Andre Neumann is a name familiar to the staff here at LRE, as he's been involved with more than one mind-bending vehicle over the years. For instance, you may remember "Andre's Odyssey," a blacked-out '99 Honda mini-van featured in the August/September issue of Lowrider Euro Magazine. And now Andre's back with a fine 2001 Ford Focus ZX3 hatchback that he built for Ford Motor Company along with the crew at J&A Autosport in Santa Barbara, California.
Since Ford was the customer, you can bet that Andre made certain that this Focus was as sharp as can be. No problema, apparently, as the Focus made its debut at the 2001 SEMA show in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was awarded the Ford Design award for Best of Show Focus. Hey, being familiar with the level of Andre's work, we weren't surprised at all, and we're happy to finally feature the finer than fine Focus in our pages.
Vitals:
Owner: Andre Neumann Vehicle: 2001 Ford Focus ZX3 hatchback City/State: Santa Barbara, California Club: J&A Autosport
Paint & Body Mods:
The exterior sports a purple and silver graphic scheme done at R Vision Signworks in Santa Barbara, California. Customizations include APC carbon fiber hood and projection headlights, Trenz billet antennas, Wings West Avenger body kit with three-piece deck lid spoiler and "whale-tail" deck wing, Focus tuning M3 mirrors, Catz HID kit and XLD combo driving/fog lights. The factory taillights were smoked, turn signals shaved and front upper grill "re-fabbed" with mesh.
Performance:
The Focus features a 2.0-liter Z-tec engine with JBA header, AEM cold-air intake, AEM power pulley and cam gears, Nology wires, AEM sparkplug cover, valve cover smoothed and painted along with miscellaneous plastic pieces, Fluidyne aluminum radiator with Spal high-speed fan.
Suspension:
Stainless Steel Brake Force 10 big brake kit with 13-inch rotors and four-piston calipers up front and 12-inch rear disc conversion with two-piston calipers, all painted purple and silver for that custom look with stainless steel brake lines.
Rims & Rubber:
Boyd Coddington 19-inch one-off Shadow wheels were made out of 6-inch solid billet to fit around the brake kit and to be able to tuck under the fenders.
Interior:
Look inside and you'll find a Sherwood carbon fiber dash kit installed by J&A Autosport, along with a center console that houses the controls to fire up the Check Corp. dual-setting seat heaters that work with Classic Soft Trim leather seats that have a pattern approved by Ford Motor Company's Racing Division and were installed in Industry, California, by Todd Abraham. Also included is an Autometer dual-pillar pod housing Autometer Phantom Series nitrous and oil pressure gauges. A four-point Autopower roll-bar was installed and painted to match the purple paint scheme by J&A. The center console, gauge cluster cover, stereo trim and door handles were all smoothed and painted. There's also a B&M short shift kit and shift knob, Webasto/Hollandia-powered sliding roof (ragtop), Colorado Custom full-billet steering wheel with center horn button custom machined with the Ford oval logo, Trenz billet pedals and dead pedal, APC Indiglo gauges and Autometer air/fuel meter recessed behind the center vent.
Audio/Video:
An Audiovox in-dash DVD player to provide the audio/video feed to the rest of the components, which include MA Audio Synergy 5.25-inch separates found front and rear, MA Audio amps, processor and line driver, and 12-inch aluminum dual-voice coil subs. The four-channel amp was located in the front passenger floor board and a false floor look was fabricated to house the amp by complementing it with matching paint scheme. Audiovox screens were incorporated into the factory sunvisors as well as the rear headrests. Last but not least, an 18-inch swivel-screen monitor folds down from the roof. All wiring was provided by Scosche. All audio/video gear was installed by StreetSound of Santa Barbara.