“Sriracha was actually out of action briefly as the cold snap proved too much for it and it refused to run, so it had to be left for a few days until it could be towed to Mario’s shop; once it was there and it had thawed out the mini ST sprang back into life without any issues though, so fortunately no damage had been done. Mario even managed to get a Nitrous Blue RS as a loaner for those few days and had a bit of fun (scratch that, a LOT of fun) using it as his daily while the Fiesta was a popsicle.”
Sometimes opportunities present themselves, things align, and you have to take the chance you are given. That’s what Mario did last week when he became the proud owner of a Nitrous Blue Focus RS – yes, the same Nitrous Blue RS that he was lent for a few days.
If you’ve been following our YouTube channel and/or Instagram, you’ll have known about this already. If you haven’t, well then – surprise! Didn’t see this coming, did you?
In case anyone reading this hasn’t yet seen the videos, they’re being included in this post for your viewing pleasure; the second has been linked further on so as to not spoil the surprise of what happened to Sriracha just yet. For now, we begin with Mario’s new RS:
I knew that Mario had been strongly considering switching over to this car since his few days with it as his loaner while poor Sriracha was frozen solid. An RS had been on his mind for quite a while, and in fact he’d even originally wanted one to replace Ketchup but they were not yet being delivered at the time and of course there was also the small matter of the substantial jump in MSRP over a FoST or FiST (about $50,000 CAD). He ended up getting Sriracha of course, and thoroughly enjoyed the car, but when this RS not only appeared but he had the opportunity to buy it for a good price and ensure that Sriracha would go to a good home (while staying within the group), I think Mario’s mind was made up pretty swiftly.
When I received a text asking for some Lamin-X film sized for RS fog lights, I knew that was my cue to grab the camera and make my way over to see what was now HIS RS.
That also meant the opportunity to see Gizmo, which is always welcome.
Mario was finishing up with all of the paperwork when I arrived so he handed me the keys to let me take a peek through it in the meantime.
The car was bought as a basically stock RS (there may be a short shifter in it? We need to pull apart the console and check) but the one “modification” that it definitely had was a carbon fiber vinyl-wrapped roof; we agreed that this was a nice throwback to Ketchup, as it had the same vinyl on its roof for most of its life.
Since the car is a 2017 model that means it retains the body-colour rear wing and mirror caps, which look better if you ask me anyway, and the “black” roof looks great on its own.
This also means however that it lacks the OEM carbon fiber interior trim (not to mention the front LSD) but we’ve at least started to remedy one of those things since the collection – but that’s for another post. One thing that Mario didn’t wait at all to change however, was the shift knob; just like when he collected Sriracha, the shift knob was swapped out before the car even moved an inch following the paperwork.
As nice as it would have been to simultaneously own Sriracha and the yet-to-be-officially-named RS, purchasing the latter did mean having to sell the former. As mentioned in the video Mario didn’t want to have two vehicles (because it of course requires extra space, means having extra insurance/registration costs, having more money tied up in vehicles, and so on) so Sriracha had to leave his garage to make room for the RS – both figuratively and literally. We refrained from mentioning in the first video who exactly had purchased the Fiesta as we wanted to keep that a bit of a surprise until it was official. With all of the time, effort, and care that had been put into Sriracha, Mario didn’t want to see it go to just anyone, and so as hinted its new owner was someone else in the group…
Sriracha’s new owner actually collected it the day after Mario picked up his RS, but the video was held a bit longer for suspense…actually it was just because I didn’t have a chance to edit it that night. Haha. Thanks to the guys for not posting anything until after the video went live so as to not spoil anything!
Anyway, I was back at Mario’s work the next day to grab the photos and videos of Sriracha’s handover – and see Gizmo again, of course.
Hopefully you watched the second video before scrolling further but I’ll keep running with the whole “who’s the new owner?” mystery just a moment longer. Take a close look in this photo however, and you’ll be able to figure it out…
…because a familiar car in the background was missing its license plate. Derrick bought Sriracha!
Seeing Mario step into an RS was perhaps an unexpected but – for lack of a better word – logical transition. He’d already owned both a FoST and FiST, so the next step was to the top of the food chain with a FoRS. Seeing Derrick switch from his Camaro to Sriracha however, was perhaps a bit more of a surprise.
As long as I’ve known Derrick, he’s had that Camaro. We used to be nearly the only domestic owners at local meets with our white GMs, and he’s now switched over to the Blue Oval. From an automatic, naturally-aspirated V6-powered, RWD coupe to a manual, turbo 4-cylinder, FWD 5-door hatch, he made quite a switch!
I’ll have some of Mario’s thoughts on the vehicle swapping in a coming post – with a few of my own as well, following my first-ever stint driving an RS – but Derrick provided a few comments on why he made the swap which I can share here today.
The Camaro wasn’t really old (9 model years) but Derrick had put a lot of kilometers on it in that time. Also, being a V6 model meant that the aftermarket support wasn’t there for it, like it was for its V8-powered siblings. Swapping in the larger engine would entail a LOT of work and require a lot of money, so all in it started to make sense to switch into something new.
He’s having a ton of fun with the Fiesta, enjoying the completely different driving experience it offers, and since he not only knew the full history of it but had been there every step of the way during its build, he knew exactly what he was buying and didn’t have to worry about there being any surprises or hidden issues.
Unfortunately his Camaro – affectionately nicknamed Lowmaro – was traded in so this may be the last time it’s ever seen on the site (save for any future Throwback posts of course), but it served him well and he made no shortage of great memories with it.
The beginning of every chapter marks the end of another, and this one saw Lowmaro leave the group. We hope that whoever buys it next enjoys it and that it treats them well!
And so, there we go; Derrick and Mario’s new cars! It was an exciting couple of days for them to say the least and I’m still not used to seeing either of them in their respective new vehicles, but both are having plenty of fun and each has managed to get a more practical car than what they had as well; Derrick gained a couple of doors and Mario now has something larger with AWD.
As hinted at above, the RS has already seen a tiny bit of work following the purchase and more parts are on their way now, so an update will be posted in the coming weeks. As for Sriracha, I’m actually not sure of Derrick’s immediate plans for it but frankly it doesn’t really need anything other than a switch back into summer mode when the weather allows.
-Bill
EXTRAS:
