Soldato
Well as I have mentioned briefly in another thread, I sold my Fiesta ST yesterday, the new owner came and collected it from having decided to buy it earlier in the week.
I was not planning on selling it but I had a firm offer of £6000 for it, this was for a 2006 car with 29k miles and lots of performance modifications, fair money for the car I feel, regardless of the modification it is still a 6.5 year old Fiesta! The other reasons that meant I was keen to sell up for that price was the market for Fiesta ST being so flat, they simply drink fuel for the performance they offer, and with the new model ST out next year I could see prices falling quite a lot further.
I really enjoyed driving my Fiesta hard and it sounded great for what it was, but it never really felt 'special', after all it was never going to be anything more than a fairly quick Fiesta, some of the mods that I did made it fantastic when pressing on, but a real bind when just driving around normally! In particular the helix clutch I had was hateful for town driving, and it became very tiring to drive. I had planned to do some track days in it I think it would have made much more sense then, but as a daily driver, having owned it for 3 years, it was time for a change given the opportunity.
Anyway, I decided on what I wanted to replace it with pretty quickly. Something faster, and a bit more special...more of a 'proper' performance car...so I decided upon the S2000, a car I have always admired, and today I ended up buying this one:
Its a 2004 car, so retains the cable throttle, is still in a reasonable tax bracket, but gets the improvements to the exterior and interior for the facelift model. It has done 76k miles. I haven't taken my own pictures but here are some from the advert:
Things that appealed about the car from speaking to the seller:
Now I did have a couple of concerns, upon speaking to the seller (it was a private sale) he was very honest and did tell me about an issue he had during his ownership...
When he bought the car the cam covers red coating was flaking off, a common S2000 issue, so he took the car to a garage that both he and his father had used for many years, who took the cover off and sent it off to be shot blasted and powder coated to restore the red finish. Anyway, when the garage refitted it, somehow they managed to miss some of the shot that had not been properly cleared away out of the insides of the cover, and that this had been loosely covered with the powder coating, anyway once the car was run this debris went into the oil supply for the engine, once these particles went around the engines oil system the bottom end bearings were ruined, and the bores of the fourth piston were also scored, pretty bad as engine damages goes!
The garage knew better than to try and rebuild an F20C engine (given its tight tolerances) and given their mistake caused the issue, and the long standing relationship with the sellers family, they ended up replacing the entire engine (only the sensors were used from the original). It now has an engine from another S2000 that has done 40k miles and was apparently written off, which I suppose goes some way to explaining why its all so clean under the bonnet.
There are some minor cosmetic issues I will address on the car (it would benefit from new wheel centre caps, a good machine polish, and a scuff on the front splitter needs to be repaired), but overall I am happy with it. The roof is not perfect either, its had a minor repair on one part. May look at replacing it longer term but for the moment it doesn't leak either.
Thus far I haven't driven it hard, 80 miles in the rain in December is perhaps not the safest introduction to S2000 ownership given that I have never owned a RWD car, in fact I have not driven any others for more than 15 minutes or so! I'm pleased to note I managed to drive home without scaring myself silly or being killed!
Thus far I love the engine and the way it revs so freely, the cabin really wraps around you, and the gearbox is fantastic.
Thoughts/criticisms/no torque comments welcomed!
I was not planning on selling it but I had a firm offer of £6000 for it, this was for a 2006 car with 29k miles and lots of performance modifications, fair money for the car I feel, regardless of the modification it is still a 6.5 year old Fiesta! The other reasons that meant I was keen to sell up for that price was the market for Fiesta ST being so flat, they simply drink fuel for the performance they offer, and with the new model ST out next year I could see prices falling quite a lot further.
I really enjoyed driving my Fiesta hard and it sounded great for what it was, but it never really felt 'special', after all it was never going to be anything more than a fairly quick Fiesta, some of the mods that I did made it fantastic when pressing on, but a real bind when just driving around normally! In particular the helix clutch I had was hateful for town driving, and it became very tiring to drive. I had planned to do some track days in it I think it would have made much more sense then, but as a daily driver, having owned it for 3 years, it was time for a change given the opportunity.
Anyway, I decided on what I wanted to replace it with pretty quickly. Something faster, and a bit more special...more of a 'proper' performance car...so I decided upon the S2000, a car I have always admired, and today I ended up buying this one:
Its a 2004 car, so retains the cable throttle, is still in a reasonable tax bracket, but gets the improvements to the exterior and interior for the facelift model. It has done 76k miles. I haven't taken my own pictures but here are some from the advert:
Things that appealed about the car from speaking to the seller:
- Bridgstone Potenza RE050s all round with less than 2k miles
- Service history with specialists (mainly through Christopher Neil Sportscars who seem well respected)
- Seems to have had a proper suspension geo setup in 2009, so I'm hoping the adjusters will all still be okay rather than being seized up (bit of a gamble here I know without taking it to a garage to check, in the new year I'll probably get it looked at and we'll see...).
- Interior is in good condition with new mats
- Spotless engine bay
- Wheels are not curbed at all
- Price - we will come to that later...but its very good for an AP2 in this sort of condition I feel...
Now I did have a couple of concerns, upon speaking to the seller (it was a private sale) he was very honest and did tell me about an issue he had during his ownership...
When he bought the car the cam covers red coating was flaking off, a common S2000 issue, so he took the car to a garage that both he and his father had used for many years, who took the cover off and sent it off to be shot blasted and powder coated to restore the red finish. Anyway, when the garage refitted it, somehow they managed to miss some of the shot that had not been properly cleared away out of the insides of the cover, and that this had been loosely covered with the powder coating, anyway once the car was run this debris went into the oil supply for the engine, once these particles went around the engines oil system the bottom end bearings were ruined, and the bores of the fourth piston were also scored, pretty bad as engine damages goes!
The garage knew better than to try and rebuild an F20C engine (given its tight tolerances) and given their mistake caused the issue, and the long standing relationship with the sellers family, they ended up replacing the entire engine (only the sensors were used from the original). It now has an engine from another S2000 that has done 40k miles and was apparently written off, which I suppose goes some way to explaining why its all so clean under the bonnet.
There are some minor cosmetic issues I will address on the car (it would benefit from new wheel centre caps, a good machine polish, and a scuff on the front splitter needs to be repaired), but overall I am happy with it. The roof is not perfect either, its had a minor repair on one part. May look at replacing it longer term but for the moment it doesn't leak either.
Thus far I haven't driven it hard, 80 miles in the rain in December is perhaps not the safest introduction to S2000 ownership given that I have never owned a RWD car, in fact I have not driven any others for more than 15 minutes or so! I'm pleased to note I managed to drive home without scaring myself silly or being killed!
Thus far I love the engine and the way it revs so freely, the cabin really wraps around you, and the gearbox is fantastic.
Thoughts/criticisms/no torque comments welcomed!
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