Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2024 från Fast Ford

MK2 FOCUS ST There used to be a time when car modifying existed on a microcosmic scale. Our modding reference points were primarily anchored in the local shows and meets we attended, with the glossy splendour of magazines showing us how these trends were playing out in a broader sense across the country. Any awareness of what people were doing in other countries was generally gleaned from the odd borrowed mag from a mate who'd been on holiday, or a late-night segment on some random documentary series. Not today, though. Social media has changed everything. That little device in your pocket opens you up to a whole world of modifying trends – as soon as you've seen a new idea in America or Japan or Sweden or Australia, so have…

ECO BOOST KA Project cars, more often than not, are fuelled by overactive imaginations. The seed of the idea that spawned the car you see here, to swap an EcoBoost into a Ka, was sown back in 2019 when Craig Sudron was pondering how that engine was based on the old Sigma architecture, which would allow it to mate straight up to a Puma bellhousing, and that in turn would mate with a Ka gearbox. And once you've arrived at a realisation like that, it'd frankly be irresponsible not to act on it. Craig's got a pretty stellar back catalogue to draw influence from when it comes to proving his automotive credentials; he built and IVA'd a Fireblade-engined Westfield, there's an impressively lengthily-named Subaru Impreza WRX STI Type RAV-Limited which…

PUMA ST The old saying goes that you should dress for the job you want, rather than the one you have. This is a notion that's really captured people's imagination over the generations: Roxette were telling us to get dressed for success back in 1988, Ian Dury was well chuffed with his new boots and panties, S Club 7 ensured their place in posterity by suggesting we reach for the stars, it's a relatable and practical solution to the inevitable conceptual ennui we find ourselves trudging through in the day-to-day. Better things are on the horizon, you've just got to reach out for them. Take the gold elements of this particularly spangly Puma ST. Gold is the colour of winners, it's the top of the podium, it's something Spandau Ballet…

DRAG FIESTA Back in 1994, Blackpool's Pleasure Beach unveiled a new ride that would put the seafront theme park on the map for thrillseekers all over the globe. Known then as the Pepsi Max Big One, the attraction was a mammoth steel rollercoaster that boasted the title of the world's tallest and steepest. Featuring a dizzying height of 213 feet and a drop angle of 65 degrees, it hurled its white-knuckled occupants to a top speed of 74mph (which at the time was the second-fastest in the world behind a coaster called Steel Phantom in Kennywood, Pennsylvania, USA), and was the go-to ride for adrenaline junkies looking for the ultimate speed sensation. And while newer and more extreme rollercoasters have slowly eroded the world-beating stats of Blackpool's flagship attraction over…

SAPPHIRE RS COSWORTH There have been numerous small-screen police detectives driving Blue Ovals over the years. Ford supplied Zephyrs to Z Cars in the 1960s, Consuls and Granadas to The Sweeney in the 1970s and The Professionals’ Capris. Fondly remembered from the 1990s is Spender, a detective drama that generally eschewed car chases and flashy stunts for gritty realism and subtle humour. Spender himself, played by Jimmy Nail, was quietly-spoken and reflective. He'd fight - and usually win - but only if he absolutely had to. His understated, dark-hued Sapphire RS Cosworths suited the undercover Spender and, unlike many of those television detectives’ cars, against the odds one of those Sapphires still exists… “I've owned a couple of Cosworths in the past,” explains the 4x4's owner, Dan Lillywhite, “and a…

I remember when I was young, my Papa always said to me the hardest part of getting older is watching people you have known most of your life disappear. Today as I write this I understand what he means. The death of Fast Ford magazine has understandably hit me hard. My go-to bible, my Ford life handbook and my sidekick friend for over thirty years has had its life taken away from us all. I've said when I started writing my column that in order to keep the magazine running people needed to subscribe and buy the magazine and not rely on seeing their cars on social media platforms, that working hard to build a car to grace pages of a magazine was the pinnacle any car modifier could have.…

The British GT Championship makes two visits per year to Donington Park, the second of which is often the final and deciding round for overall and class honours. However, this year, the circuit hosted the penultimate race of the championship with the last round scheduled for Brands Hatch, later in September. Success at the previous Snetterton and Hockenheim races had earned a balance of performance adjustment for the Mustangs in the form of a twenty-kilo weight addition. Donington has traditionally been a ‘good’ circuit for the Mustangs but that additional weight would have a double negative effect on any car. One of the Mustang's strengths has been under braking where, somewhat counterintuitively, despite the cars muscular bulk Donington has previously been kinder to its brakes than other cars. The extra…

ESCORT RS COSWORTH It seems a shame to be writing about the last Escort Cosworth to appear in Fast Ford – after all, we've seen so many incredible and stunning examples built over the years. As you well know by now, the tuning potential of Ford's rally-bred icon could be described as almost limitless, perhaps only restricted by budget and imagination; little wonder it still holds so much respect within the modified car community to this day. Thankfully so many of you turned your crazy Escort Cosworth dreams into reality and it's certainly been fun witnessing how these amazing creations perform. Mark Eltringham ranks himself as a die-hard Cosworth fanatic who's maintained a strong connection with the EsCos since its inception, so it seems only fitting we take a closer…

S1 RS TURBO All of us have a dream car. A poster car we've longed to own since our school days. For most of you, that car will wear the Blue Oval badge on the front. For many, it would also carry the legendary RS moniker on the back too. And for more than just a few, that car would have been the Series One Escort RS Turbo. Clive West, owner of the car before Ade's camera lens today, falls squarely into that camp. Like many, the allure of a turbocharger, rally-bred handling, and oh-so-eighties styling was hard to resist. But the infamously high insurance prices during the nineties tinged that dream for a lot of us. Clive came close though. He recalls, “When I was 18, I nearly bought…

RS2000 MAXI Ford Escorts will always be inextricably linked with rallying, the two things go together like fish and chips. For most people, the first mental images to be conjured when the subject is brought up would probably be the Mk1s and Mk2 of the sixties and seventies, extravagantly sliding through gravelly forests, BDAs snorting and mud splashing across their Uniflo or Rothmans liveries. But there's far more to the rally Escort oeuvre than that, of course, and for enthusiasts of a certain age, the F2 rally cars of the mid-1990s will always be the kings of the genre. A subdivision of the WRC from 1993-99, F2 cars were front-wheel-drive nat-asp machines with exaggerated bodywork that caricaturised the standard factory lines; the likes of the Citroën Xsara and Peugeot 306…

SIERRA RS COSWORTH Flip back the calendar twenty years or so and it seemed like the vast majority of cars wearing that iconic Cosworth badge were modified in some way. Though it may be hard to believe now, the sight of a bog-standard Cossie at a show would usually fail to create a stir, the swathes of Blue Oval fans often gravitating towards the car that boasted a whole array of enticing mods instead. Thanks to seemingly ever-increasing values of older Fords, we've seen this trend reversed and it's not uncommon to see a group of enthusiasts flocking around a concours engine bay discussing washer bottles and wiper motors instead of oversized radiators and massive turbos. There's nothing wrong with that of course, times change and each to their own,…

S550 MUSTANG GT Europe and North America have an interesting relationship. Until quite recently, this cluster of countries on the eastern side of the Atlantic has been agog in the thrall of the self-styled Greatest Country in the World. We have Route 66 cafés all over Sussex and Picardy and Lombardy. Mickey Mouse can be found on children's pencil cases from Porto to Potsdam. We worship at the salty altar of the Golden Arches. It's only the recent popularity of a sentient tangerine in a suit that's skewed our perception of America from one of reverence to horror; for the most part, the impression is still ingrained. Land of the free, home of the brave, and – most importantly for the likes of us – the spiritual source of the…

WHERE GOODWOOD MOTOR CIRCUIT WHEN 6TH-8TH SEPTEMBER Rain. That was perhaps the defining feature of the 2024 Revival. Epic, relentless, biblical rain, so all-pervading and insistent that you feel as if you've had a bath with your clothes on. But hey, it's all part of the fun, isn't it…? Fun, of course, is very much the vibe at the Revival, come rain or shine: serious motorsport wrapped up in an ineffably cheery, engaging and inclusive atmosphere. If you've been before, you'll know what a timewarp energy it has; the event is themed around the circuit's heyday of 1948-66, with all cars that race being from this time period, and all attendees encouraged to dress up in era-appropriate style. While the whole event gazes whimsically back into the past, it is…

My last update was a sad one as I had just melted a piston, but that was remedied with some quality Wössner replacements. Since then, the Cossie's engine was rebuilt by MJ Racing and has been running sweetly. Yes, there have been more issues, namely one day when a coolant hose rubbed through a pulley due to a failing radiator mount, and then the diff which started to make horrendous imploding noises! This day many months ago made me park the car in a corner of my unit and enjoy some less needy ones for a while. OK, a raffle win 1.4 Orion has a tiny fraction of the power, and isn't as desired by most, but a simple car which actually works is more fun than a fancy one…

FIESTA ST M-SPORT 531 When Ford made the move to turbo power for the Mk7 Fiesta ST, it gave fans of the small-form sports hatch easy access to all the benefits that factory-fitted boost provides, as well as creating what is still regarded as one of the best modern hot hatches. In its first year on sale, the Mk7 ST collected no fewer than 22 awards worldwide, which has got to be some sort of record. And that comes as no surprise because the feisty forced induction Fiesta boasted impressive boosted performance, plus a simply sublime chassis, and a heaped helping of the secret ingredient – Fun, with a capital ‘F’. This recipe for hot hatch success made it impossible not to love, and it remains an incredibly highly regarded…

WHERE MALLORY PARK WHEN 22ND SEPTEMBER They say that the two certain things in life are death and taxes. We should probably add the unpredictability of the British weather to that list. Yes, there's no two ways about it, Ford Fest was fairly damp – so much so that we pretty much had to swim home down the M1. But was it a washout? Hell, no. We were there before 6am because that's part of the fun of running a mag stand, and it was already torrentially raining then. It continued to do so until well into the afternoon. But Ford fans are nothing if not intrepid and committed, and as soon as the gates opened for display cars at 7am we were met with a steady stream of awesome…

TURBO VAN Workhorses, linchpins of day-to-day logistics, craft, maintenance and endeavour —the world couldn't exist without vans, that's just a fact. Ford's marketing department has always maintained that the Transit is the ‘backbone of Britain’, and in a broader sense this is true of vans all over the world. Back in the 1990s, the UK government (and subsequently the mainstream press) highlighted ‘White Van Man’ as a core demographic, being working class males whose daily life revolves around ageing Transits with dashboards full of empty ciggie packets and yellowing copies of The Sun, but the reality is that van ownership is far more wide-reaching. An essential business tool for plumbers, electricians and builders, and also florists, bakers, gardeners, postal workers – you name it, it gets carried around in one…

2010s 2020s…

The subject of engine and oil additives has always been a divisive one. Some people swear by them, while others think they are little more than snake oil. So, we decided to put some to the test… One of the most popular additives among modified car enthusiasts is Liqui Moly Cera Tec. It adds protection and increases the longevity of your engine, but we wondered if could also help increase power and torque. We grabbed a mate's Focus ST, ordered some Cera Tec, and headed to the dyno to find out. WHAT IS LIQUI MOLY CERA TEC? Cera Tec is a high-tech ceramic wear protection additive from Liqui Moly. Its main job is to enhance the performance and longevity of your engine by reducing friction and wear. It incorporates advanced…

FF TECH CARLY IN ASSOCIATION WITH Ever had your day ruined by your car throwing up an unexpected problem? Of course you have, you drive a modified car! One minute you're happily cruising along and everything is right in the world. Then, without warning, an annoying rattle, nasty noise, strange smell, odd vibration or even the dreaded engine management light immediately ruins your day. Luckily, there are companies out there who share our passion for cars and are looking out for us. One such company is Carly. Their hardware and software products allow users to understand car problems and how to fix them. The Carly App and scanner allow you to perform vehicle diagnostics, view live data, or check a car for mileage manipulation. On some models, you can even personalise…

WHERE SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT WHEN 23RD-25TH AUGUST Each year the Silverstone Festival evolves towards being a perfect car-centric weekend. Its previous ‘Classic’ title is no longer broad enough to cover what lay behind the gates of Britain's Grand Prix circuit. Event Director Nick Wigley explained, “It has been another absolutely epic Silverstone Festival. The family entertainment has grown incredibly this year, and the amazing track action, even by our own sky-high standards, was right up there with the best ever.” From the moment the gates opened at 7:30am on Friday, there was much on offer to keep all ages fully entertained with interactive activities including a Fan Zone with displays of current F1 cars. There was live music on all three evenings on the eBay Stage with Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Busted…