Moving Target - The FocusSport Focus

[Spiny Anteater]

Time to air my take on Dirt's bette noir. As can been in the picture below, I initially had quite a lairy build and tune on this thing, but it had the saving grace of being surprisingly fast. Now it's been rebuilt for more grip (and less power) and is more predictable and even faster.



Upgrades:
Power: Race Cams & vlaves, everything else stock
Platform: All race except stock weight reduction
Tyres: Goodyear Slicks on Stock style 215/40 rims
Aero: All forza parts

Stats:
Power: 382 bhp
Torque: 362 lb-ft
weight: 2263lbs

Tune:
Tyres: 27/29
FD: 3.30
1-6: 2.89, 2.17, 1.72, 1.39, 1.15, 0.98
Camber: -0.9/-0.8
Toe: 0.1/0.1
Caster: 5.4
ARBs: 13.92/10.13
Springs: 333.3/333.2
Ride Height: 4.0/4.0
Rebound: 8.2/6.4
Bump: 4.1/3.2
Aero: 125/150
Brakes: 46% front/100% pressure
Diff: 30/0

If anyone tries it out let me know what you think.

[fndrbndr]

First takes:

1.  Why use cams and valves instead of other stuff?  Torque issues?  Or was that just the easiest fit?

2.  Why no WR?  I guess it's light enough already, and I'm guessing only race WR is available (haven't tried it yet), but that still sort of jumped at me.

3.  Did the reduction to +.1 for the toe settings make it more manageable?  I'm toying with cars with neutral toe for Maple Valley, but I'm still curious.  (max speed is a big plus, and just a + or - .1 on front or rear can cost .05 seconds or more in my experience with the 2000GT)

4.  Please tell me that torque number is a typo??     

[Spiny Anteater]

1: Hi Torque + FWD = nightmare in my book. The previous build couldn't put it's power down for love nor money (although it did only have sport tyres) so I tried to give it a bit more top end and a bit less torque (proportionally) to make it grip a bit better.

2: I honestly don't feel WR is very important at MV. Lots of grip and power seem to be more important to me as you're not really having to brake heavily anywhere. If I was to post up the Corrado build you'd see the same approach (when I lost power and went with sport WR I lost about 2/10ths of a second/lap)

3. The toe is a carry over from the earlier tune. It seems to work.

4. It does look like a rogue 5 crept into that torque figure.

[sk15kev]

Spiny,

I really do like this tune, I have tried out a few cars on MapleR and this is by far the fatest without too much stress.  My original tune was using a Race Intake and 235 wide wheels, so when I reduced it down to the 215 you've got and  I did think it might not work.  But hey it kicked the pants out of my build by two whole seconds.

I flirted with taking off the race brakes and reducing some weight on the wheels, but I didn't quite reach the same time that I had already done.

Nice one! Got me under the 90 secs mark.  And I agree with the point about high torque on FWD cars, you really have to try and keep theweight at the front just to get traction when nailing the throttle.  Much better to have the HP higher.

-Kev

[Blooze]

I was intrigued by three aspects of your build and thought I'd give them a try.  One was the configuration, another was the .1 toe on both front and back, and the full DF settings.  My build had more torque and varied in a number of other areas as well.

For me... my build was quite a bit faster - better than .4xx on Tsukuba for instance.  It also had a faster TS by 2 mph, not much granted, but it does affect the acelleration in the upper gears which helps with the longer road sections.  So, I will share it - perhaps some part of it will be better for you as well.

2003 FocusSport SVT Focus

• Hp: 363
• Tq: 369
• Wt: 2245

Parts

• Engine: Race block
• Handling: All Race parts except Weight Reduction and Drive Shaft
• Tires: Race Perelli; 235mm; 18"; American Torq Thruster
• Body: Forza front and rear wings; Forza rear bumper

Gears

• FD = 3.68
• 1-6= 2.89   2.00   1.52   1.21   1.01   0.87

Setup

Wt Bias - SWR	51%	78.00%
Parameter	Front	Rear
Tires	28	30
Camber	-1.0	-0.7
Toe	0.1	0.1
Caster	5.0
ARB	11.3x	11.7x
Springs	446.x	429.x
Height	3.9	4.0
Rebound	7.2	6.9
Bump	3.5	3.8
Aero 76%	95	114
Brakes	48	104
Front Diff	29	0
Rear Diff	na	na
Torque	na

Benchmark

0 to 60:	4.207
0 to 100:	9.550
TS:	162.1
60 to 0 :	95.9
100 to 0:	257.2
g's @ 60:	1.16
g's @ 120:	1.16

I still haven't done the final on the transmission build so improvement can be garnered here.  Thus far, I have set a new personal best on every track that I have tried the car on (except for the TR tracks).  Who'd a thunk it.

Also, I originally had the toe set to .2 and 0.  Setting it as You have it (.1 and .1) helped the car rotate better and helped me reduce its QR another 2 tenths.

[bimmerlovere39]

Those are interesting toe numbers.  I'll have to try them soon.

[Spiny Anteater]

I'm surprised at the fuss these toe figures have generated - they are from Feuerdog's calculator and to be honest it took me a while to be convinced by them - up until v.5.11 I always ran FWD with zero toe front and rear, but the improved turn-in was what convinced me.

@ Blooze - I'll give the car a run later in the week, but the first thing which has struck me is how similar a number of the parameters are between our cars. Of particular surprise to me though was how close the 6th gear ratios including final drive) were - mine is about 3.23, yours 3.20. Considering the extra revs you get from the race cams, I would have expected my gearing to be significantly, not just slightly, shorter than yours. Without trying your tune, I can only guess that your car is pushing the red line in top gear while mine still has a way to go (I was trying to use that torque hump).

[Blooze]

Mine is even more severe now (3.68 x .88 = 3.24).  I shift into 6th at 6600 rpm which lands me at around 5700 (around 1070 ftlb and 358 Hp)  Lower gearing would drop me back into the steeper part of the Hp ramp and the car doesn't seem to lug well.  The car gases out at around 850 ftlb.  The Hp ramp is much less severe on the high side of the peak, staying above 356 for 600 rpm longer.  Geared as I have it keeps the car working in the high end of the Hp range longer. 

The car will reach the a full 159 mph at the finish line on Sunset Infield Short.

$

[sk15kev]

If you are still running these on the MapleR, have you tried reducing the accel diff to maybe 15.  Although unable to set a new fastest time, I was more consistently around the high 89,low 90s.

I believe it helps with the left sweeper at the top of the hill and also the last bend to keep the nose pointed in a bit more while on the throttle. (Although you guys probably have throttle control within your toolkit )

-K

[fndrbndr]

I assure you, I do NOT have better throttle control in my toolkit.  That's why I usually drive small, grippy cars; there's no harm in flooring it when you're unleashing a whopping 150 ponies.