Focus Fanatic Hocus SHOcus article spread on a mid-engine SHO V-…

V: .. ii lills Mills isAnthony Poliw. owner of Lindsay, Ontario's Pollto Ford Lincoln.and fan orall things swift. He says his inspiration tor the pricey pocket rocket can be traced back to the handful of SHOgun stas that were built by Chu:< Beck in Calliornia more than a decade ago. Anthony at one time owned two of those miniscule mISr siles thatlike his SHOcus,utilited spicedr up SHOTaurus six-bangers mounted amidships to drive their rear wheelssome oi the younger of our readership may be wonderirg what the big deal is about Taurus Primarily the SHOs big deal was Yamaha-engineered cylinder heads and valvetmin that let this bentsix rev to motorcycle-like heights. producing plenty oi power per cubic centimeter and won delful ear candy in the process At lull songthese silky sixes generate equal parts horsepower and goose bumps. Anthony decided the world needed a modern interpretation olthe 5Hogun, so work began in 2002 with a new, blue ZX3 liberated lrorn his dealership stock.To give proper recognition to :he hundreds ol ' hours oiwork that took place in the ensu ing months would require far more space somevo scrounged lrorn a |5ryear-eld l {"3 hard to photograph the polished, LoL snow, without getting a mrsslv: reect an oil its Z- "<"*lhi=k clear Plexiglas cover. lt has altermarltet tams and some other hot-rodding tricks, so it "W hmnlas out son ML Alt 0! the easUweitmounted engine/transatle combo is a stillr respectable calgo area, while on either side sit speaker drivers that to part of the Loco-watt entertainment system that was yet to be tully installed at the time oft' . photo shootcrsoit tor Kthe interior trim and iinish goes toAkers Auto Glass in 4a FOCUS FANATIC a SPRING zoos den, Ontario, instead oia lounbanger squirreling away underhood,a NAscAR-spec zz-gallon (uel cell lrom ATL takes center stage.1'he welded aluminum tubes run along either side of the luel-cell and duct coolant to and lrom a Fluir dyne high-now radiatonwith stock-style twin lans.And note that the yellow-top Optima battery is placed as close as possible no the car's center of gravity. than we have, so what lollows ls the abbreviated version. Not surprisinglydte key element in the whole scheme was gunng out exactly how no mount an SHOV engine and transaxle sideways in a Focuslust aheacl or its rear wheelsThis lob went toTimWiclc mann at Car Craiter, in Omemee, Ontario. who, as we undersmnd it gured the best way to do this was by adapting a Taurus front subirame to the task. A side benet or this approach was that it conve niently allowed the use oiTaurus front strut towers as pickup pond (or a iear suspension.The suspension isellwzs engia neared by Newmarket Ontario's Multi- matic Motorsports. it used an adaptat ofz coilover-strut package developed by its Dynamic Suspensions subsidiary when Multimatic road-PacedTauius sedans in the '90s. So the rear suspension on me SHOcus started life as a (rent suspensmn on aTaurus.a bizarre sounding concept that believe us,worlcs out lust hne, Up lront. the lob was perhaps a be legs complicatedvvith Multimatlc recalibratlng the rates oi a wall of Dynamic Suspensions' n Forward oi the engine bulkhead. the interior view iston. area to the rest a! the car at least surpr ngly stock, with the most obvious excep ing wheel. Even so,Anthonys lriends at Multimatic did in trying to get the stock instrument cluster to work with tie non- easier (and decidedly more attractive) - : ntAutz ldeter Carbon Fiber ultra. Anthony {nun ns b rig ne Cob- buckets and Momo steen street roll cage. Rather than ching SHO processor. racea Lite gauges into a custom brushed-aluminum panel. Everything sl'" works,including the power windows and locksas well as themes nce our shoots ,enwoot :xcelon enmrtainmend navigation system has displaced the (actory stereo. Focus coilovers (or the revised frontal weight. A stock Focus steering rack and master cylinder were then called into serr vice. Anthony tells us both ends of the car use a spindle/hub package that is part SHO and part svT Focus. One of his goals Irom the curse! was to have (rent and rear tire sizes and track widths iden ' al to those found on Porsche's 9| lTurbo, so the suspension geometry and wheel or sets were engineered accordinglyThis supertar stance necessitated custom-spec. three-piece ROH rims iromAustralia. ones that are 3 inches wide in front and a full lo inches out back Front tires are a healthy 245/40x | 8. but nothi in compari- son to the steamroller rears that measure 295/35x | 8, Behind them are front brakes Iron. a loch Anniversary svr Cobra, co 7 sisung oi 13.5-inch rotors and red Cobm"-Iettered c ers. while at the stern, Lincoln LS I Ls nch rear rotors are teamed with Thunderbird Super CCJPE calipers.The 5C ralipers permitted a workable parking-brake solution. Ferfol" mance Friction pads are used all round. With a rolling chassis complete,the next _ epard the most time consuming. gem - gmAnthonyiwaS me creation of bc: y panels capable oi enveloping track widtl-s that are 4 inches broader in lront and so less than 5 inches ivider out back thar a stock Focus. Cylergy Composites. cf Stadiroy. Ontarlovtook on the iob. cre- ating oneofront enders,fas:ias. rear dterteismccker slursand even a new hatch skin 'rom carbon nberesomee Where around a halfryear's work.We'd ate to see that bill while all this was going on, Anthony tocit possession o; a 24rvalve, 300hp, 3.0L SHOV e that was originally assembled ior an alt ninumintensive concept vehicle (passcally an alloy Sable) prototyped by Multimatit some drne ago. Powerful, yet commendably docile in tramc. thev-e was tuned and dynod by sean Hyland Motor- sport and quite logically uses an SHO EEC processor. Though theoretically not as quick oi? the line as, say, those peskyvs Focl. 300 hlghrrevving horsepower applied . to 1,594 pounds can certainly bend the needle on the old g.meten particularly since the mid-engine lunch traction is the Wide enough lor yazrhe sw len haunches on the SHOcus measure a full 8 indies Wider than stock (up from it's a mere 4 inches wider). Expanding on Ford's nomentlature. though in this case having nothing to do with the number o'doowno e the 1X6 lettering on the carbon-ber hatch. check out the cavernous and lully lunctional 57-4 sh hood ducts,no doubt hugely enec- tive in helping the rad :oa shed those pesky B'rUsJ'he hood is steel,and was labricated by Tim Wickmann,but all other body panels save (or the mo! and door skins are cralted irom lightweight carbon ber. next best thing to all-wheel drives When the skinned chassis nally arrived back at Poliw's dealership. techni- eian Andy Zylstra was assigned the pleasant ii lengthy, task orntting the com. plete SHO drivecmil. and adding the nish. ing and detail to. cnes. turning this lrom an interesting engu-Ael'lng exercise into an g monster equally home road-courseThough he ad leaving the beast in attention-grcsbi on the Sires: itenWe cent a gue with s color es any more than we can with the rest of the project When all is said and done.Mn Polito has pretty much thrown down the gaunt- let with his SHOcus.We can't wait to see who's going to try and top this one. Any mkers? / FOCUS FANATIC - spams 2005 4y