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Lifting the RS

184K views 402 replies 72 participants last post by  FriskyBiscuits265 
#1 · (Edited)
Yes I know it's sacrilegious for most of you, but I rally, am looking to get into baja racing, and every great rally road here in CO ends in a jeep trail which my friends always seem to be camping on. As I’ve posted elsewhere, my RS got elked back in May, but it’s almost back from the dead and should be ready this week.

While it was on the mend I picked up an STI hatch then gave it a 2" Sumo Parts spacer lift/BFG KO2s and I was shocked how ralliable (yes I'm making up words) it stayed, but I tend to break cars a lot - hydrolocked it last Saturday - so I pretty much need two to keep at least one car drivable at all times.

So I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about lifting the RS. I saw a couple threads on air lifts which I’m not interested in, and one talking about a 1” lift for rallying so I gave it a bump, but not much else. Been googling a bunch but lifted Foci are few and far between. The first issue I see is the clearance is 4.1” front and 5.8 or 9 rear so I’m not sure spacers alone will do the trick. In fact I’ve heard of some people simply leveling them. Getting this mostly from Focus Fanatics & ST forums BTW. Ideally I’d like to get it relatively leveled then up about 2” or so if possible, although that seems like a lot on the front. I can throw some money at it, but not $5k rally springs I’ve heard of especially since this isn’t for competition. Yet.

I fired off messages to Team O'Neil since they're lifting their RS for rally, the Denver RS expert, 3R Racing here in Denver, and Mike Johnson @ Rebel Devil Customs who’s building a kit for the ST and is going to see if it’ll work for the RS at the end of the month - I’ll report back on this thread with any info I acquire. I also have a bunch of threads from other forums bookmarked that I need to re-read carefully, but figured I’d throw up a thread here to see if anyone’s knowledgeable on the subject. So… where my RS lift experts at? :D
 
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#2 · (Edited)
I don't know jack about suspensions, so there are a couple relevant threads where Rebel Devil is talking about his kit in case someone wants to put it in laymen's terms for me here and here. I'm a little concerned because in various places he says he's waiting on one more thing in Jan and the cost would be sub $1k, but in his reply to my message he said the ST kit should be ready by the end of Aug with the RS taking more time to make sure there aren't any axle issues and coming in around $2kish. As a recovering R&D engineer I completely understand, but as I'm typing this I'm yelling at my screen "Shut up and take my money!!"

Edit: I just messaged him back offering up my car for testing since it's technically "totalled", the insurance company overpaid me so I don't mind shredding an axle or two, and I get them pretty much at cost due to having a friend working at the dealership - we'll see what he says. Alright it's late, I'll stop talking to myself now.
 
#5 ·
Yes, I'm also Sub'd. I plan to do some mild off-roading and wouldn't mind a lift in a few years so I can really attack the roads around here.

In the meantime I'm interested in O'Neil's skid plate. I also messaged them and they say the kit should be ready before winter and will cost $850. If it transfers all forces to the frame (i.e. can be used as a jack point without damaging front bumper) then I figure it's worth the $$$. If I can't straddle bumps in the road, at least I can scrape over them!


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#13 ·
I've spoken to Sethspec late last year about this. He sounds pretty knowledgeable and I think he can set you up better than Vorshlag, but I don't think its gonna be any cheaper. I think he quoted me me about the same ($5k) maybe even more since it will also include the appropriate links, etc. to correct the geometry.
 
#14 ·
Hmmm, seeing as you purchased my skid plate and now planning on lifting, I think I like where you are heading with this ;)

I've used Subtle Solutions spacers for the BRZ for TSD and rallyX and they worked out fine, but they do make your geometry a little wonky (ie positive camber, maybe some toe, etc) so just be aware that you may have some weird handling on the road.

I've also found these guys, but not sure if they work on the RS

https://www.spaccer.com/en_US/makes-and-models/ford/focus-iii.html
 
#22 ·
I messaged the guys at Rebel Customs and they said they are working on a "full lift kit" for the RS. Unfortunately that means that its either the full lift or no lift at all. We don't know what the full lift will be yet but judging by their other kit it will probably be around 3inches and cost somewhere around $2K-$2.5K
 
#23 ·
Sub’d

I’m after a similar goal. Wanting a rugged suspension that can handle track days then be raised up, re-tuned and hit a rallycross day. Mixed surface like what the global rallycross cars do (besides the crazy jumps). I reached out to rieger about this and they sell a set for rally Recce. So offroad capable but not full blown rally dedicated like what O’Neil runs. Waiting to hear back for what cost is and further details. Only negative so far is that even though the front is height adjustable, the rears can only be adjusted by changing springs.
 
#27 · (Edited)
O man that would be so much fun. I wonder how it would handle on track? An adjustable setup would be ideal.

Maybe I’ll do 2-3 years of pavement track days, then put something like this on and switch over to Rallycross... I’ve already gone sliding on smooth dirt roads and it is a blast.
 
#28 ·
Man that looks stupid fun.

This might have just twisted my arm about a fiesta ST.

Just imagine a lifted one with some combo of our(an) awd setup n
 
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#29 ·
Another option is contacting Blistien, O’Neil was able to get about 2” or suspension travel along with lift but if I remember correctly in one of their videos they were having trouble setting up the rear springs. Idk if that was an inherent flaw of their suspension or just a trial and error that led to rieger being a better solution for their needs. I’ll send an email to O’Neil and see if they can provide a little more info and post what I get. Still waiting on Rieger. Read a few post up about MCS and going through Sethspec, is that someone here on the forums or a shop? Quick google search didn’t provide much.
 
#31 ·
Now this is interesting....

For rally, the car is running much smaller 15-inch wheels. What's that you say? Those 15 inch wheels won't fit? You'd be right – if the car were sporting it’s massive Brembo brakes, but instead, Team O’Neil came up with a work-around. For rally duty, instead of the RS's Brembo’s, the Team O’Neil car utilizes Fiesta ST brakes that allows those 15’s to fit over them. These calipers were direct bolt-on and required no fabrication. To my surprise, Tim tells us that the car’s torque vectoring system and AWD adapted to the swap-out with no noticeable negative impacts, operating just as it would if the OEM setup were in place.
Just looked it up. FoRS and fiST front calipers are 25mm thick new. Could this actually work?!?!!!
 
#33 ·
So I’m trying to find some solutions here.

Emailed team O’Neil rally asking what suspension they are running on the RS, no response

I messaged rebel devil power about their upcoming focus ST/RS kit about more info, got no response.

Messaged Feal about their 441 max travel, they don’t recommend those kits for any rally cross as their not inverted shocks and will bend under too much stress

Emailed bilstein, they don’t make a rally cross coilover

Emailed k sport, no response yet

Emailed d2racing, they don’t make their Gravel setup for the focus



So does anyone have ideas on how to lift the focus higher than stock?
 
#34 ·
Too bad about the feal, I was thinking of going that way. I originally was told vorshlag could whip up an MCS setup. When I called to buy, they said it was a bad idea, citing the limited 4" of droop travel on the mcs. I talked to sethspec about this, he said he'd call mcs and get back to me. Having a very hard time getting a hold of him now. Thinking I'll probably just get the whitelines now as they adjust at the bottom instead of the top and can get very close to the stock ride height (per vorshlag).
 
#35 ·
Good to know. Try to keep as much travel as possible in the shock, and add a 30mm strut spacer if necessary for extra ground clearance. Though if the coilover came with camber plates I’m not sure how that would work.

Looking through XYZ coils from austrailia, they might be able to make a custom setup. Same goes for DMS But I believe both setups would run you $5-6000 which is more than I want to spend.

As for Feal yeah I was pretty disappointed too. But looking at a few reviews from Subaru owners they’ve bent the shock bodies on them, so I guess the threat is real.

After my next track day in a week, I think I’ll toss in my bilstein b14 PSS and see how high I can lift them. Though from what I’ve found is on the foST the bilsteins all the way up in the front is a 13.5” fender to centre-cap gap, same as my stock struts on whiteline springs. So don’t think that would help at all
 
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