Taking a leftfield approach has led Daniel Brown to create one of the most surprising and innovative Mk6s on the scene, this is his EcoBoost Mk6 Fiesta ST.
Offbeat thinkers have always driven the modifying scene forwards. The ability to view an established form or entity with a fresh perspective is not something everybody can successfully deploy, but there are characters for whom this stuff is just second nature. Take a look, for example, at kustom legend George Barris, who devised such lunatic creations as the original Batmobile and the Munster Koach in the 1960s. Or Jamie Shaw of Carisma in the ’90s, who did weird and peculiar things to Renault 5s, and then took that mystical witchcraft and stirred it into a TVR Cerbera. These are not normal things to do, but c’mon – who ever wanted to be normal?
Within this realm of visionaries and dreamers resides Daniel Brown, the owner of this particularly peculiar Fiesta. And while first glances may not lead you to believe that anything especially radical is going on here, the relatively sober exterior actually hides a great many secrets. There are distinctly un-Mk6-like things going on here.
For starters, there’s an EcoBoost under the bonnet. Peep inside the cabin, and you’ll find that it’s been fully Mk7 Fiesta swapped. And the ethos for the whole thing comes from a distinctly unexpected angle too: Daniel’s dream Ford was always the Sapphire Cosworth, but with values of those having skyrocketed, he decided on the Mk6 Fiesta instead – something which couldn’t be more different to the old ’80s saloon, really.
Why swap in an EcoBoost engine to the Mk6 Fiesta ST?
His reasoning? That he also rather liked the Mk1 Focus RS when it came out, and the Mk6 Fiesta sort of reminded him of a scaled-down version of that. “They have a very appealing design,” he shrugs. “I have loved the Mk6 since they first arrived back in the day; my friend owned one brand new, and I always liked the feel of them on the road. I just love the aggressiveness of the shape and the body lines, and ever since the Mk1 Focus RS came out they made me think that this could have been the little brother to that car.”
Well, that’s as good a mission statement as any, isn’t it? And that does much to explain just why and how Daniel’s pursued the performance angle to such an aggressive degree with this car. None of the things he’s done here are what anybody would have expected, he’s not exactly trodden the beaten track – but it wouldn’t be any fun if it was easy, would it? Besides, this fella has plenty of form with putting the ‘wrong’ engines into cars with the aim of making them a bit scary. The likes of the 16v-converted 106 XSi, 2.0 XE-engined Corsa and Mi16 205 are all connoisseurs’ monsters, proving that he’s not one to shy away from tearing a car to bits and reinventing it as something fabulously abnormal.
Buying the Mk6 Fiesta ST
“I initially wanted to build a K20 sleeper Mk6,” Daniel explains. “My friend Mark who was racing Mk6s at the time said he would sell his spare ST150 rolling shell cheap. I went to his unit which was round the back of Sitech and had a look; it had no engine, no interior and the inside was sodden with water as the windows had been left open for months! But I was happy enough with it, and I handed him £400 for the shell and the car was at my work a week later.
“It was a solid base,” he continues, “and quite possibly the cleanest Mk6 shell underneath that I had ever seen. It just needed one tiny welding repair on the offside rear sill where they all go.
Adding parts to the bare shell
Luckily I have access to ramps at work, so up it went and I fully undersealed it, fitted a powder-coated rear axle, front subframe, front ARB and Zetec S front hubs to give it the best chance in the future – as the car is fully road legal and I use it all year round on the weekends, so it needed to be protected. We fitted all new arms, tie rods, track rod ends, shafts… basically anything mechanical on this car underneath is brand new and improved.
The only original parts left on the car are the rear calipers. I amassed all the parts to build this Fiesta to the spec it is now (excluding the engine) and we did it all in-house; my workmate Paul has hated me for the last two years as he is the brains behind putting it all together! Anyway, I’d messaged my mate Connor at Devine Autotech about his thoughts on K-swapping this ST150, and he convinced me to go down the route of an EcoBoost build instead. I’m glad he did as I love the fact it’s remained an all-Ford project – he had already built a few very capable EcoBoost-swapped Mk6s up here in Scotland, so the choice was made.”
Sourcing parts for the EcoBoost Mk6 Fiesta ST swap
The car was then delivered to Connor, and he and Daniel set about the task of sourcing all the parts required for the ST180 conversion. Which is a hell of a lot, frankly, as you’d essentially be best off getting a whole Mk7 Fiesta ST and pulling the bits off as and when you need them. But with his contacts in the industry, Daniel was well placed to set about finding everything he needed.
“I was able to pick up bits here and there cheaper than buying a full ST180,” he explains. “Some bits came from my boss, Grant, who owns a scrapyard; some came from crashed Copart cars, my pal Glen at Dalcrue breaks a lot of them, and a load of bits came through the track day group I’m involved with – Tracktion Track Days. There’s always lads breaking them in the group chat, so I was really lucky in piecing it together cheaper than buying a full donor car. I did make Connor’s life awkward at times though as there were occasionally parts missing, so sincere apologies to him for being a pain! But we got there in the end.”
Setbacks during the engine swap
Naturally there was quite a lot of potential for this project to become a total pain in the arse, because that’s just the way it is when you’re doing something deliberately wrong. Ford never meant for all of this stuff to be crammed into a Mk6, so it was inevitable that the unsuspecting hatchback might fight back a little. The engine itself tried to wave a little white flag, presenting a bunch of coolant all over one of the pistons, although thankfully that turned out to be little more than a head gasket issue.
And more recently an exhaust hanger snapped, causing the hot pipe to push against the plastic fuel tank and unhelpfully melt it – but Daniel sees all of these problems as opportunities. In that instance, it gave him the chance to upgrade to a carbon tank guard, Direnza torque mount and a fresh fuel tank, so now he doesn’t have to worry about that any more. And wherever you look across the whole car, it’s the same situation: every part, every upgrade, has a little story behind it.
Track car aspirations?
Now, given the hardcore spec and the painstaking attention to detail throughout the chassis, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this EcoBoost swapped Mk6 Fiesta ST is a dedicated track car. And to be fair, that was the primary focus throughout the planning and the build-up: Daniel had track work in mind all along, with the freshly installed rollcage being the most recent piece of the performance puzzle, and he’s planning plenty of circuit miles across 2024 and beyond. For those of you who’ll be joining us at Ford Fair (which is hopefully all of you, right?), you’ll be seeing this wee monster lapping Silverstone at maximum attack. There is, however, something of the Jekyll-and-Hyde about all this…
Road Runner
“The plan was always to use the car on the road,” he reveals. “Living in central Scotland, we have some of the best driving roads in the UK so I wanted to use it whenever I got the chance. I spent all of 2023 driving it on the road for weekend trips, local shows and meets, just putting miles on it really to test everything is working as it should be. 4000+ miles down and we are good! People’s reactions are the best bit about driving it too, it’s a real head-turner and I imagine people hear it before they see it – it’s not overly loud, but it makes all the right noises.
And when it’s parked up at shows and meets it gets a lot of attention… firstly from the number plate, then the huge intercooler, then people see the big brakes behind the 2118s, then they notice the side-exit exhaust, and the fact that it’s got a full Mk7 interior, and they start scratching their heads! This always ends in a conversation about what’s actually done to it, as frankly it looks like 90% of Mk6s out there.”
Forging its own path
That’s the secret-weapon nature of it, of course. It doesn’t speak all that softly but it’s hardly shouting, and it certainly carries a big stick. And the entire concept is anchored in that unexpected and endlessly potent engine choice.
“I know the EcoBoost isn’t especially pretty,” Daniel laughs. “I never really open the bonnet at shows because not many people realise what engine it actually has; there’s no turbo on show with it being hidden down the back, and it looks the same as any plastic-laden engine from the last fifteen years. Once people realise the engine though, they love it – it’s still a pretty rare conversion, as it’s far from cheap and most people go down the K20 route.
On the road it’s a different story too, no one expects 362bhp in something this small and light and they’re shocked when they see it go or get a ride as a passenger. Connor himself is always surprised at just how well it goes, and it was him that mapped it! It’s just had the perfect package of parts and mapping to get it to the way it is – this Fiesta goes like absolute stink and handles like it’s on rails, so that always shocks people.”
EcoBoost Mk6 Fiesta ST conclusion
That, really, was the point all along. Not specifically to shock people as such, but more to shock the very fabric of what modifying a Mk6 Fiesta entails. Daniel didn’t use a rule book, he didn’t takes his cues from other builds, and – above all – he didn’t compromise. The overarching idea was to have fun, and that’s exactly what this car provides; by employing an offbeat and unexpected perspective, he’s created a unique take on an established platform, and the result is a Mk6 quite unlike any other.
Photos: Ade Brannan.
If you want to see Daniel’s EcoBoost Mk6 Fiesta ST, alongside a whole host of unique, and mesmerising modified car builds then you’ll want to get yourself to Silverstone on August 11th for our annual Ford Fair bonanza. It is what it says on the tin, it’s a gathering of the finest Fords in the UK for one action packed day at the home of British motorsport. Get your tickets here.
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