The Psychedelic Socialist's Focus ST

[ForceIndia]

Apexes are those things with cones that go wooshing past in the distance right?

I’ve yet to meet one. I’ll let you know.

 

[Touring_Rob]

I have to say having a lightweight car makes such a difference to tyre and brake wear. I was wincing thinking of the cost of your M4 flying round @Nickw88

@The Psychedelic Socialist what pressure did you run on track?

 

[cs_rich]

I have to say having a lightweight car makes such a difference to tyre and brake wear. I was wincing thinking of the cost of your M4 flying round @Nickw88

@The Psychedelic Socialist what pressure did you run on track?

Started at 2.1 cold then let them get up to 2.6/2.7 max.

Normally it's 2.4 cold so I reckon I might have damaged them going too hard before they'd increased in pressure much.

 

[Yarp]

All I can say is the Conti sport contacts I had once wore quicker than my patience with the BMW.

I went through a set of front sport contact 7s in no time on the 5 series and M3. Turns out they like a bit more pressure or they roll onto the side walls a bit and wear mega fast on the outer edges. This set seem to be doing much better at 35psi compared to 32. I’ll have a better picture in another few thousand miles

 

[Cookson]

I went through a set of front sport contact 7s in no time on the 5 series and M3. Turns out they like a bit more pressure or they roll onto the side walls a bit and wear mega fast on the outer edges. This set seem to be doing much better at 35psi compared to 32. I’ll have a better picture in another few thousand miles

That's what chewed mine.

 

[Nickw88]

I have to say having a lightweight car makes such a difference to tyre and brake wear. I was wincing thinking of the cost of your M4 flying round @Nickw88

@The Psychedelic Socialist what pressure did you run on track?

Tyres actually did pretty well! Now they’ve cleaned up they look fine. I still need to find my tool to measure them but doesn’t look they’ve used much at all surprisingly.

@The Psychedelic Socialist I’d definitely recommend the PS4S, i can now say I’ve tried them in the rain, snow, ice and on track. Not so great in the snow

I’d like to think you’d get better distance than me and they’ll be cheaper too; around 10k rear/15k fronts and ~£1300 with alignment (265/30/20 / 285/30/20)

 

[Touring_Rob]

I had PS4S on the XFR and I thought they were great.

 

[Brigsy]

Handling wise, prob fuckall in it for slow day to day use on the top good brands michelin, conti etc.

Wear rate is something else though. I ran goodyears on the kangoo and the wear rate was ridiculous for road tyre/road use. The cup2's i replaced them with are wearing loads better in comparison

I know a few people who ran contis and have went back to michelin as last longer.

 

[Touring_Rob]

Exactly why I chose the Michelins over the Continentals. Most reviews have the Conti's above the PS4s for performance but their wear rate is far higher than the PS4s.

 

[NorthloopCup]

Cup2’s are a monumental tyre tbh. I had them on my AG200, and they were absolutely stupendous.

I’ve already priced them up for the M2

 

[Brigsy]

I priced up a set of cup2 in 18s recently and the price has certainly shot up since i bought the last set. Worth the money though!

 

[davo172]

There are PS S 5 now which replace the PS4S (dunno why they messed around with the naming of them ) to also consider.

Got these on 2 cars now after having
P ZEROS PS4 AND PS4'S .

PS5'S best of the lot imo get some you won't regret it.

Great looking tyres too.

Camskill usually aways cheapest just drop a drink to the local carefull tyre fitter.

 

[cs_rich]

Got these on 2 cars now after having
P ZEROS PS4 AND PS4'S .

PS5'S best of the lot imo get some you won't regret it.

Great looking tyres too.

Camskill usually aways cheapest just drop a drink to the local carefull tyre fitter.

Not available in my size yet by the looks of it. Probably be 4Ss then.

 

[Willo40]

I had PS4S on the XFR and I thought they were great.

It's what i have on mine, grip is really good.

 

[cs_rich]

Still decent enough in winter?

 

[Nickw88]

Still decent enough in winter?

If they can keep my arse end in check I think you’ll be absolutely fine

 

[Matt Cup]

Still decent enough in winter?

They are ok, pretty much like most other performance tires. I had one sketchy moment when roads were icy but overall they were fine.

 

[Brigsy]

Ps4s decent enough in winter, dont hook up as well on front in low temps but wont kill you. Same as any summer performace tyre in winter.

Crossclimates are a good summer/winter tyre but not performance.

 

[Nickw88]

Just a random one to throw in the hoop, but what about a set of Falken Azenis FK510 ?

I had a couple sets on my 430D, I actually really liked them and they held up well. Honestly can’t say I noticed much of difference when I had PS4S’s on straight afterwards. Got good mileage out of themand they were cheap!

 

[ForceIndia]

Just a random one to throw in the hoop, but what about a set of Falken Azenis FK510 ?

I had a couple sets on my 430D, I actually really liked them and they held up well. Honestly can’t say I noticed much of difference when I had PS4S’s on straight afterwards. Got good mileage out of themand they were cheap!

I use the fk520. They tend to do well in the German tests, which seem a bit more objective? And I spend 80% of the time on the motorway.

 

[davo172]

Still decent enough in winter?

I always found them pretty good tbh used to summers and winters before but after the michelins just used them all year round.

 

[MLB]

Just a random one to throw in the hoop, but what about a set of Falken Azenis FK510 ?

I had a couple sets on my 430D, I actually really liked them and they held up well. Honestly can’t say I noticed much of difference when I had PS4S’s on straight afterwards. Got good mileage out of themand they were cheap!

Not a direct comparison, but have them on my wife's Civic Type S (FWD, 140 bhp). Really like them for day to day driving. Don't think they'd hold up on a (mild) trackday though.

 

[Flat Eric]

I didn't know they do PS5 S now or S5 however you want to call them until seeing this thread.

Just looked and they don't do them for the rears on my 3 series unfortunately.

I had PS4S on mine before they were killed off and have got PS5 on currently. I rate them though!

 

[Nickw88]

Not a direct comparison, but have them on my wife's Civic Type S (FWD, 140 bhp). Really like them for day to day driving. Don't think they'd hold up on a (mild) trackday though.

I would say this is better comparison than on my old 430D, although if they handled the weight and torque of that well enough I suspect the ST would be fine day to day also. You’re probably right about track, but then again if they’re cheap enough to replace and don’t ruin the fun too much that’s still not a bad place to be.

 

[MLB]

I was indeed thinking weight and power are probably more comparable with the 430d.

Another thing to consider, how many miles a year do you do @The Psychedelic Socialist? I don't do a lot of miles a year and usually replace tyres on age/cracking rather than actual wear. One of the reasons I'd probably go for the Continentals over the PS4S.

 

[cs_rich]

I was indeed thinking weight and power are probably more comparable with the 430d.

Another thing to consider, how many miles a year do you do @The Psychedelic Socialist? I don't do a lot of miles a year and usually replace tyres on age/cracking rather than actual wear. One of the reasons I'd probably go for the Continentals over the PS4S.

Not many to be honest. Probably <4,000/yr with most likely just the one track-day at CSF. Definitely don't need to be chasing the last couple of percent of performance but it'd be nice to have something that can handle a couple of track-days, last a couple of years and not fall off a cliff performance-wise when it gets cold / wet (at least compared to other tyres).

 

[ForceIndia]

<4k a year? Cup tyre for the summer, all seasons for the winter. They’ll last you 4yrs ffs.

 

[cs_rich]

<4k a year? Cup tyre for the summer, all seasons for the winter. They’ll last you 4yrs ffs.

f**k that. I'm not dropping £2k on another set of alloys and I really can't be arsed having the tyres swapped every six months.

 

[Matt Cup]

@The Psychedelic Socialist £100 cashback on Michelins atm. They periodically do this offer too, just keep your eyes peeled.

 

[cs_rich]

Doing the regular battery % check and charge and noticed a bunch of DTCs. Some relating to adapative headlight issues that I'll ask Ford to look at next time it's in with them (think it's a known issue with a software fix), but also spotted this one. Gave me a brief panic until I noticed the date and time....

 

[Rojer]

Doing the regular battery % check and charge and noticed a bunch of DTCs. Some relating to adapative headlight issues that I'll ask Ford to look at next time it's in with them (think it's a known issue with a software fix), but also spotted this one. Gave me a brief panic until I noticed the date and time....

View attachment 1756804

I had exactly the same on the ST last year

 

[cs_rich]

I had exactly the same on the ST last year

I'm assuming it's massively over-cautious as I never felt a hint of fade on track. Still probably way hotter than you'd ever get them on the road though.

 

[cs_rich]

Had a new set of PS4Ss fitted today which was nice.

What wasn't nice was when the tyre guy showed me how bent the interior face of one of the wheels was. Interestingly it had been marked with a spot of paint so it clearly pre-dates my ownership. He showed me it on the balancing jig and it was properly all over the place but it's balanced up fine and I've never really felt a vibration (and that wheel was gone from front-left to rear-right).

EIther way probably a call to someone local with a hammer on Monday I guess...

 

[Brigsy]

With it balancing ok, wouldnt worry about it. Be fine on the back.

Deal with it if wheels ever need a refurb, or if a spare wheel comes up in better nick.

 

[cs_rich]

With it balancing ok, wouldnt worry about it. Be fine on the back.

Deal with it if wheels ever need a refurb, or if a spare wheel comes up in better nick.

That's kind of what I thought. The paint and original tyres suggest it's been in that shape for years and the tyre had worn perfectly evenly anyway. I rotated the wheels a few months back as well so it's had mileage on the front-left and on the back-right so I'm assuming I should have felt something if it were problematic.

Problem is that now I know it's there, even if it's undetectable..... sigh.

Still, the green's looking good in the morning light today:

 

[Nickw88]

Such a lovely colour

 

[cs_rich]

Here we go again...

 

[cs_rich]

...and the rest of the goodies today. Not going crazy with this so it's just:
- Mountune M330 remap
- Airtec secondary intercooler
- K&N panel filter
- Iridium spark plugs

Mountune only mandate a panel filter for the remap but stock cooling isn't great, hence the intercooler. Had thought about a bigger FMIC but that involves some cutting and I'd like to keep things easily reversible. The secondary intercooler fits under the car in the same place as the oil cooler in the automatic version so it just bolts in no fuss.

All told should be good for 330bhp and 380lbft which seems like a reasonable amount for a year-round road car. Mountune's next level up pushes it to 365bhp and 410lbft but you're looking at £1,200 in sport cat and GPF and I figure that's going to be increasingly difficult to get the power down in anything other than ideal conditions.

 

[JamesBryan]

330bhp is plenty.

My Megane at 315bhp spins up in 3rd, sometimes 4th if it's really wet on Pilot Sport 5.

 

[cs_rich]

330bhp is plenty.

My Megane at 315bhp spins up in 3rd, sometimes 4th if it's really wet on Pilot Sport 5.

My old Fiesta was pretty good at 315bhp but it made that quite high up (7,200rpm IIRC) so torque wasn't crazy. This thing makes peak power at something like 5,500rpm so a lot torquier, but I'm hoping bigger / better contact patches will help to offset that.