A Brief Recount of a Historic Day for Fifteen52 & Mountune USA.
There’s something special about track days that get the mind, body, and soul in line for just a brief moment. If you’ve been on a track before, you would understand that pure adrenaline that courses through you from the moment you wake til the time you end your day. February 29th was not unlike what I just mentioned - but a bit more special for us a Fifteen52. That day, we set records with Mountune USA's Ford Focus RS.
First, a brief on this spectacular Ford Focus Build - The car was purchased brand new in June of 2016 as a development mule for the Mountune Focus RS product line. Intercooler, exhaust, suspension, boost hoses, high flow intake, recirc valve, brake lines, brake pads, MRX turbo upgrade, forged engine program, alloy inlet manifold, direct injection fuel upgrades, short shifter, clutch, axle, ATB differential, transmission upgrades, PTU brace, radiator, oil cooler, etc. Yeah, this isn’t your typical daily driver - this car was meant to utterly shine on a road course and test the quality of Mountune’s numerous Ford Focus parts.
Mountune's Engineers and Mechanics speaking with professional driver, Robin Shute on the Ford Focus RS's performance
We don’t take track days lightly here - especially this particular one. A team of engineers, a photographer, videographer, a company executive, and professional racecar driver all got together at 4:00am Friday morning to head out to Buttonwillow Raceway in Kern County, CA. A good 2 and a half hour drive from the city of Los Angeles - but we were all way too excited for the event that the drive felt like moments. Arriving at about 7:00am to the Turn8 Track Event, the whole paddock was chirping with exotics, euros, american and tuners. Everything from a McLaren to an entire crew of S2000. Beginner tracksters and full fledged racers brisked away to their Driver’s Meeting while the rest of the Mountune52 crew got to work.
The Ford Focus RS's Entourage all sporting Fifteen52s and Falken Tires
Set up was quick and easy, this is a professional team with years of experience on modified cars. Our Ford Focus was outfitted with Fifteen52’s Super Touring Podiums, Frosted Graphite in 18” wrapped in Falken’s RT615K+ tires that gripped that track like there was no tomorrow. Even the rest of this Ford Focus’s entourage was of course sporting Fifteen52. Our F-150 Raptor sat menacing on our Traverse HDs and our Ranger sat on our Analog HDs as well. However, we didn’t come here to just look good - we were here to prove the highest quality with all products involved.
Mountune's Ford Focus RS, driven by Robin Shute, getting ready to hit the track for the first time of the day
8:00am hit and it was off to get the first run of the day in. Our Driver, Robin Shute, winner of the 2019 Pike’s Peak International Race, showed us his skill by clocking in a 1:59.095 lap first time around the track. While we didn’t go out to set any special lap time, we’re told that is the fastest lap on record by a Focus RS at Buttonwillow Raceway. While surely this was unexpected, it is a huge feat for all parties involved with this build. One we weren’t anticipating, but made us go home with smiles on our faces and pride in our work nonetheless.
Mountune's Ford Focus RS on the Track
The multiple other runs throughout the day brought more information and success then the last in terms of the quality of all our products. Our Super Touring Podium’s are still outfitted on this track star to this day with the same set of Falken RT615K+ tires ready to go again at a moment's notice. Our Driver, Robin Shute, left the track that day with yet another title under his signature helmet, and the Mountune Team of engineers and mechanics are excited to share battle tested products with you in the very near future. If you made it this far into our very brief recount of a historic day for us, we thank you. We hope to bring more awesome snippets of what’s going on in the Fifteen52 world and hope you’ll continue to be apart of the 52family.
Watch a brief video of our day at Buttonwillow Raceway!
