Plastic – Bad | Carbon – Good | CalPonyCars gets in the Carbon Game

EXTERIOR

Its a widely known fact that the fastest color for anything automotive is Carbon Fiber! With that said, the Focus ST  came with no carbon on it from the factory. Such a shame since it wears it well.

The exterior of the Project 5 ST has now been outfitted with a few carbon bits provided by California Pony Cars (Calponycars.com). The first part installed was the most noticeable and the part that has the highest visual impact. These carbon mirror caps are sexy right out of the box! Eac curve and contour matches the OEM mirror cap with perfection. With the supplied cleaning wipes, 3M prep stick, and 3m double sided – pre applied tape, installation was a breeze-ish. With the properly cleaned surface, and the incredibly sticky tape, once the two meet, there is no turning back. Ask me how I know :-/. With a steady hand, and a little patients, the carbon covers lay perfectly over the factory mirror caps. In this application, a small gap between the new carbon cap and the sidemarkers is exaggerated since the car is Oxford White. It’s very noticeable, but not bad looking. I believe that the thin line of white helps keep the mirrors aesthetically tied to the rest of the car. I could imagine this looking amazing on a Tangerine Scream! For those with black ST’s or the new 2014 Gray, the line would be just about invisible. My only real gripe is the edge of the carbon. While it is a finished edge, it would look nicer with a tapered edge, and I would prefer the gap to be filled. I’m really grasping at straws with trying to find flaws in these caps, since they’re absolutely stunning in every way. I’m very impressed with the overall quality and love how they change the personality of the car by adding a smidge of aggressiveness. A must have detail for anyone wanting to impress.

The rear of the ST is given an injection of carbon on the lower valence to frame out the P5’s Borla Exhaust. This simple part looks phenomenal by itself and even better on the car. I cannot find anything at all that I don’t like about it. The edge is tapered, the fit is spot on, and the curves are sexy! The juxtaposition of the smooth white paint, and the metal from the polished tips is enhanced tenfold with the addition of the carbon fiber. The installation is incredibly straight forward and similar to the installation of the mirror caps with the addition of two mounting screws on the bottom to give you that extra layer of protection. This was a smart decision by the designers at calponycars since this area of the car must deal with a constant bombardment of dust, debris, water when in raining, and even extreme temperatures coming from the exhaust, all of which could accelerate the eventual degradation of the the double-sided tape (after many many many years).  If you fancy carbon, and/or consider yourself a carbon-o-phile, this is a must have piece. If you’re like me and have been disappointed with the look of the 2013-2014 ST lower valance, or more so the fact that its not an RS, this is a little dose of happiness for your tailpipes.

These few pieces of carbon on the exterior of the car have added a more aggressive tone without going overboard with massive expanses of make-believe carbon wrap, plasti-dip or even carbon body panels that will no doubt fade in only a few years. If you’re looking for that next step in improving the exterior look of your ST, these parts are for you! They will blend well with any style from stanced, to #becauserace, to the car show fanatic.

 

ENGINE BAY

CalPonyCars has brought these visually appealing parts to the engine bay which in its OEM form is a sea of textured plastic. Three parts to choose from including a cover for the battery cover, fuse box, and coolant overflow tank.

All three pieces are incredibly simple 5 minute installations. Clean, prep, peel, stick. The only down side after installation of all three parts is that the remaining parts in plastic look even more lame. In my engine bay, your eye is first drawn to the bright whiteness of the COBB intake, then to the two pieces of carbon on the right over the battery and fuses which complement each other well. Your eyes then jump to the other side of the engine bay where your eyes are then fixed on the 6-pack abs of the carbon coolant tank cover. After you realize that you must have these parts for your car, you step back and look at the bay as  whole  and then your eyes are brought back to reality with the giant plastic engine cover and the very obvious plastic air cleaner housing.

These parts are not the answer to the all the plastic woes in the engine bay, but it’s the first step to recovery.

INTERIOR

This last piece that CalPonyCars has introduced in carbon is Carbon door sill plates. These are not cover, but direct replacements. If you have a 2012-2015 non-ST, when you open your door, your greeted with nothing. When you open the door on your 2014/15 ST, you’re greeted with some nice stainless and plastic ST badged door sill protectors. I couldn’t bring myself to removing the ST sills, so I found a local ST owner that is a carbon-o-phile and had no problem pulling out his ST door sills. Removal of the OEM parts was easy with just some light pulling, and installation is again just as easy as clean, prep, peel and stick. The bottom of the CalPonyCars sills even have an indentation on the bottom to follow the small step line in the door sill which helps line everything up perfectly straight. The only thing you should probably measure is the position forward and back to make sure they line up with each other on both sides of the car. But who are we kidding, This is instant gratification modification, and there’s no time to look at those little itty bitty lines on the tape measure. They’re just there because they’re narcissist and want attention and meaning to their existence.

Actually, if you’re like me and want everything perfect, you should probably measure it.

From what I could gather, there are more carbon bits coming from CalPonyCars, some of which tackle the remaining plastic under the hood, and elsewhere around the car as long as sales are good with this first offering. I hope I’ve done my job enough to sway you to getting these parts for your ST by showing you what they look like installed.

Check out all their offerings at www.calponycars.com