Last October, we further improved the Mk7’s cornering abilities with some new polyurethane bushes. Jamie explained how and why…
Having fitted polybushes to nearly of all our previous project cars we know only too well the advantages they offer. Having replaced the nearly-new bushes on our Fiesta ST project for uprated Powerflex ones, we knew that the performance benefits weren’t just because we were replacing worn bushes, but came from the polyurethane bush itself. And seeing as we have just fitted coilovers to the Mk7, coupled with the fact that Powerflex has just released a full set of bushes for the Mk7 including a rather clever front lower arm bush which actually offers caster adjustment too (see Products, issue 308), it makes perfect sense to enhance the handling even more and stiffen things up a bit.
Fitting the bushes is a simple task, you do have to be a bit patient and a press comes in very handy, and we will show you exactly how to do it in a full fitting guide in a future issue. What we can tell you right now is that if you own a Mk7 Fiesta, fitting polybushes is something you are definitely going to want to do. With the new bushes and coilovers fitted (which are set pretty low to be fair) we were kind of expecting to endure a crashy, bumpy, and uncomfortable ride. But we were wrong. Very wrong. The car drives incredibly well and feels more like it’s on a well sorted set of matched springs and dampers, not coilovers and polybushes. You can feel the road beneath you, but it’s not uncomfortable in the slightest, and if anything is encouraging rather than annoying.
When you flick the car through a corner it instantly responds, and we’re sure this is in no small part to the bushes being that little bit harder and not allowing any of the suspension geometry to flex as it does with the standard parts fitted. And then when you’re on a motorway pootling along a steady speed you wouldn’t even notice anything had been changed. It really is the perfect balance, and we can’t recommend them highly enough.
All we need to do now is fit some more desirable, lighter wheels and the suspension and handling package on our Fiesta will be pretty much there. And we’re already on the case too as a set of Speedline Corse alloys and some Pirelli P-Zero rubber to wrap them in has just arrived. They’ll be on by next update…
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