Now it’s reaching its final stages, we’ve decided to look back at how our ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ project has unfolded over the last few months by bringing you our build articles that were originally featured in Fast Ford magazine. This week, it’s Part 13, where we head back to our friends at  for the installation of a  roll cage.

Remember: you can now sign up to WIN the car in a charity raffle competition, with all proceeds going to the Rays of Sunshine children’s charity.  to enter.

With our Mk7 ST ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ now becoming so impressive it’s able to topple fully-fledged supercars on track (), this month we wanted to ensure that its safety aspects were equally-as-competent for the lucky person who eventually wins the car in our charity giveaway soon.

It’s why we decided to approach our friends at  and snap up one of the firm’s 4-point bolt-in roll cages to help keep the internal cabin area as safe as possible in any situation.

Just like 91´ŤĂ˝, Somerset-based Caged Laser is one of those proudly British engineering firms that are all too uncommon nowadays. Supplying bespoke motorsport solutions for a huge range of applications, everything that Caged Laser does is proudly designed, built and finished in house.

The ‘cage we opted for is a ‘rear’ item that starts just behind the driver and passenger’s heads and works its way back into the boot area. Made out of sturdy PTG700 tubing, it’s handily supplied with weld-in mounting boxes which the ‘cage then conveniently bolts into.

To make sure the install was done correctly, we headed back over to our friends at , where technician James got to work getting the shiny red unit in place.

The first job is fully removing the rear seats and carpet, before stripping all fixtures, fittings and adhesive from the white metal underneath. The curtain airbags above each door of the Fiesta also carefully needed removing, as well as some of the headlining to accommodate the satisfyingly snug fit of the ‘cage.

Once the mounting boxes were welded in, Caged Laser made the rest of the process hassle-free with its skillfully designed product that just required some bolting to ensure a secure fit inside the car.

Looking fantastic in its complimentary red hue, the interior was finally freshened up by re-adding some of the carpet and headlining to give it the ultimate ‘clubsport’ fast road/track look. We can now rest assured that the Fiesta is up for the job of keeping its passengers safe, regardless of what we throw at it. Oh, and the handling has probably been improved slightly, to boot. Winner!

As we arrived back at EBC HQ and just before going to press with this update, we received a package from our friends at  – a set of 7.5×17” Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 alloys, finished in a stunning gloss black colour! These will eventually get a set of dedicated track day semi-slick tyres on them and act as a second set of wheels for the winner of the car. Stay tuned to see what the look like mounted in place…

Now it’s reaching its final stages, we’ve decided to look back at how our ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ project has unfolded over the last few months by bringing you our build articles that were originally featured in Fast Ford magazine. This week, it’s Part 12, where we find ourselves over at  getting one of their finest security systems installed.

Remember: you can now sign up to WIN the car in a charity raffle competition, with all proceeds going to the Rays of Sunshine children’s charity.  to enter.

During a routine scroll through the web recently, we stumbled upon a rather eye-opening list that displayed the most stolen vehicles in the UK throughout 2020.

Guess what was right at the top spot? Yep – the humble Ford Fiesta! This worried us here at EBC HQ, as our Mk7 ST ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ is undoubtedly a particularly desirable example of this much-loved hatchback, making us feel even more exposed to the potential dangers lurking out there.

There was only one thing for it: to head to one of the UK’s most respected alarm specialists –  – to make our Fezza as secure as Fort Knox in case of any unwanted attention in the future.

With premises in Birmingham, London and Manchester, Pandora is pushing the envelope of what’s possible with car alarm systems right now. Often catering for the most exotic supercars on the planet (including some of Shmee150’s machines), we knew we’d be in safe hands.

Arriving at the firm’s impressive Redditch HQ, we were greeted by Sales Manager Matt, who talked us through what the team thought would be the best solution for our particular needs – .

Now it’s reaching its final stages, we’ve decided to look back at how our ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ project has unfolded over the last few months by bringing you our build articles that were originally featured in Fast Ford magazine. This week, it’s Part 11, where we head back to the track with some very special guests…

Remember: you can now sign up to WIN the car in a charity raffle competition, with all proceeds going to the Rays of Sunshine children’s charity.  to enter.

After this, it was time for the big one: putting our Ford up against our R35 Nissan GT-R development vehicle. With Jake Hill once again in the Fiesta and our in-house test driver piloting the Japanese super-coupe, this would promise to be an extremely interesting set of battles indeed.

The first test was a simple 0-60mph sprint on the damp Tarmac. Unsurprisingly, the 550bhp GT-R’s trick 4WD system meant it performed the launch in just 4.4 seconds, with our FWD manual Fezza taking 6.2 seconds to achieve the same speed.

A 60-0mph brake test followed. This time, the Fiesta’s lighter weight and big brake kit came into their own, with a 66ft stopping distance compared to the bulkier GT-R’s 88ft.

Finally, it was what we’d all been waiting for – a handful of hot laps of the circuit. With the Fiesta taking an early lead and the GT-R hot on its tails throughout, it incredibly managed to retain this position throughout the race, illustrating just how much the modifications we’ve added to the car have transformed it.

As the sun began to set, we were greeted by one last contender – a full-blown BRSCC Fiesta Championship race car, which went out in the hands of local driver Adam Higgins against Jake Hill in our car. It was fascinating to see how a heavily modified road car fared against a full-blown race car on race tyres and you can see the outcome of this battle by heading to Ěý˛Ô´ÇˇÉ…

It’s fair to say that with 380-odd horses under its bonnet and its killer suspension and brake setups, our ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ is really starting to live up to its name.

But there’s still a long way to go before the car is finally given away in its charity competition ( for your chance to win it – entries are open until early summer).

For now then, it’s business as usual and this month saw us tackling our ST-3’s plush Recaro interior, with the aim of losing as much weight as possible and supplying a much more supportive cabin for both driver and passenger during on-track action.

The first task was to remove the majority of that attractive black-and-red factory trim. Once it was all out of the car, we just had to get it on the scales to see how much it all weighed. The answer? A whopping 75.5kgs!

In replacement of all of this mass, we opted for a duo of . FIA approved, HANS-compatible and side-mounted, these are the real deal for track day and race cars, with these exact seats featuring in some of the most formidable race, rally and drift cars around the world.

We opted for the composite-backed variants to suit our budget, although they’re also available in carbon fibre for even better weight savings. Still, with the shell weight of our seats coming in at just 6kg apiece, we were set to shave a mighty 60kgs from the Fiesta’s overall weight in one fell swoop with this one upgrade!

The icing on the cake is the bespoke embroidery that the guys at Motordrive added to each seat for us – the ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ slogan proudly displayed in the car’s black/red/white colour scheme. Remember to consider custom upgrades when placing your order with this hugely respected British company.

With the amount of big-turbo goodness under the bonnet, it would be all too easy to plonk a load of clunky gauges and dials onto the car’s dashboard to keep tabs on the goings-on in the engine bay. But keen to streamline things and keep the interior looking relatively understated, the perfect solution instead came from our friends over at .

Snapping up one of their trick air vent-mounted digital dials ensured we had all bases covered with one handy product. Cleverly giving off OEM looks until you fire it up, this amazing piece of tech then comes to life to quickly and accurately display info such as boost levels, vital temperatures, ignition timing, speed, RPM (with shift light) and even fault codes. You can even record accurate 0-60mph times with it!

Installation couldn’t have been easier – you simply plug the gauge into your OBD port using the supplied adapter and the car’s computer does the rest for you. This is a vital piece of kit for anyone who likes to keep on top of what’s going on with their pride and joy and we can’t wait to make use of all of its functions.

Next time, we’re heading back out onto the track to see how our latest raft of mods translate with some high-speed driving. We’re bringing along some other cars to compare it against too, so it should make for some seriously interesting reading…

Now it’s reaching its final stages, we’ve decided to look back at how our ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ project has unfolded over the last few months by bringing you our build articles that were originally featured in Fast Ford magazine. This week, it’s Part 9, where we nip down the road to motorsport preparation specialist,Ěý, for a full geo/alignment setup on our new suspension components.

Remember: you can now sign up to WIN the car in a charity raffle competition, with all proceeds going to the Rays of Sunshine children’s charity.  to enter.

Rewind a couple of weeks and you might remember us fitting some choice suspension upgrades to our ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ recently (namely some ,Ěý,ĚýĚý˛š˛ÔťĺĚý).

With a visual makeover applied directly afterwards () it was finally time to get the Fiesta over to a reputable motorsport preparation outfit where that aforementioned chassis hardware could be professionally fettled for us to get the most out of it on both road and track.

Luckily, we have one such company on our doorstep in the form of  – undoubtedly one of the most-respected motorsport prep firms in the country.

You can tell a lot about a business based on what clientele it attracts, one look inside Northampton Motorsport’s clinical workshops confirmed all we needed to know – with painfully expensive vintage Porsche race cars and countless other stunning machines dotted around as far as the eye could see. Needless to say, we were in safe hands.

The day started out with some in-depth chats with motorsport-mad technician, James Hatfield. Explaining to James how the Ford would remain road legal while also spending plenty of time on track days, he soon got the car up on the ramps for the magic to begin.

First up was some initial fettling with tyre pressures, camber settings and ride height. The Fiesta was then placed on the outfit’s trick corner weighting system for the finer tuning to be carried out.

James explained how equal cross weights relate to optimum cornering on track as he continued to adjust the ride height on the trick ST Suspension coilovers until the perfect 50/50 split was achieved.

It was then time to get the laser alignment gear out and attach it to all four corners of the ST for a full geometry sharpen-up. James opted for a tried and tested occasional-track setup here, with around 2° of negative camber up front and all toe and caster figures dialled-in to ensure optimum driveability.

The car now sits with an incredibly functional stance over its slightly wider  and gives off a look of just wanting to be driven hard on track at all times. This is exactly what we plan on doing next, so keep your eyes peeled for the next update…

Now it’s reaching its final stages, we’ve decided to look back at how our ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ project has unfolded over the last few months by bringing you our build articles that were originally featured in Fast Ford magazine. This week, it’s Part 12, where we find ourselves over at  getting one of their finest security systems installed.

Remember: you can now sign up to WIN the car in a charity raffle competition, with all proceeds going to the Rays of Sunshine children’s charity.  to enter.

If you’ve read our last few entries in this series, you’ll know that up until recently we’ve focused almost exclusively on functional, performance-enhancing upgrades for our ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ project.

While there’s no doubting the fact these mods have transformed the Mk7 ST from standard road car to complete road and track weapon in a matter of months, we couldn’t help thinking it was probably about time we paid some attention to the way our hot hatch looked.

One of the most effective ways of single-handedly changing the appearance of your motor is with a full-body vinyl wrap, so we soon got to work putting some blueprints together for a bespoke livery design that would make the Fiesta a little more eye-catching while out and about.

Soon settling on a striking red-and-black design that sets off the  brand colours perfectly, our next job was to work out who to entrust with applying the wrap to the car.

It didn’t take long for us to choose London-based  for the job. You might know this much-loved outfit from the recent Dave TV show that revolved around the day-to-day running of the firm – renowned for supplying countless celebs with fully bespoke wrap solutions for their supercars and SUVs and meaning they would be more than qualified for working on our little car.

Following some pre-wrap discussions with the team to finalise colour choices, we left the keys with the talented wrappers at Yiannimize’s North London HQ while they worked their magic.

A week or so later, we were invited back to be presented with the finished product – a stunning wrap job that features three layers of vinyl (satin black, gloss black and gloss red) laid out in the exact style we’d mocked up on the small screen.

Safe to say the car looked infinitely cooler than it did when it drove in – now giving off the aesthetic of something between a top-end race car and a Hot Wheels toy. The attention to detail is incredible and there’s not a spec of the original Frozen White paintwork to be seen inside or out.

To set off the new look, we snapped up some  alloys in gunmetal grey that act as the perfect addition to the new body art – the multi-spoke turbofan-inspired design complementing the darker body colours as well as perfectly framing our Apollo Balanced Big Brake Kit on the front axle.

Next up: a full motorsport geometry alignment before we once again take the Fezza out on track to see how all of the new mods translate behind the wheel. We can’t wait!