Car interior with custom gauges and steering wheel, orange exter…

Forward of the engine bulkhead,the interior View iscompared to the rest ofthe car at least surprisingly stock,with the most obvious exceptions being the Cobra buckets and Home steer- ing wheel. Even so,Anthonys friends at Multimatic did integrate a discreet roll cage. Rather than trying to get the stock instrument cluster to work with the non-matching sHo processor, Andiony found it easier (and decidedly more attractive) to litAuto Meter Carbon Fiber Ultra. Lite gauges into a custom brushed-aluminum panel. Everything still works, including the power windows and locks,as well as the NC. Since our shoot, a Kenwood Excelon entertainmentl navigation system has displaced the factory stereo. Focus coilovers for the revised fronml weight A stock Focus steering rack and master cylinder were then called into ser- vice. Anthony tells us both ends ofthe car use a spindle/hub package that is part SHO and part SVT Focus. One of his goals from the oumet was to have front and rear tire sizes and track widths identical to those found on Porsches 9| 1 Turbo, so the suspension geometry and wheel ott ses were engineered accordinglyThis supercar stance necessitated custom-spec, threespiece ROH rims from Australia, ones that are 8 inches wide in front and a full IO inches out back. Front tires are a halthy 245/40xl a, but nothing in compari- son to the steamroller rears that measure 295/35x I 8. Behind them are front brakes from a | 0th Anniversary SVT Cobra, con- sisting of l3.5-inch rotors and red Cobra"-Iettered calipers,whi|e at the stern, Lincoln LS | l.5-inch rear rotors are teamed withThunderbird Super Coupe calipers.The SC calipers permitted a workable parkingabrake solution. Perfor- mance Friction pads are used all round. With a rolling chassis complete,the next stepand the most time consuming, according to Anthony;was the creation of body panels capable of enveloping track Widths that are 4 inches broader in front and no less than 8 inches wider out back than a stock Focus. Cynergy Composites. of Strathroy. Ontario. took on the job, cre- ating one~o front fenders,fascias, rear quarters. rocker skirts,and even a new hatch skin from carbon bersome- where around a halfyears workwe'd hate to see that bill. While all this was going on, Anthony took possession ofa 24-valve, 300hp, 3.0L SHOV6 that was originally assembled for an aluminum-intensive concept vehicle (basically an alloy Sable) prototyped by Multimatic some time ago. Powerful,yet commendably docile in trafc, theV6 ms tuned and dynod by Sean Hyland Motor- sport and quite logically uses an SHO EEC processor. Though theoretically not as quick off the line as, say. those peskyV8 Foci. 300 high-revving horsepower applied to 2,594 pounds can certainly bend the needle on the old g-meter. particularly since the mideengine launch traction is the Wide enough for yalThe swollen haunches on the SHOtus measure a lull 8 inches wider than stock (up iront its a mere 4 inches wider). Expanding on Fords nomenclature though in this case having nothing to do with the number of doorsnotice the zxs lettering on the carbon-fiber hatch. Check out the cavernous and lully iunctional GT-40ish hood ducts, no doubt hugely ehec- tive in helping the radiator shed those pesky BTUs.The hood is steel, and was fabricated by Tim Wickmann, but all other body panels save for the mo! and door skins are crafted lrom lightweight carbon liber. next best thing to all-wheel drive. When the skinned chassis nally arrived back at Polito's dealership, techni~ cian Andy Zylstla was assigned the pleasant, if lengthy, ask of tting the com- plete SHO drivetmin and adding the nish ing and demil touches,turning this from an interesting engineering exercise into an attentiongrabbing monster equally home on the street or road-course.Though he originally considered leaving the beast in raw carbon-ber nish and simply spraying on some clearcoat Anthony made a last minute decision to go with something just a bit brightenWe can't argue with his color choices any more than we can with the rest of the project When all is said and done,Mr.Po|ito has pretty much thrown down the gaunt let with his SHOcus.We cant wait to See who's going to try and top this one. Any takers? ff / FOCUS FANATIC - SPRING 2005 49