2003 Ford Focus SVT

Mid July of 2020, after having freshly graduated from high school, I was detailing cars at my local Ford dealer. At the time I was driving a BMW 325Ci I had gone way too deep into making worthwhile, and I wanted something that felt more like me, and not an impulse buy. I had joked before about selling the BMW to my neighbor and finding a Focus SVT because I liked the rarity appeal of them, and after seeing the possibility arise financially after spending the whole summer working, I started my search.

August 5th, 2020, I am driving to Maryland with a salesman from my work in the hopes of coming home with an SVT Focus. The battered orange blob we drive up to is shown in the first two pictures of the gallery above. With peeling paint, mismatched tires, and seemingly no issues, we bought the car and drove it some two odd hours home. Back in PA, the car went through the shop at the dealership and then it became mine.

Over the course of the next year and a half, The car received plugs, coil-pack, turn signal bulbs, a new catalytic converter, window regulator, drivers side front brake line, power steering pump switch, power steering pump (twice...) water pump, accessory belt, both tensioner pulleys, steering rack, four brand new tires, OEM side markers, OEM steering wheel, OEM center console, billet rear axle spacers, OEM Competition Orange passenger side skirt end cap, Ford Focus Kona Edition Roof Rack, Thule fairing, Thule bike rack, Billetworkz Custom shift knob, and genuine Recaro seat belt pads.

For now the car is as good as its been since I first bought it, (apart from the coolant leak, the new water pump slowed it but the thermostat is next) and I plan to drive it and enjoy it as much as I can. The dedication to maintaining this car has been the most fun for me personally. You kind of become connected to a car once you have your hands dirty and gain the pride of having fixed it yourself when you're done. This thing has needed consistently more work and money than both of my previously owned cars. And I had a MK4 Golf and an E46 BMW... But the looks I get from pedestrians on the street when I pass them in an obnoxiously orange and overcompensatingly loud hatchback with a BMX bike on top makes everything worth it. "They don't know this car is 1/473 Competition Orange Focus SVTs in the U.S." and if they did know they wouldn't care, but I do, and it makes me incredibly happy knowing that I'm driving something special and worth taking car of.

• FSWerks 2.5 Inch Stealth Exhaust
• MOTO CNC Billet Rear Axle Spacers
• VF Engineering Poly Rear Engine Mount

• Ford Focus Kona Edition Roof Rack
• Thule Big Mouth Bike Rack
• Thule Wind Fairing
• Rally Armor Mudflaps
• Billetworkz Custom One-Off Competition Orange Weighted Shift Knob