The notion of an EcoBoost-swapped Ford Ka and turning it into a track toy sounds a little barmy at first. But the more you dig into this build, the more it all makes perfect sense…
Project cars, more often than not, are fuelled by overactive imaginations. The seed of the idea that spawned the car you see here, to swap an EcoBoost into a Ka, was sown back in 2019 when Craig Sudron was pondering how that engine was based on the old Sigma architecture, which would allow it to mate straight up to a Puma bellhousing, and that in turn would mate with a Ka gearbox. And once you’ve arrived at a realisation like that, it’d frankly be irresponsible not to act on it.
Craig’s car history
Craig’s got a pretty stellar back catalogue to draw influence from when it comes to proving his automotive credentials; he built and IVA’d a Fireblade-engined Westfield, there’s an impressively lengthily-named Subaru Impreza WRX STI Type RA V-Limited which he reckons he’ll never sell, and further highlights among the many cars he’s owned include the Honda S2000 and Nissan 350Z, both of which were bright yellow. But it’s not all JDM lunacy (like you’d see at our Japfest event!); no, this EcoBoost-swapped Ford Ka interface didn’t just spring up out of nowhere.
In fact, Craig works as a development engineer for the Ford Motor Company, and worked on the Fiesta ST programme which involved driving camouflaged STs in lots of different countries and conditions. “I worked within the Ford Performance team from 2019 to 2022 as well,” he explains. “During this time I was on the development of the Puma ST – both the 1.5 and the latest 1.0 mHEV DCT version – and I also worked with (and drove many miles in) the 2016 Ford GT press cars, which I went on a lot of European public affairs work and events with.”
Why build a Ford Ka track car in the first place?
So, it’s starting to make sense. Irrational project concepts based on thoroughly rational thought processes. All of this started to come together at a time when Craig was keen to build himself another track car anyway, and he’s always had a bit of a thing for the Ford Ka; his then-girlfriend (now wife) had one as her first car, and subsequently treated herself to a StreetKa as her first ‘nice’ car – and, as Craig’s keen to point out, the Ka is interesting in that it shares a lot of character traits with the classic Mini: they’re both light, cheap, basic, reliable, good-looking, have a wheel at each corner for exemplary handling and, er, really love to rust.
“As for the 1.6 EcoBoost, I’ve always had a soft spot for that too,” he says. “Having worked on the engine calibration throughout the Mk7 Fiesta ST’s development programme from 2009 to 2013, I drove those cars in Finland, Arizona, Colorado, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany and of course the UK; it’s a great engine, made even better installed in a 920kg Ka!”
Swapping the EcoBoost engine into the Ford Ka
With all of these ideas rapidly coalescing, Craig was keen as mustard to get started, and in the twinkling of an eye he managed to find a unicorn of a Ka (i.e. one that had very little rust). “It was £500 and was a non-runner,” he recalls. “Most people wouldn’t have paid that, but I liked it for three reasons: it was my favourite colour, purple, it had only done 18,000 miles, and had absolutely no rust around the filler cap area, which is so rare on Kas! There was only some minor rust on the sills, so the deal was done. I then found an EcoBoost in a scrapyard in Swansea, and made the seven-hour round trip to pick that up for £550. These engines are a lot more expensive now…”
This was August 2019, and by Christmas the engine was physically in the car. A friend, James Irons, was drafted in to make the custom intake parts as welding is his speciality, and Craig then spent the next few months figuring out the wiring, working out which bits to keep and what he could lose from the Fiesta ST looms. By March 2020 it was running, as a sort of cobbled-together test-bed so that everything could be checked and refined before final installation. At this point, he was able to crack on with solving the various challenges presented by the chassis and the interior, before sending the car back to James for a bespoke exhaust system.
First track day testing for the EcoBoost-swapped Ford Ka
“I got it MOT’d in September 2020, but still had a load of work to do before I was ready to track it,” Craig continues, “and I was still coming across lots of teething issues. The first track day was Snetterton on 8th June 2021 – which ended badly, quickly. After maybe ten laps or so, one of the coolant hoses on the header tank popped off and, despite me watching my temp gauge at the time, it didn’t move because obviously it was reading hot air and steam at that point!
My only clue in hindsight was that I lost rear traction entirely round Palmer corner and spun onto the grass. It was weird, but I blamed my car setup and just carried on; the Ka only lasted the rest of the lap without coolant and got me back to the pits, and I quickly realised what had happened. So the coolant must have sprayed onto my rear right tyre on Palmer corner, and that was the end of the day for me. It then took me quite a while to take the engine apart and see what was wrong.”
Moving house and having a one-year-old daughter were perfectly reasonable excuses for the slowdown in progress, but eventually Craig was able to turn his attentions back to the ongoing EcoBoost-swapped Ford Ka project. Cracking the engine open he discovered that the head had massively warped, and as such it was scrap. Nil desperandum, he sourced a straight second-hand head and got the engine back together by April 2023, having heavily improved and beefed-up the coolant system.
Further track modifications for the EcoBoost-swapped Ford Ka
“A busy summer meant minimal work on the Ka, but then over the winter the car went back to James again for a custom FIA-spec rollcage to be made,” says Craig. “He also fitted the LSD – James knows his way round gearboxes as well as being able to weld! – and then I drove it here and there to shake it down, on sunny Sundays and commuting to work in it and so on, before some track days over the summer – the first of which was Brands Hatch on 13th June.
“First and foremost it’s a track car so that’s what it will primarily be used for,” Craig goes on, “and to be honest the only real reason it’s always kept road-worthy is for shakedown purposes. I intend to do track days, hillclimbs and sprints this year and next year, to develop the car and myself; then I may consider circuit racing if I can find a series that suits me and the car.”
Conclusion
Whichever direction the project takes, one thing you can be absolutely sure of is the integrity of the engineering. This stuff’s in Craig’s blood, it’s second nature to stress-test things to the nth degree and formulate elegant and robust solutions, and it’s that clarity of vision that’s led to what is quite possibly the coolest Ka on the scene right now. A thoroughly irrational concept, executed with perfect rationality.
Photos: Jason Dodd.
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