Ford Festiva with BP swap: Rallycross?

Hey all,

So there is a guy locally that has this Ford Festiva he's selling for $1300. Thirteen hundred for an old Festiva is the stuff of lunacy, right? Well, this particular car only has 50,000 miles on the chassis. Who cares, its just an old Fiesta, I know.

This car also sports the BP engine out of the Ford Escort GT.

This isnt the exact car, but it looks very similar.

Anyways, I'm curious to know a little more about these cars. Has the GRM community had much experience with them? I know they have a bit of a cult following online. Its one of the lightest cars out there as far as I know (~1700 lbs). Should be decent fun.

What do you guys think? Worth the money? Would it hold up ok in rallycross? Can you still buy parts for these cars? How is the suspension geometry? Are they horrendous to drive?

We're going to check it out tonight. Any input is appreciated!

1300$ is solid...that should be a really fun car.

Do it! I have a "friend" who built one with various different motors, played with the 1.3, then turboed, then 1.8 swap then he turboed it. He mix and matched Miata parts so idk what all he did but that little bastard was QUICK and I only rode in it with the na 1.8. He had it REALLY low with crappy coilovers (raceland dunno if they were for a festiva or not) but he went with the "any suspension will work if you don't let it" route. He gutted it, threw on a6 hoosiers and autocrossed it a bit, he did well with it but it was limited (I think) by the suspension or rather lack of. So because that I can't give much info on the geometry but as it was it handled very well for what it was when I rode in it, like an "American" original mini.

So pretty much, yes do it, the most fun fwd I've ever ridden in was a 1.8 festiva

There's a young man, by the name of Zach Williams, out of Missouri who has a BP swapped Festiva that's prepped for stage rally. He's run at 100AW in the past. He's active on book of faces if you'd like to contact him with any questions on the platform and combo. I expect that he'll tell you to go for it!

I've informed him of this thread, I expect that he'll be checking in shortly.

http://www.rally-america.com/drivers/view/ra-6497

Pretty cool, though a pretty long list of DNFs (not sure if its a recurring problem or bad luck or what). That said, stage rally is a bit harder on cars than rallycross, lol.

If it hasn't been done already, an upgrade to the larger front discs,rotors, and rear beam assembly w/integral swaybar from the Ford Aspire will make a huge difference. This changes the bolt pattern to 4x100, but those wheels are plentiful with a lot of options. Lots of swap info on fordfestiva.com...

That thing would probably make a nice rally crosser. Much like an old CRX, it should be able to turn some slaloms into straightaways

I worked on a car that was built for Lemons with this swap. The builder used front knuckles from a another car I can't remember what though. He later had me modify them to fit calipers from a Mazda and rotors from a Mini. It raced in Lemons as the "We're not from Iran" team. They won a class B race in 2013. The car is now somewhere in NJ. Not sure if it's raced since it was sold in 2014.

Festivas are the opposite of fun to drive. The steering is a confusing admixture of very heavy and very slow. Rallycross in a powerful front driver will require frequent and exaggerated steering inputs.

On the other hand, if you enjoy being extremely frustrated, it might be the hot ticket.

We went and test drove it last night. The engine burns a lot of oil, but it seems to run smoothly. He has a fan wired up that has to be connected manually, but wiring a switch would be simple. The car sat for a long time before he swapped it so there are various little patches of rust. Nothing that looked too bad, but still.

One of the big things that worry me is he swapped the engine but kept the Festiva transmission. He also used a stock Festiva clutch he bought new, and I could tell right away it was under spec. It doesnt grab very hard, and I could see it easily slipping under rallycross conditions.

Apart from all of this, something in the steering rack felt kind of funky. The thing didnt want to seem to turn, it was like it would do ok until you reached a certain point, then it was understeer-fest-2000.

Anyways, I think me and my buddy are going to scour the craigslists, and fly out and buy something, make a little roadtrip out of it. The car market here is just not great right now. At least for cool cars that we want to rally, like RX7s and E30s. Thanks for all the input though guys!

irish44j wrote: http://www.rally-america.com/drivers/view/ra-6497 Pretty cool, though a pretty long list of DNFs (not sure if its a recurring problem or bad luck or what). That said, stage rally is a *bit* harder on cars than rallycross, lol.

Resurrecting this one cause I saw our car. The DNFs mainly come from mechanical crap that I had no idea about when building this little POS.

That said I love the hell out of it.

A BP Festiva is a dream car of mine.

Mazda 121 coilovers fit.

I can't be the only one that sees a mostly done challenge car right there.

so wheres the build thread?

WTFestiva wrote:

irish44j wrote: http://www.rally-america.com/drivers/view/ra-6497 Pretty cool, though a pretty long list of DNFs (not sure if its a recurring problem or bad luck or what). That said, stage rally is a *bit* harder on cars than rallycross, lol.

Resurrecting this one cause I saw our car. The DNFs mainly come from mechanical crap that I had no idea about when building this little POS. That said I love the hell out of it.

hey, it has e30 wheels, so that's good enough for me!

In reply to irish44j:

And that means it has had a suspension swap since Festivas were 4x4.5". With really tiny lug bolts too, I think 14mm head.

One of my friends had a BP-swapped Festiva for awhile. He said it was terrifying and awesome at the same time.

I desperately want to build one but Festivas have dried up.