It has been a little over 2 years since our little Ford Focus project car, Red Hot Chili Pepper, has graced the roads around the Tri-State area.
It has been a little over 2 years since our little Ford Focus project car, Red Hot Chili Pepper, has graced the roads around the Tri-State area. Following the expiration for the car’s four-cylinder powerplant, the poor soul has been sitting in a state of unused derelict at Level 10 Performance Transmissions ever since.
With former MM&FF Editor Jim Campisano still wheeling Project Icebox (’01 Mustang GT), and current Editor Evan Smith piloting The Fridge (’99 Lightning), the Focus was an open vehicle. When Tech Editor Mike Galimi turned her down, the old gal was turned over to me, and I was left in charge of getting her back into running order.
With that in mind, I spent the better part of Friday cruising around northern NJ getting everything ready to go. After picking up the replacement motor from Motor City Auto Body, I took the ride up to Level 10, where Pat Barrett and a couple of the guys will spend the next week or so yanking out the blown motor and replacing it with the new bullet. Once the labor-portion of the install is done, down to JDM Engineering Pepper will go, where Jim D’Amore will handle uploading a tune into the turbocharged engine that will keep the boost level to a respectable amount and the motor alive.
While it may not be a 650 rwhp Mustang or Lightning, this little Focus is one of those cars that can surprise you. I can’t wait to get the car up and running and start cruising in it. You can check it out as well as other past and current project cars at the Atco NMRA race, where we will be holding our 20th Anniversary bash.
Now if I could only swing doing a V8 swap with the Focus…