Welcome to the new year everyone! As the first post of 2018, kicking things off will be one more quick look back at the now-prior year, counting down the top five most-viewed articles. I keep an eye on the site’s stats as part of running it of course so sometimes I can spot a clear contender pretty early on, but sometimes there are surprises for me too and you guys always seem to enjoy finding out what the popular entries were come year-end anyway. I’d be curious to hear what your predictions were, and if they at all lined up with what the actual list ended up being…

#5. World of Wheels 2017 – Part 1

We start things off this time around with the first post covering World of Wheels 2017. After my hiatus from the event I have very much enjoyed attending it again as part of my yearly events schedule, and having an event this early in the year to share here! As it takes place in the second half of winter it also serves as a great motivator for the upcoming season, and is something very fun to look forward to while there’s still snow on the ground and temperatures are still well below where we’d like them to be.

It seems that all of you have been enjoying it as well as the posts have received a good amount of views, but Part 1 of 2017’s show specifically gained enough to land itself on this annual list.

https://officialthreetwenty.com/2017/02/28/world-of-wheels-2017-part-1/

#4. Driven Calgary 2017 – Part 1

Next up we have another bit of event coverage, in the form of Driven Calgary. As what could be considered the first major event of the year for most of us (that is, the first major one that we participate in), Driven is one that we always look forward to. It is an event that we plan for far in advance and could also be seen as a bit of a celebration that the car show season has finally, truly arrived.

Part 1 in particular was more about the setup as opposed to the show itself, but still offered a sneak peek of some of the other vehicles that had been brought out this time around, and also had an accompanying video showing some more behind-the-scenes of what is one of the largest events of the year. Once again, all of the coverage did well but Part 1 was the most popular of the set, so it’s here today.

https://officialthreetwenty.com/2017/05/12/driven-2017-part-1-setting-up/

#3. ill.Motion Sunday School 2017 – Part 1

Notice a common theme yet? Haha. Coming in at number three this year was the start of the Sunday School coverage. Just like Driven, Sunday School is a major highlight of the year for us and an event that never disappoints. The team at ill.motion have created something massive and incredible, and I don’t think we as a community can thank them enough for all of the work they put in each year to ensure that the Sunday School events are always so much fun, and run so smoothly.

This year was definitely a more relaxed one for us as it has been said before, given that we were not trying to put a jigsaw puzzle (car) back together immediately before the show. As such, I had the energy (scratch that, I had energy, period) to capture more photos this time around and therefore offer more content for all of you.

https://officialthreetwenty.com/2017/08/17/sunday-school-2017-part-1/

#2. Install: OEM 2.3L Throttle Body (NA & ST)

Coming in as this year’s runner-up, is Part 1 of the coverage from…kidding! The 2017 runner-up is actually an install post, and one that didn’t surprise me too much in its final position. In running this site I try to keep a variety of content and continually find new things to cover for all of you, but I also make sure to never neglect what really helped it grow in the first place – Mk3 Focus installs, how-tos, features, reviews, and so forth. Just as much as this site is about the Calgary automotive community, it’s also about Mk3s (and a bit more these days, Mk7 Fiestas) so I try to look for opportunities to feature content that is relevant and/or interesting to fellow owners such as installs and commonly discussed parts or procedures.

The OEM 2.3L throttle body quickly became a fairly hot topic within the Focus world when it was discovered that it was a bolt-on swap, as it was that great combination of an easy-to-find piece that wasn’t too expensive and wasn’t terribly difficult to install. I wanted to publish a how-to for it so I tackled the install on Mustard earlier in the year and when Brian got a throttle body for his sedan as well, we photographed and filmed that to allow for the article to cover both NA and ST installs.

https://officialthreetwenty.com/2017/07/23/install-oem-2-3l-throttle-body-na-st/

The #1 Post from 2017…

This was not a surprise to me at all. The day this post went up it was already clear that it’d be a popular one for this year; in fact, I worked to get it live so fast because I knew that it would be a worthwhile resource to have on the site. I think it’s safe to say that it very much has been as it wasn’t the most-viewed post from 2017 by a little bit, but by a rather sizeable margin. I’d even say that there was not such an obvious winner so early on since the post announcing RDC’s world-first ST-swapped sedan back in 2015, which ended up topping that year’s list. So what is it, you ask?

#1. How To: Mk3.5 Focus ST Front End Conversion

The Mk3.5 front end conversion is a process that continues to be a common topic among Focus owners and questions are always circulating. I wanted a definitive article live to shed some light on the process and since none of us here were doing the conversion, Jon’s install was the source of the much-needed photos and clarification on a few items. On that note, I need to once again extend a very big thank-you to Jon for sending along his photos and notes, as the post obviously wouldn’t have happened without his help. I actually still get questions about the swap so I hope that one day we can offer an even more in-depth walk-through of the whole process but Jon’s notes and photos certainly allowed for a very useful resource for Mk3 owners.

And on that, it may perhaps be a bit odd or unexpected that the most-viewed post of the year is one of the few that I didn’t actually personally shoot the photos for, but one thing that has been a theme since the start of this site is the Mk3 community assisting with content on occasion to help officialTHREETWENTY become a bigger and better resource for these cars. As owners around the world experiment and try new things with the platform, their sharing of knowledge and photographs has helped add to the growing catalogue of articles that cater to the platform and answer questions or provide information for others. Whether it be Mike at RDC swapping his sedan, Yolanda installing her Mountune lip, or Jon updating to the Mk3.5 nose for example, with help from other owners this site has been able to showcase a variety of modifications and offer a lot of information on the Mk3 Focus, and that is something that it will continue to do so moving forward with our own projects as well as others’.

Now, to find a Mk3.5 nose…

https://officialthreetwenty.com/2017/02/20/how-to-mk3-5-focus-st-front-end-conversion/

-Bill