By Hot hatchbacks place emphasis on being fun, fast, fun, and fun, all the while being able to carry your friends to a concert or take the dogs to the park. The Ford Focus ST is no exception. Since its launch in late 2013, the MKIII Focus ST has been turning heads and lapping tracks hot in competition with the likes of the Golf GTI and Mazdaspeed 3. To take the already aggressive handling of your FoST to the next level, we recommend the WhiteLine Performance Grip Kit for model year 2014-18 Focus STs. Here’s why:
Progressive Rate Springs
Your Grip Kit comes with new progressive rate lowering springs to replace the linear springs of your ST’s stock suspension. Progressive rate springs respond to your driving style: they can firm up on higher compression and at high cornering speeds, but stay relatively smooth during normal daily driving. With progressive rate springs, you aren’t sacrificing everyday driveability for better steering response. Lowering springs aren’t a replacement for coilovers, but they are a first step towards lower ride height and better control of oversteer and understeer.
Whiteline’s progressive rate springs also offer 1” ride height drop for your Focus. This lowers the center of gravity and makes the car more stable on launches and around corners and makes it look super cool!
Front and Rear Sway Bar Kit
Sway bars (aka anti-roll bars, anti-sway bars) play a critical role in tuning the stability of a vehicle. They essentially act as a spring linked between the left and right sides of a car, helping to plant and level the vehicle as it rides through a corner. But how?
As a vehicle goes around a corner, inertia causes the body to roll to the outside of the turn. This lifts up the inside wheel, significantly lowering grip on the inside tires. Sway bars take the force exerted on the outside wheel, and use it to push the inside wheel of the car back down. Sway bars both limit body roll and make sure as much of your tire’s contact patch is on the ground at all times. Aftermarket sway bars are thicker and lighter than OEM, allowing for tighter handling without a significant decrease in ride quality.
Whiteline’s sway bars are extremely tunable, with multiple mounting points for end links. The front sway bars and the rear end have identical thickness to better balance your Focus compared to the stock setup.
Adjustable Sway Bar End Links
To go with their sway bars, Whiteline provides adjustable end links to further fine-tune the handling characteristics of your car. Since your new springs lower the car by about an inch, this would put preload on the factory sway bars and end links; by changing both the length of the end links and their mounting points, you can change just how loose or tight your car performs under body roll.
Replacement Suspension Bushings
What good is a fancy new suspension setup if you’re stuck with squeaky old factory bushings? Whiteline includes replacement front and rear bushings to give you the utmost fit and finish.
In the front, you get big, high-end polyurethane bushings, which have little pockets to hold grease to make sure that they stay quiet and consistent. In the rear, Whiteline gives you their new PTFE line bushings that require no grease to stay quiet for track day after track day, year after year.
Sway Bar Locks
No, these aren’t so people don’t steal your sway bars. They’re so your sway bars don’t try to run away! Instead of welding in stops to keep their sway bars from sliding to the left and right inside their bushings, Whiteline uses machined aluminum lateral locks that clamp onto your sway bar. They go right up against the bushings, preventing a loss of torsional stiffness and offering yet another level of adjustability.
So what are you waiting for?
Head to the Motoroso marketplace today and check out Whiteline’s FRD009 Grip Kit as well as thousands of other awesome mods for your Focus ST!
