By Today we’re taking a close up look at the Whiteline suspension grip kit for the 2014 – 2018 Mark III Ford Focus ST. The part number is GS1-FRD009, and it’ll set you back a little bit under $900. As usual, you can shop for this and all your other parts and accessories at www.motoroso.com, where you can browse over 1,000,000 top name brand products. We can be reached on live chat, or toll free at 1.833.MOTOROSO (1.833.668.6767). Let’s dig in.
The Mark III Focus ST has been one of the most popular, hot hatchbacks available since its debut in 2014. It’s even been given the GTI a run for its money in the US market. And we love it. Super fun to drive, right out of the box. But for those looking to take it to the next level for that performance driving, Whiteline offers their grip series kit. We think this is one of the best ways to take your already capable Focus ST, and turn it into a street and track weapon, ready to take on any of your local autocross events. And here’s why…
Starting With the Springs
The Whiteline grip series kit is going to come with new progressive rate springs to replace the linear springs that come factory on the ST. A progressive rate spring is going to essentially respond to how aggressively you’re driving. It’s going to give you a firmer, more planted ride in those aggressive driving situations when you’re pushing the limits, while maintaining a comfortable driving disposition in your daily driving.
These springs are also going to lower your ride height about one inch, which is not dramatic. It’s not slamming your ST all the way to the ground, giving you trouble over speed bumps. It’s just going to lower the center of gravity, increase the steering precision and help prevent the body roll.
Sway Bars to Control the Body Roll
Sway bars play a critical role in tuning and adjusting the handling performance of your vehicle. They act essentially like a spring that connects the left and the right side of the vehicle together and help plant and level the car as it goes through a corner. Imagine you’re taking a really hard right turn. The inside wheel (right) is going to rise up while the left side’s going to plant down, The sway bar uses its torsional stiffness to effectively bring down the inside (right), helping to level the vehicle through the turn. That’s why it’s so important that you have sway bars that are strong and adjustable.
Your stock ST comes with a 25mm bar in the front and a 22mm bar in the rear. It’s a little bit imbalanced. They were trying to get the rear end to track better with the front, but to help balance out those performance characteristics with the Whiteline kit, both bars are 24mm front and rear. More importantly, they are adjustable. So you can fine tune the front and rear performance as you want by chaning the sway bar end link position, changing the leverage on the bars, and making them effectively stiffer/softer.
Adjustable End Links
Becuase the springs are lowering your vehicle one inch in ride height, using your stock end links would preload those sway bars. So the Whiteline kit comes with adjustable sway bar end links for front and rear. This will enable you to set the sway bars back to neutral or give it a little bit of preload again, giving you a wide range of adjustability and customizability to get exactly what you want out of the handling.
Polyeurethane PTFE Bushings
When you get a white line grip kit, they’re also going to include their ultra high end polyurethane bushings. Int he rear it’s going to include these big fat bushings, which have little pockets that hold the polybednam grease, to make sure you don’t have to be constantly re-greasing your bushings.
Up front they use their new PTFE lined bushings, which have this cool little fuzzy liner that required no grease. So they are a greaseless bushing, no extra maintenance, and they’re going to perform just great.
Lateral Locks
When you’re really getting after it in your ST, your sway bars can actually slide inside the bushings side-to-side and reduce the torsional stiffness of the bar. Some companies will weld in a stop to prevent that, but that can actually negatively affect the consistency and the performance of the material. So the last feature we’re talking on this kit is Whiteline’s really nice machined aluminum anodized lateral locks. These locks clamp onto the sway bar butted up right against the bushing to prevent that side-to-side slide, preventing that loss of torsional stiffness.
You can shop for Whiteline and all your other parts and accessories at www.motoroso.com, where you can browse over 1,000,000 top name brand products.
We can be reached on live chat, or toll free at 1.833.MOTOROSO (1.833.668.6767). We’re here to help you find all you rmods, and help with your build.
