Table of contents for April 2023 in Fast Ford

Essex-based fast Ford specialists FJRS has moved. The guys behind FJRS (Fred Clack and Jonny Steele) have long been trusted experts in the fast Ford scene, and now the company has outgrown its old Brentwood-based workshops and moved to new premises in Braintree. Fred says the move will allow FJRS to continue to grow and provide even better service to FJRS customers while still offering the same Mountune-approved dealer upgrades and services as before. “We are a very transparent workshop, and we understand that fast Fords are more than just cars to our customers; they are their pride and joy. That’s why we welcome customers into the workshop to see their car for themselves, including looking at the underside of the car on a ramp – not something many customers…

We first spotted Gary Lali’s innocent-looking burgundy Mk2 Fiesta on track at Croft a couple of years ago. Its ability to catch up with and overtake virtually every other car on track was impressive to say the least, especially with exotic machinery around. Obviously, we had to find out more... “The question I get asked most in the paddock is what engine is my car running?” Gary laughs. There’s no monster turbo inside – essentially, it’s an 1800 Zetec with a twist – but we’ll get to the details later. Gary’s connection to Fords stems back to his dad, Bill, who ran them as daily drivers and modified more than a few over the years. Gary recalls, “I spent many evenings watching what he did, trying to help and learning…

FAST FORD REP TO RACE CAR MONDEO We get to put all the upgrades to the test as we join Javelin Trackdays for a day of action at Thruxton. JASON FIESTA ST MK8 Jason’s been looking at ways to enhance the styling of the ST without going too mad, and just ordered a set Maxton Design splitters. ADE SAPPHIRE COSWORTH With the Saph finally back on the road, Ade has been out enjoying it as often as he can, despite the cold and wet weather. DAN FOCUS ST250 The Focus is in daily service, but for how long? Dan has bought a Ranger for daily duties - and he’s already started modding it! DAN SIERRA COSWORTH New dampers have arrived for the three-door, but Dan’s been out buying yet more…

After a few months of owning the Fiesta ST, it has undergone a series of changes. The Mountune lowering springs have improved the handling and given the ST a meaner stance, while the M235 power upgrade gives the car a nice balance of power and low-down torque – plus a few more pops and bangs. And the lightweight Compomotive TH2s in the gloss anthracite work so well with the Moondust Silver paintwork. When I’m photographing Fords for this magazine the go-to exterior styling company always seems to be Maxton Designs; the products are well made and they offer so many variations as well. So, I had a quick look on the website and found myself ordering more goodies for the Fiesta. I went with the V2 front splitter and side…

Known universally (and lovingly) as ‘POO’ for its entire career, POO 505R is probably the most famous of all works Escorts. Not only did it provide Roger Clark with his mount to win his second RAC rally in 1976, it went on to have a hugely varied and colourful career. Even Ford staff at Boreham, who were collectively not known for getting sentimental about their rally cars, recognised the importance of this identity by allocating it to Roger Clark no less than three years after his 1976 RAC rally, to compete in the 1979 RAC — his last event for the factory in a works Escort. One of two brand-new cars built up for the 1976 RAC (the other, POO 504R, went to Timo Mäkinen), this beautifully-detailed Cossack-sponsored machine, complete…

SUVs are an established part of the motoring landscape today – that’s pretty obvious. Take a look out of the window and you’ll see them everywhere. And there are all manner of compromises within this genre; take the compact crossover sub-set, for instance – cars like the Ford Kuga, which bridge the gap between large hatchbacks and small SUVs. Because life is all about compromises – or we’d all die very young – moderation is the key. So if your partner, spouse or significant other suggests that you need to get a sensible family car – something that’ll be practical for taking the kids to school and carting garden waste to the tip – you’d better not turn up with a stripped and caged Fiesta, or you’ll suddenly find yourself…

I magine a world before Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life. Before Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Before The Krypton Factor. That was the desolate wasteland into which Ford’s Mk2 Granada confidently strode in August 1977, spreading colour and vivacity wherever it went, with a square-shouldered and forthright seriousness backed up by an inherent sense of joie de vivre. It certainly made an impression upon Ade Maddock when, years later, he acquired one and found his automotive journey being rerouted in a blue and ovoid direction. He recalls, “I passed my driving test and got my first car, a Mazda, at the age of 17. I duly modified it as soon as possible, lowering it and fitting alloy wheels, spotlights and so on. It took until my third car to…

The 11th of January 2023 would have been the 100th birthday of Ford tuning legend Carroll Shelby. Coincidentally, 11 January was also the day we found out that performance car specialist Clive Sutton will be importing the 775bhp, supercharged 5.0-litre V8-powered Shelby Super Snake F-150 for UK customers. With just 300 Super Snakes being built globally, they will be among the rarest cars in the world, let alone on UK roads. Prices start at £140,000 plus VAT for a single cab, or around £160,000 plus VAT for the double cab.…

At just 19 years old, Holly Upton fell in love with the limitededition Storm Grey Fiesta ST200 at first sight. She loved it so much, in fact, that she placed an order for one straight away. Five years later, she’s now transformed the same car into a 245bhp stunner with an array of unusual and well-thought-out visual mods, giving a unique result. From an early age, Holly found herself in the fortunate position to be surrounded by cool cars, as she says: “My dad used to compete in a Mk2 Escort rally car. Unfortunately, he discovered kids can be expensive, so he had to give up rallying, though he is desperate to take it up again.” Despite the lack of a Mk2 rally car in the family, Holly’s dad continued…

Touring cars are extremely cool, there are no two ways about it. Pick any era from touring car history, you’ll find charismatic drivers doing impressive things in cars that look like stickered-up versions of your neighbourhood’s daily drivers, probably while clattering into everybody in the vicinity in a bloodthirsty rush for the apex. Look at the inaugural 1958 season, in which Jack Sears and Tommy Sopwith ended the year on equal points, so the winner was decided by a head-to-head sprint around Brands Hatch in a pair of Riley One-Point-Fives. Or in 2014 when Rob Austin threw his BTCC Audi up the strip at Santa Pod against a 570bhp VW splittie, just for a laugh. Or the 1992 season finale, when Cleland, Hoy, Harvey and Soper all got very physical,…

QUICK SPEC ■ Mondeo 2.5T ■ 19in Rotiform alloys ■ R888R tyres ■ Scorpion exhaust ■ Custom wrap ■ PB coilovers ■ Airtec intercooler ■ EBC brakes ■ Ramair filter ■ Corbeau bucket seats ■ Luke harnesses ■ Helix organic clutch upgrade ■ BD Performance block mod ■ Collins Performance custom map After our recent visit to Collins Performance – which saw the 2.5-litre motor producing 280bhp-plus and a bucket-load of torque – we were keen to put the whole project to the test. We jumped on Javelin Track Days’ website (www.javelintrackdays.co.uk) and promptly booked our space for a full day at Thruxton. We’ve covered several road miles in the Mondeo, but this would be our first opportunity to test many of the upgrades in anger on track. When we…

Bred on the special stages of the WRC scene, the first RSbranded Focus lived up to all expectations. A respectable 212bhp was on tap thanks to a turbocharged 2.0-litre Zetec (badged as Duratec RS), the suspension borrowed know-how from the WRC car’s tarmac settings, and the brakes were capable of pulling your face off if you stood on the middle medal pedal too hard. It was a good looker too, with flared arches, big alloys, and strategically placed air vents. The Focus RS looked like a modifier’s dream motor as standard, peppered with kit from the WRC team’s partners like Sparco, Brembo, OZ Racing, AP Racing and Sachs. The only aspect of the RS that caused controversy at the time of its launch was the Quaife ATB: the love-it-or-hate-it action…

Ifyou wanted a Ford to feel safe in, the SYNus was for you. Pronounced sin-you-ess, the SYNus was an urban concept car first shown at the Detroit Motor Show in 2005. Designed and built in response to the fact that most of the world’s population lives in urban areas, the SYNus took a lot of inspiration from security devices such as bank vaults, safes, and even armoured vehicles. And that makes it one of the coolest concepts ever, in our book. Just check out how cool the bank vault-style rear door handle is. The windows are bulletproof, and the car even has a ‘lockdown mode.’ And no, that doesn’t mean you stay trapped inside while politicians get drunk, and supermarkets run out of loo roll... Instead, in lockdown mode, metal…

For as long as enthusiasts have been modifying and tuning cars, there have been concerns rumbling about what is and what isn’t safe and responsible. And while the modifying community is, for the most part, populated by proper enthusiasts with an ingrained sense of doing things right, it’s no secret that our hobby is sometimes viewed with suspicion by certain sectors of society. Coupled with this, concerns over bootleg or substandard parts can make it trickier to buy quality parts with confidence. With this in mind, the Performance Automotive Aftermarket Association (PAAA)’s new SMART initiative is a very welcome development. This professional body and trade federation, which represents the interests and values of the performance tuning industry, unveiled SMART at the 2023 Autosport International Show; the acronym stands for Safe…

KW MACH-E V3 COILOVERS £TBC KW has been working on a range of its famed Variant 3 coilover system for the Mustang Mach-E. The electric SUV can now enjoy the same handling benefits of coilover suspension as regular petrol models. In this instance, that includes a significant reduction in ride height (adjustable between -25mm and -45mm on the front, and -20mm and -40mm at the rear), as well as KW multi-valve dampers inside the coilovers to ensure driving dynamics and comfor t. The fully TUVapproved V3 kit is said to help the keep the heavy SUV stable through the corners and provide a less nervous ride when pressing on. For full details, contact KW. www.kwsuspensions.net EBC BRAKES RACING MK3 FOCUS ST APOLLO BIG BRAKE KIT £1645 EBC Brakes Racing has…

Inspired by a neighbour who’d built an Escort Cosworth replica on his driveway, Steve Carr promised himself he’d one day own the genuine article. With 500bhp-plus and a selection of well-chosen mods, that dream Cossie has turned out to be even better than he could ever have imagined. Over the years, Steve has owned a fair selection of performance cars, and the vast majority have worn a Blue Oval. With a mouth-watering list – Fiesta RS Turbo, Sierra Cosworths, all three generations of Focus RS, and a heavily modified Mk3 Fiesta, to name just a few – there’s been plenty to get the juices flowing for any die-hard Ford fanatic. Steve says, “I’ve also had a few Evos, a V10 Audi R8 and a Nissan GTR, which I still own.…

Ever wanted to see your car appear in all its glory in the printed pages of a Ford tuning magazine? Well, if so, all you need to do is ask! Simply email us, or post a picture of your car on our Facebook or Instagram pages and add the hashtag ‘#printmyford’, and each month we’ll choose our favourites and print them in this aptly named feature. Alternatively, drop us an email with a couple of pics, a full spec list of any mods and upgrades, and a few details about your time with the car to fastford.ed@kelsey.co.uk with the subject heading ‘print my ford’ and we’ll pick our favourites for a slightly more detailed review each month too. In order for us to print your Ford please ensure all images…

Owning fast Fords and a variety of old/classic cars, there’s all too often an occasion when you need to hitch up a trailer and move one non-running machine to another destination. Whether that’s buying another Blue Oval, collecting a broken-down car, transporting a project to a tuner, trailering something wild to a track day or moving a car for a mate, having a tow-car comes in incredibly handy. Personally, I also live on a farm, so hay bales, horses and building materials often need dragging from one place to the next, and it’s crucial to drive something with a bit of grunt under the bonnet. For the past 20 years, it had been a Land Rover pickup, but last year I decided to retire the Defender and buy something modern:…

Those of a certain age will remember Martin Schanche on BBC’s Grandstand in the late Eighties and early Nineties, going wheel-to-wheel around circuits like Lydden Hill in his fire-spitting RS200 against the likes of Will Gollop in his Metro 6R4. If not, look up the videos on YouTube, as they are definitely worth a watch. TYPICAL COSTS Car (ready-built production class): from £2000 Personal Safety Equipment: £1000 Entry fees: between £220-£290 for a singleday event and £420 for a weekend event. BTRDA membership: £30, plus £60 to register for the Rallycross Championship (correct at time of publication). While most of us can only dream of reaching those heady heights, rallycross action on the track can actually be enjoyed for a very modest outlay. The premier series is the British Rallycross…

Times are hard right now. The cost of everything seems to be on the rise, and the post-Christmas credit card statement has almost certainly hit the doormat to further strain our finances. Finding some spare cash to tinker with our cars is harder now than ever. But that doesn’t mean that you should give up. Being smart with the upgrades and tuning your car can be more affordable than you think. We’ve compiled a quick list of ten budget car mods that cost less than £100. Most of them cost much less than that, and one is even totally free. You can get them done in time for the summer show season; most importantly, they won’t break the bank. So, let’s take a closer look at our pick of ten…