FWD, 1680 lbs, 75 HP, 1.3L Mazda Engine

That's right, I am talking about a Ford Festiva. This is no ordinary version of the car's dinky stock form. This is a full blown track car minus a few things that I'll be installing later, cage, MS, etc.

Recently purchased for $650, clean title, PO owned for 13 years during which he heavily modified the car. The car ain't pretty, nor is it fast, but my god.. never have I experienced a FWD car that could handle so amazingly. I almost want to say that the suspension on this is more dialed than my own street/track NA! At Driveway Austin, where the PO nearly became an instructor, the car holds times just 1-2 sec slower than the fastest Spec Miata times. Impressive! Can't wait to get it out on an autox course!

The car also holds some history, it was selected as the Hot Hatch of the month in Street Tuner magazine at one point. I hope to restore its legacy, and bring it into a new limelight. My ultimate goal is to swap in a 1.8 BP and run a DIY megasquirt module. If I can get to 140HP, I will be a very happy man.

One thing that is neat is that the Festiva community shares some of the same quirkiness found in the Miata community, also mixed in with the same aptitude for troubleshooting. A very helpful community, they are much more familiar with engine swaps than us miata folk. Because face it, swapping ANYTHING in is going to be better than the 63 HP stock engine.

Okay, time for the goodies, the current mod list:
1. Lightening - the car has been fully stripped down. No carpet. No plastic trim pieces, only the upper portion of dash remains, hood had support beams removed, there is a set of stripped doors, car has lexan windows all around.
2. 13x6 Aero Wheels - wrapped in sumitomo 215/50/R13 with Some life left
3. Completely custom suspension, machined top hats for camber adjustment in front, solid pillowball mount in rear, aftermarket dampers for a mitsu lancer, sleeves and springs from a miata, and more that I am not yet aware of. It handles!
4. Intake/exhaust work, oil catch can, entire rerouting of wiring harness and removal of unused wires. Not tucked. Complete gauge and switch set up. Stickers everywhere! :~P
5. Bucket seat and harness for driver, NA seat for passenger
6. Fender flares from NA
7. Strut tower braces front and rear.
8. Side skirts and front bumper from ford focus/fiesta with brake coolers routed

Will be updating with progress and pics. So far I have replaced the battery and starter. Inspection and registration to follow. Should be street legal soon.

AFM looks awfully familiar!

That's a dirty beast!

I like quirky and unique! Look forward to your progress! :drinkto:

the 1.6 b6ze is a punched out, dohc version of that same engine in there.

1.6t swaps are very very popular for these cars. I am an all N/A guy myself, throttle response is very important to me as I am still learning, and it offers some handling advantages. In time, I will be ready for FI. Not before I work out cooling and reliability. Very excited to have adopted such a well loved car, born just a year before I was.

Is this Loren's car??

No, this is Smith

I remember these cars running in ITC (SCCA) in the 90s and surprising a lot of people.

I thought I remember some swapping in a KL V6 from the Probe GT/MX6.

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Originally Posted by Phatmiata

Is this Loren's car??

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Nah, man. Mine looks like this.

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Same general concept. We bought it with the notion of doing a 1.6 or 1.8 swap, but once we started autocrossing it, we found that it's an awful lot of fun to be able to say "yeah, that's the stock 1.3 liter engine, you just got beat by 63 hp". So, we're resisting the engine swap. We did just convert it to Megasquirt and remove the MAF... that greatly improved throttle response and "perceived" power. (plus it now revs to 6800 instead of petering out at 6000) Otherwise, it's running a full Aspire suspension/brake swap, custom spring rates, cheap shocks, rigid rear beam axle, and has 15x7's with 225/45's under the ugly box flares. The car is way more fun than it has any right to be! Not fast, just nimble and grippy as hell. Not unlike a 1.6 Miata... except that people roll their eyes when they see it.

You can read more than you ever wanted to know about our FASTiva project here: FASTiva Project Thread

Not threadjacking, though. I approve of this project!

Wow! Loren I just bought a MS3X for the festy last night! Cool if I get a base tune from ya?

I will too be switching to a larger diameter wheel. Are on FF.com?

I wanted one of these for ages. A guy at work had an immaculate one with 12" alloys and all. I tried to buy it many times and he just would not sell it. He ended up donating it to his church! Good for them, but I was grouchy when I found out

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atx

Wow! Loren I just bought a MS3X for the festy last night! Cool if I get a base tune from ya?

I will too be switching to a larger diameter wheel. Are on FF.com?

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I don't have time to keep up with big forums, I'm only active on a couple local ones. The wheels are just a set we had around from a Miata (the Aspire suspension gave us 4x100), had to do a bunch of work to get tire clearance, but we have good selection of cheap tires with the 15's now. Stock 14" Miata wheels with 185's were the best we could do before the fender flares. PM or email me and I can send you the base tune.

Fitted my spare miata wheels, well.. not OE

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I don't know the specifics, but I found this Mazdaspeed ECU for the 1.5l engines. I looked up the p/n. It was on Facebook marketplace near me.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...1903986853678/

I have MS3 ready to go in, but the ultimate goal is a B6T.

After having driven this a good bit, I must say that I am thoroughly impressed! Especially in the twisties! The car is very neutral biased with a slight tendency of oversteer. The solid pillow ball rear shock mounts probably contribute to that. Of course, driving FWD is an entirely different beast, and corrections mid turn are counter intuitive at best, but this thing grips and handles just like the miata.