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| The front suspension features Ohlins 4-way adjustable thru shaft electronically controlled dampers. The car supposedly has a spring rate of only 70 inch pounds. If this is true we suspect that the dampers actively help give the body platform control. We suspect this spec is wrong and the springs are really 70 newton meters or around 400 inch pounds. Custom made suspension arms greatly widen the track width. The blade anti swaybar adjusters are set fairly stiff. |
The car’s suspension is a critical key to its performance. The suspension links, axles, hubs and uprights are bespoke units fabricated by OMSE to have correct geometry, articulation, greatly widen the track width and to accommodate the AWD system. Tubular antisway bars with blade type adjusters are used at both ends of the car.
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| Looking at the rear suspension tells us a lot. The rear geometry has a little bit of anti squat, not much negative camber gain and a surprisingly low amount of bump travel. Short toe links give a lot of toe in under roll. A tubular antisway bar has blade adjusters. The rear bar is set full stiff. You can see the Alcon 4 piston rear caliper and 355mm rear floating rotor. |
The real jewels of the car’s suspension are the Ohlins 4-way adjustable dampers at each corner of the car. The dampers are used with super light 70 in/lb springs and the car’s platform is controlled hydraulically. The dampers are independently adjustable for high and low speed compression and rebound damping and are electronically controlled as well which is probably why such light springs can be used. These dampers in combination with the electronics probably cost more than most new cars!
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| The electronic control valve for the rear shock. |
The brakes are Alcon with 6 piston forged monoblock calipers at the front with 4 piston rear calipers. The caliper’s amorphous carbon Lorrane brake pads grip huge 340mm front and 355mm rear floating rotors. A billet floor mounted Alcon pedal box holds dual master cylinders with a mechanical balance bar for setting brake bias. A driver adjustable prop valve is also used for fine tuning of the brake’s proportioning. A hydraulic turning brake is operated by a CNC machined lever.
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| The big Alcon six piston front caliper and 340mm floating front rotor. Cool light forged Volk TE37 wheels. |
OMSE prepped the already strong Fiesta chassis by seam welding and installing an all inclusive cage that not only protects Ken in case of an accident but completely ties the chassis together, improving chassis rigidity, a critical factor to building a good handling car. An interesting note is that the Fiesta uses a lot of Ultra High Strength Steel or UHSS boron alloyed steel in its unibody. Boron steel has impressive yield strength of 190,000-200,000 psi which is about as high as nearly any steel alloy can get. The Fiesta isn’t the only car to use boron steel (most cars made since 2004 use at least some of it) but it has one of the highest percentages of use in its chassis over any production car.
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| Grooved full floating rotor on a lightweight alloy hat peaks out behind the TE37 wheel. |
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| Look at all of the lines coming off the master cylinder for the turning brake, could this be for center diff control? |
The unibody’s skin is removed and an OMSE fabbed dry carbon skin is bonded on in place of the steel for lightness. OMSE also fabbed up the carbon/kevlar wide fenders, doors, hood, wing, bumpers, interior panels and rear hatch. The composites are partly responsible for the car’s light 2425 lb weight and amazing 50/50 weight distribution. Recaro FIA Profi race seats with Sabelt six point harnesses are used as well as a Sparco carbon WRC steering wheel. Finally, holding the car up are Volk Racing superlight forged TE37 wheels in an 18×9” size shod with 245/45-18 BFG KD tires.
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| Short wheelbase, wide track, light weight, AWD and lots of power are an unbeatable combination in Gymkhana, unless you are up against Tanner Foust in an almost identical car! |
We are amazed by the level of technology that Ken’s car exhibits as well as it mind numbing performance as witnessed at last week’s Gymkhana Grid event at Irwindale. Only Tanner Foust in a similar car could pose a threat to Ken. Will we see more of the car and sanctioned Gymkhana events in the future? We hope so as we really like Gymkhana’s mix of grip and drift driving as well as the no nonsense race winner un-judged format.
