Just because a vehicle is cheap doesn’t mean it can’t be a blast to drive. Donut Media hosted its first “$3,000 Car Challenge,” taking a bunch of inexpensive automobiles on a cross-desert run, and one of them vehicles featured in the game was a 2004 Ford Focus SVT.
Jimmy of Donut purchased the 2004 Ford Focus SVT – painted bright yellow, of course – in part due to its increased performance over the “regular” Focus, featuring 150 horsepower relayed by a six-speed manual transmission and a stiffer suspension when compared to the standard model. It cost $3,000 exactly, but Jimmy is a little nervous about driving it through the desert, and because it’s the only manual vehicle of the three.
Pitted against a 1999 Chevrolet Tracker and a 1997 Dodge Ram 1500, the 2004 Ford Focus SVT and the oddball caravan head to Death Valley, California. Their challenge is to take pictures of six specified locations on their route, and whoever gets to all six destinations wins the “race.”
The Focus handles the hot environment and demanding conditions surprisingly well, and is the only of the three to not experience a mechanical issue early in the event. However, they finish second in that challenge – behind the Ram, but ahead of the Tracker – and now, they head to Nevada for a short-course off-road race.
That means the 2004 Ford Focus SVT and its competitors must undergo some upgrades, but each team only has $5,000 to spend on the deal. The Focus gets Hankook tires, an upgraded suspension, mudflaps, and more. Properly kitted out for desert racing, the crews head to the desert once again to take part in a time trial race on off-road terrain.
The hot hatch does well on the offroad course, and Jimmy notes that it’s pretty fun to drive, saying, “She’s rally-bred now!” Their time of 1:07 slots them in second overall in the contest so far, but this group of challenges was only part one. There’s more on the way, and no telling how the 2004 Focus will perform in the upcoming trials.
Donut took a trashed Ford Ranger and turned it into a verifiable off-road racer, so there’s hope for the little Focus yet.
No Comments yet