I have a chance to pick away at the keyboard this evening and with that opportunity I feel it best that we formally introduce (reintroduce?) a car that you would have seen in the odd photo on our Instagram this season. As the title would suggest – and to no one’s surprise – we’re sticking with the food-related names and as such the little green ST you’re looking at today is the one we now refer to as Wasabi.

Not only has the car been seen before but so have other projects in its new caretaker’s stable, since Andrew is the one with the keys to this weapon now. While he has kept busy in the truck scene and also went the Miata route for a while, Andrew is no stranger to Ford hatches having previously owned a supercharged Mk1 (long term readers may remember Spork) as well as another Mk7 Fiesta ST. With that latter example having left his stable a little while ago he had a Fiesta-sized space in the garage and so when Reid’s 2014 came up for sale earlier this year he jumped on it. As has been expressed before when folks in our little circle pick up a project from someone else within it, the usual concerns and worries of taking over a heavily-reworked car can more or less be tossed out the window as the history and amount of care given are knowns instead of unknowns. Wasabi is without a doubt one of the most extreme examples of a FiST around here (if not the most extreme) but Andrew knew it was put together properly and taken care of so he could get right into tweaking it to make it his own, as well as putting it through its paces on track; and he has.

So far this year little Wasabi has been out to a couple of events alongside my S15 (we’ve yet to have it next to Mustard but that’ll happen) so I have been able to collect a few proper photos of my own, but this still isn’t quite some full in-depth feature. Regardless, we can share some more on the car and give you all an idea of what kind of ST Andrew took over as well as how he’s already started to make it his own.

We might as well begin with the powertrain since it has seen the most work; under that vented hood sits quite a few new parts including a larger turbo (Garrett), titanium piping, Snow Performance water/meth kit, Tial blow off valve and wastegate, Mishimoto radiator, CPE intake, DHM intercooler, and so forth. A new Injen exhaust has also been employed to expel the gasses, and a DHM tune oversees it all.

As for the exterior, if the factory Green Envy paint wasn’t attention-grabbing enough there’s also the case of the aforementioned vents as well as the M2 Motoring flares; and this is after Andrew started to tone it down as well! The car had originally come with the fog lights deleted and recesses blocked off but that was a bit too far one way on the race car/street car scale for his taste so Andrew picked up a brand new OEM bumper and trim to replace the old setup – you can see that the photo above was taken when we were still waiting on the fog lights themselves to arrive, and the Ford oval had yet to be installed.

Arguably the most unique touch to the exterior are the APR mirrors, with the custom baseplates (we’ll call them that) being colour-matched when the new bumper was sprayed for Andrew.

Out back then – alongside the coincidental “320” license plate – Wasabi also sports a Fury Motoring wing extension and third brake light flasher. You can also make out a bit of the wrapped roof, a nice detail to match the other black (or carbon) parts on the car.

Behind the wheels (Japan Racing units with Potenza RE-71Rs here), there’s no missing the Wilwood big brake kit with its bright red calipers; pieces that definitely get used and tested on track (I’ve seen photos of them glowing). For suspension the hatch sits on BC Racing coilovers with Swift springs, runs a pair of Eibach sway bars, and also has no shortage of bracing from Pierce Motorsports underneath.

With such an extensive mod list in regards to the performance side of the car, Andrew was able to get right to work tracking it and getting a feel for the new project so he can extract the most from it. I’m not sure where he will (or wants to) go from here in regards to the car’s powertrain/suspension/brakes but with his continued tweaks to the styling and interior (incidentally he received it with half of the interior in boxes and has been putting that back as well to make it more streetable) he’ll be kept busy and continue to make Wasabi his own.

-Bill