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I'm hoping to get out at Goodwood before the summer is out. Knowing what I know about it and what it does it's going to me a very good thing around there.
Yep. All this wait for the corner to open up, feed throttle in while unwinding steering, malarky is not required. At all. The bottom line...
...and breathe.
853 miles so far, that's 28 hours spent on b roads between the south coast and Farnborough. I'm knackered!
Given the roads I was on and how I focused on driving it I considered it run in at 750 so to celebrate I found a private road and launched it. Twice. Nice. Very nice...
In spite of it's weight it genuinely goes into corners just like the Fiesta did but with more overall grip, then, just when a squirt in the ST would push you wide a bootful in this brings the nose in and you get fired out driven firmly from behind with the fronts scrabbling away.
It's epic...
Break time. 150 miles done.
The rain came just in time, on small quiet tight 2nd gear roundabouts it's like a puppy on a polished wood floor with a little rear end wag on the way out.
Only required a quarter turn dab of oppo so far. Note to self; must try harder.
30 miles in so far and it has happened once in normal as I blipped it to rev match a downshift, it caught me completley by surprise!
In other news...o, m, f***ing, g. This car a) feels right in every single way imaginable and b) how does it do what it does when exiting roundabouts? Much more...
They actually phoned me up and asked if I was happy with them putting a couple of miles on to put the fuel in or would I prefer to fill it up myself.
As a dealership they couldn't have been any better.
Bingo.
I said do not fit the centre caps, I'll do it myself. It turns out the PDI chap didn't, but left them in the car and then the valeter thought they'd been forgotten so did.
I'm not that fussed about it myself but the RS community deems misaligned badges heresy so I thought for 10 seconds...
Never! This is staying exactly as it comes.
Ah right, OK. I thought that happened in normal but only with FPM375. I'll find out tomorrow for sure.
I'm sure standard is fine. I stuck with the ST's book pressures 36/26 all its life and that rocked.
I'm surprised no one has spotted what they...
I'll be finding out for sure tomorrow as will be the first thing I check once I get home to fit my dash cams (I can't bring myself to do it on the forecourt before I drive off!).
I believe they're something like 41/39 though so quite high but not that surprising I guess with 35 profile tyres.
It seems to be mostly very early builds so far (a high proportion of reported failures are June '16 built)...some casting inconsistencies leading to weakness and/or warping as the head cools, both of which can give a tiny coolant leak into the cylinders.
For me it's nothing at all to worry...
Oh yes. And Friday. And I've told the wife she can expect to see me late evening only over the weekend. Four days of quality bonding/running in time ahead.
5,000 rpm and max 75% throttle for 1,000 miles. My target is to get that complete before Monday. I may even datalog the entire running in...
Right, the money's been transferred, they've confirmed receipt, return of the hire car is booked, RS collection is at 0830 tomorrow.
I'm a just like a kid at Christmas today.
A few stills from yesterday...
This is the main thing.
350 torques available from 1 rpm, 350 powaz, all-wheel-drive with an oversped rear axle to actively encourage rear end playfulness on the throttle, 5 doors, decent enough mpg, and £270 a year fully comp with no excess.
At what point would I need or want to change any of...
Currently the answer to that is no.
That is going to be tough to resist!
Standard it only pops and bangs in 'sport' mode. With FPM375 people report cars doing it in 'normal' mode as well plus a load more snorting and hissing from beneath the bonnet...none of that appeals.
Especially one that's one owner, full Ford history, and completely as it left the factory standard. That's what I'm hoping for at least. We'll see in time.
At 1030 I had to drive past Goodwood and the car parks were rammed when I went by. I drove from Petersfield back past it agin at 1230 and it was just a constant stream of supercars coming past me.
THE worst.
There are engines coking to death on their coolant being replaced by Ford. First sign is coolant loss. That develops into a misfire. Regular checks will catch it early. Doubtful it'll happen on mine though...most seem to be very early builds.
It's epic. You're wrong. Apart from it...