AWD conversion

[Mikey456]

Has anyone thought of finding a wrecked Fiesta Rally cat and doing the transplant into a street car???


2017 Ford Fiesta ST, Shadow Black, Recaro seats, Mountune RMM, Swift springs, 5mm rear spacers, Falken 615+ tires

 

[jeffreylyon]

You know what I thought about the other day for this, forget all the conversion stuff I’ve got it figured out! Why not just stick two electric hub motors on the back? Probably still be cheaper and may be even better all around then all of that cutting and who knows what. Any thoughts on that?

Like this? https://orbisdriven.com

 

[M-Sport fan]

Has anyone thought of finding a wrecked Fiesta Rally cat and doing the transplant into a street car???

Like others have always stated on here, it would be almost impossible to live with a true race/rally sequential gearbox on the street.
But if one has the coin and gumption for the constant rebuilds every 3K-5K miles (and AVOIDS stop and go traffic like a death plague!), yup anything is possible.

 

[scooter123]

There actually is a all wheel drive Fiesta in Metro Detroit. The Shotgun Range Officer at the club I shoot at is a bit of a car nut and attends most of the hot rod gatherings in the area. He got to see this Fiesta and apparently it has 400 whp. and it can do a full AWD burnout. Don't know the specifics because this kid is a car driver and not a builder but it does show it can be done. If I ever remember to purchase a lottery ticket and actually win my plan is to get 5 Fiesta ST's and have Rousch Racing build me some AWD Hellcat Harassers, might even have HH badges made up in the style of the ST badge. BTW, my approach would be to start with the RS powertrain because it's ever so much easier to get 550-600 HP out of that motor.

 

[shouldbeasy]

Shit, do it 'cheap' and just add a second motor and trans in the trunk - just make it a 2 engine AWD car.

 

[DAW]

Like this? https://orbisdriven.com

Yes

 

[jeffreylyon]

Yes

They stuck it on a Civic SI a couple of years ago but have been quiet for about a year.

 

[powermatt]

They stuck it on a Civic SI a couple of years ago but have been quiet for about a year.

Guessing because they discovered that there's more to making it drivable than just sticking the motors on there.

 

[jeffreylyon]

Guessing because they discovered that there's more to making it drivable than just sticking the motors on there.

Yep - they claimed that they integrated w/ the CAN bus but I'm not sure that the pedal to throttle latency over the bus is low enough to drive-by-wire and I'm lost as to how they integrate with an hydraulic braking system. The whole thing sounded very vaporous...

 

[M-Sport fan]

There actually is a all wheel drive Fiesta in Metro Detroit. The Shotgun Range Officer at the club I shoot at is a bit of a car nut and attends most of the hot rod gatherings in the area. He got to see this Fiesta and apparently it has 400 whp. and it can do a full AWD burnout. Don't know the specifics because this kid is a car driver and not a builder but it does show it can be done. If I ever remember to purchase a lottery ticket and actually win my plan is to get 5 Fiesta ST's and have Rousch Racing build me some AWD Hellcat Harassers, might even have HH badges made up in the style of the ST badge. BTW, my approach would be to start with the RS powertrain because it's ever so much easier to get 550-600 HP out of that motor.

At that point, with unlimited funds, I would rather just buy a Fiesta Global/World Rallycross car, and register it in a total non-inspection state, and then add in anything that would instantly get you pulled over by LEOs in a rallycross spec car on the street.

600+ AWHP, 2600 pounds, 1.9 second 0-60, will take ANY/ALL Hellcats up to about 130 MPH, and handle better doing it.

 

[zumakid70cc]

Similar to this idea I've played with the idea of making a rwd fist and putting a floor plan in the engine bay area.

 

[jeffreylyon]

At that point, with unlimited funds, I would rather just buy a Fiesta Global/World Rallycross car, and register it in a total non-inspection state, and then add in anything that would instantly get you pulled over by LEOs in a rallycross spec car on the street.

600+ AWHP, 2600 pounds, 1.9 second 0-60, will take ANY/ALL Hellcats up to about 130 MPH, and handle better doing it.

Registering it in any state would be tough to do without a USDM VIN number!

 

[M-Sport fan]

Registering it in any state would be tough to do without a USDM VIN number!

True, but that's where a wrecked U.S. ST's VIN plate comes in handy, or the one year limit exemption thing that U.S. rallyists use to register their R2, R5, WRC, etc. cars here (like K. Block does in Utah for his Escort Cossie RS stage car).

 

[Rocketst]

Why can't you just seperate the body from the frame, take the frame of an AWD car with similar measurements and weld it to the body... Then work out the suspension, diff, driveshaft.

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[zumakid70cc]

Why can't you just seperate the body from the frame, take the frame of an AWD car with similar measurements and weld it to the body... Then work out the suspension, diff, driveshaft.

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You'd have to rip out the interior to just cut and weld up for the driveshaft and diff anyways so may as well keep it on the frame its on.

 

[Rocketst]

Could do like they did with the h3 and have the driveshaft in place of the center console

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[Rocketst]

Also, if you did that why not just roll the floor around the diff too. Take out the tire well

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[zumakid70cc]

It be bout as much work as putting the 1.6 in the hatch of our cars to make it rwd.

 

[Rocketst]

Either way it would be an unreasonable amount of fabrication. It would actually be easier to put our engine in a different car and swap bellhousing and build custom parts for the tranny back than it would be to modify the fist for AWD. Shit, with my coilovers at the highest setting I have a 4 inch ground clearance in the rear. There is no way I'd be able to fit the diff and all the other crap. Then you got the fuel tank in the way. It'd be a nightmare.

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[Philld_with_donuts]

There actually is a all wheel drive Fiesta in Metro Detroit. The Shotgun Range Officer at the club I shoot at is a bit of a car nut and attends most of the hot rod gatherings in the area. He got to see this Fiesta and apparently it has 400 whp. and it can do a full AWD burnout. Don't know the specifics because this kid is a car driver and not a builder but it does show it can be done. If I ever remember to purchase a lottery ticket and actually win my plan is to get 5 Fiesta ST's and have Rousch Racing build me some AWD Hellcat Harassers, might even have HH badges made up in the style of the ST badge. BTW, my approach would be to start with the RS powertrain because it's ever so much easier to get 550-600 HP out of that motor.

I'm in the Detroit area. I'll start asking around. If it's true, one of the car groups around here has to know about it!
Very curious if he went 4G63 or Focus RS or something else for the powertrain