiting for those parts to come in, I got a hell of a deal on RS wheels.
To take advantage of the new intercooler and intake, I reached out to JST performance. JST was making huge progress on the 2.0 Ecoboost platform with other ST owners. I decided to go with a full custom tune to take complete advantage of the modifications. After several data logging sessions, I had my complete custom tune and was insanely impressed. The power felt more linear rather than all in the low-end. I took the power even further with a custom E30 tune!
Performance wise, I felt like the car was where I had wanted it for my driving level. Like any other car enthusiast, I wanted the car to look good too. To improve the suspension, I installed Mountune lowering springs on Bilstein shocks for better ride quality and performance. Focusing on the bracing of the car, I installed a TB performance rear traction bar. Finally, I wanted to support the rear sway bar with TB performance endlinks.
Ford Focus ST Aesthetic Upgrades
I removed the RS wheels and installed brand new Enkei NT03 wheels wrapped in BFGoodrich Comp Sport 2 tires. Weight reduction and an increase in grip over the factory Goodyear Eagle F1’s hugely improved the driving feel and acceleration of the car.
For the front end, I installed a Rally Innovations 3 piece front splitter to add a little flare to the bumper. Balancing out the aesthetic, I installed a Maxton Designs RS style rear bumper cover. This transformed the rear end and completed the overall look of the car I wanted to achieve.
Luckily, finding all of these performance parts was not hard since I knew where to look. If you need help finding where to find performance parts, check out these reputable vendors!
All Good Things Come To An End
The Ford Focus ST was the greatest driving experience I had ever had owning a car. I had learned so much about building a driver-oriented vehicle and how the parts all work together to produce the best results.
Like all things, good things must also come to an end. I reached a time in my life where I wanted to make the huge financial decision of purchasing a home. Since the ST was paid off, it made sense that I could sell it to add more money towards purchasing the home. I sold the ST to Carvana and watched them tow her away from my apartment. The car may be gone but the memories still remain.
I want to thank the community over at NorCal ST/RS, Bryan and JST performance, and for the friends who helped put this car together. `Friendship and building great things like this is what the car community is truly about.
Now you might be thinking, what car came next? Well, at the time of writing this I had returned to the practical world of owning a truck. I don’t know what the future has in store for me in terms of car ownership. What I do know is that it has a big shoe to fill after the time I had with the Ford Focus ST.