The Focus sold here is decade old POO! The Focus in Europe is based on the same platform as the Mazda 3 I believe and been sold for a few years now. Should have been here this year at the LATEST. Why does Ford continuously foist their old crap on the American market? It's absolute idiocy. The Focus SVT was a nice car 10 years ago, and Ford dropped it from the line! But even if they hadn't it would be dated by now.

If they want to sell cars here, they have to get their act together. Considering the POS that the Focus guys started with on STC, they did a bang up job.

The Mini should have been a contender. To go into the challenge without KNOWING you could make the motor spin was uh, well I don't wan to be mean. It's not 20/20 hindsight, its lack of a plan all together. And yes, Mini should have given them a hand.

Cheers!
Lee

 

Could it be that the R56 is so far "optimized" and dialed in for fuel and energy efficency right from the factory that it could not withstand serious power additions like the R53 can (except for pistons I mean)?

Between that and the secrecy surrounding the ECU and its coding, MiniUSA preferred that the car not get off the ground than to blow up or for the trade secrets in the ECU tuning to leak out.

Do these R56's hold up with real power?

 

Didn't Mini give them an extra motor? Wouldn't you get one built and on a dyno while the other one was getting pinstriped....

 

It's horror stories like this that have prevented me from doing any engine modifications. I have been flogging my stock motor mercilessly for 3 years with nary a whimper.

Still waiting for an R56 to show up at the track to go head to head with my R53. Until then, all is hype. Numbers and PR flack and dyno readings and pretty pictures stop when the green flag drops.

 

when more over here see what's acutally happening in the rest of the world...

Just a thought....

Matt

 

Lots of acccusations, name calling, bad feelings here. Sorry to see it. Things happen, its over, move on.

 

By way of introduction, I am the Executive Producer of Street Tuner Challenge. This post represents the first time I have ever injected comments to the community of any vehicle presented on our series. That said... I feel compelled to express my shock and disappointment regarding the vitriolic demeanor meted out on this forum toward Tim Lawrence.

My staff will tell you to a person: Tim was a consummate professional throughout the production of Street Tuner Challenge III. He was proud to be part of the series and worked diligently to promote it to the Mini community by way of viewing parties, promotional videos, and VIP invitations to tapings at his shop. He included as many suppliers as possible to share in the experience and we were pleased to assist. The sad irony of his intentions to use the Mini to honor America’s first responders did not go unnoticed when some three months later, those same first responders (Firefighters, Police, and Emergency crews) were employed in his own neighborhood to battle fires in the LA area.

Was Productions makes no directives or input of any kind regarding any build. Tim’s design was as daring and creative as we have ever filmed on this show and we were excited to see it unfold. Fireball hid nothing from our cameras, successes or obstacles. We applaud his effort and would not hesitate to have him take part in future series.

Surely, contributors to this site have the wherewithal to comprehend Tim's involvement with the build had nothing whatsoever to do with cracking the ECU code. His role was the “Vehicle Designer”. It was unfortunate, but in my ten plus years producing automotive television, the Mini was not the first, nor will it be the last time a vehicle encountered such a dire circumstance on race day.

In closing, I am not rendering an off-the-cuff endorsement here. Rather, I am delivering an accurate and honest account - on behalf of myself, and my staff, assessing Fireball Tim’s commitment and involvement with the Mini build, and to our show. Tim and the entire Mini community should be proud of the effort.

Sincerely,
Dan Woods
WAS Productions Inc.

 

Thanks for the feedback Dan - the bottom line is that results matter more than good intentions.

 

I personally appreciate the note from the producer.

Some of us are just more sad then angry. Fireball DID promote the heck out of the show and car here on NAM. That's probably one reason why many here are "up in arms", as many of us were paying attention that otherwise might not even have noticed STC, except by coincidently flipping channels. Tim is great at the marketing game, no doubt. And the design is very interesting.

You might say he did a little too good a job promoting things to the community here, so when the car did not deliver, many of us felt very let down. Yes, it's life. And it's human nature to want to affix blame. It is JUST a car and JUST a car show, but on SIGs like this, we tend to be a little more defensive of "our brand" then the average shmo. That's why we hang out here and yak about our cars.

I taped every episode, and watched all the promos, the SEMA coverage, etc. and was really looking forward to seeing the Mini do some spankin. Yeah, it's a pride thing I admit it. But no worse then football fans getting mad at their team's quarterback when they blow the big game. Sometimes people want the quarterbacks head, whether he deserves it or not. It's part of being the quarterback.

That said, if anything I said came across as a personal insult, please accept my apologies. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I wish Tim and all the guys the best as they move on to what's next, and I genuinely hope that the Mini in question gets vindicated at some point by getting its engine running the way everyone had hoped. And it would have been nice if Mini had provided a bit of assistance when things were going south with the motor.

Maybe it's time for an opportunity for a rematch like Dr. Evo got.

Cheers!
Lee

 

Thanks Dan the Producer Man for stopping in

I think that most are just disappointed or have a personal beef from before the show and are venting.

I personal liked the style of the car even the RC.

Minis really don't get the respect from the tuner crowd they deserve. I have to put up with my brother who is a huge Honda guy going "You should have got a Civic SI" All the time. Now the tuner crowd has got even more of the wrong impression that you can through lots of cash at these cars and get little return.

These are awesome cars and I would like that proved.

I would love a rematch.

 

The fact still remains.... The RC car ran and the Mini didn't....

 

to the producer guy....no need to PM me telling me how much Sony liked the audio and telling me I should post that (oh wait! you already did). fact is Firball promised 500hp and failed. kudo's for winning 'best exterior'....kind of like owning an Audi - it would look great broken down in my driveway.

 

give the mini a second chance stc. do a special show on just that mini to let it make amends to the show and the mini community. let fireball tim show us and everybody what this car was supposted to do. the show is only a half hour long it couldnt be that hard to do. so how about it?

 

Since Dan is here, I gotta tell that show is kind of hard to watch, it makes me feel like I have ADD. Trying to cram in segments on three builds, tooner shows, and NOPI girls into a 1/2 hour spot is too much. You guys need an hour time slot, or loose the other bits & just focus on the builds. I like the idea of the show & appreciate the effort, just needs to be a bit more focused.

 

No, no, no, it need to be a bit more Minied.

 

Be willing to bet that if Tim turned the car over to Jan, Hubie, Brian and Tuls, it would get sorted out very quickly and there would be great big all around!

 

they were working with a new engine and an uncracked ECU. That's gotta be a biatch. IF you think about what has been done with that sized motor and turbos, adding variable cam timing and direct injection would have made the original goal very believable, assuming the block would hold up. But there just wasn't time to bring it all together, and that's sad, but not really a huge surprise. Hindsight is easy. I'm sure if the team knew what a biatch engine control ended up being when they started, there may have been different time allocations. Who knows, we sure don't. Give some time to the new platform and we'll see what can be done with it. Who knows who will do it, but you can bet it will be done.... But this isn't the first time a power goal would have been aimed for that wasn't achieved, and I'm sure it won't be the last.....

Matt

 

+1

Or invite a MINI team back next year.

Then...
- Less time should have been spent on RC car build
- More help from MINI
- Go with the R53

 

I fully agree. Dan, next season of STC, please get rid of the wannabee NOPI chicks, and use that extra 5 minutes of the show to broadcast more of what we're all really tuning in for: the build-ups.

LESS CHEESE, PLEASE!

 

We are all expecting to much...

Yeah I don't like the design and the RC thing was a waste, but thats my opinion. The real issue is the ECU. How long did it take for the R53 to get a decent tune that really sticks. All those UniChips and GIACs and other bandaids really didn't work. Wasn't it until DimSport was introduced to the MINI community that a real and proper flash took hold?

So while we may be disappointed with the results on the R56 we need to look at the big picture and see how this helps to bring the tuning of the R56 forward.

 

I agree about the NOPI Chicks. Just a waste of time. That's another show and they do it much better. Get a nice looking hostess, but give the time to the build details. It was very light on real content.

Cheers!
Lee

 

#1, Ditto, Amen....

 

I really liked how the EVO came together, it was the car most like the one I'd like to build (mostly track focused). The MINI had a stacked deck against it with a brand-new vehicle and lack of aftermarket support, I'd have to say the GTi or even the new R32 would have been a much better European entry into the show. Don't bring a MINI back until it can compete and has a secure aftermarket backing. All the rematches in the world won't do any good if there isn't the tuning available to make the car run right.
And kudos to the shows producer for coming on here to set some things straight.

 

it's easy to make all these calls now, but WTF, sometimes when you sail in uncharted waters, you hit unexpected shoals.

Who knows, maybe the project planning was fine and the RC car build happened when parts were out for machining or whatever. Maybe not, I sure don't know. More help from Mini.... Yeah, that's up to the show and the team to mandate. The Europeans are notoriously tight with ECU codes. How would you suggest that Hubie or Brian or Tim wave their magic wands to make this one happen. Isn't a car a lot of help? Go with the R53 would have been both a plus and a minus. It would have been easier to do the ECU work, but it would have been just doing what's been done before...

I've got my own feelings about the FBT brand, but sh*t, I've been on projects where no matter how good the planning and intentions, they just don't come together in time, or on budjet, or hit the intendend mark. That's just how it is, when you're doing something new. I'm surprised that there isn't more sympathy. After all, the target was stated publicly, and the target was missed on national TV. Isn't that enough to go through without a bunch of arm-chair quartebacks sitting here and whining that it still wasn't enough? Go do it yourselves, and see how hard it really is.

Matt

 

I believe that this most recent Fireball Tim failure has opened up many old wounds and created some new ones.
No one has had anything bad to say about Hubie or Brian, their skills have proven time and time again to be solid as a rock. The (Fireball Tim) circumstances of this build must have been unbearable...Because now Brian has left under suspicious circumstances just like Jan and Tuls did.

* We have heard Tuls talk about Tim Lying and cheating him.

* We know that Tim cheated his first partner.

* We know that Tim flat-out lies about the movie cars that he claims to have designed. Plaigiarism is too soft of a word for this(Easy research).

* We know that Tim is a shameless self promoter who has built his career on fraud and other peoples talent. He has embarassed the people who believed in him, worked with him and our entire Mini community...Maybe it's time to call a spade a spade.

The Fireballed Company would be better off without the clown and getting back the original dream team of Hubie, Brian, Tuls, Young and Jan(RMW).