Last time in our feature series we outlined the decision process behind the Ford Fiesta and also the process of taking an autocross car on the early steps of its journey to a rally car.
Then came the cage – an internationally recognised design built with T45 steel from the Ford Fiesta R2.
For installation, we reached out to talented engineer Steve Kaitler and his longtime motorsport preparations business, Kaitler Motorsport Engineering.
Steve had completed work for us in the past and was a highly respected race and rally team mechanic for Datsun and Nissan in the 1980s.
His CV includes a good stint working with Jamie Drummond and has a long history building cars for Geoff Portman, who won many events with cars that had Steve’s fingerprints all over them.
While this might not be a rally winner, his skills were more than capable of fitting our cage.
Being a ‘kit cage’ – a cage where the bars come notched and ready for fitment – it was something Steve had not done before, and he was intrigued by the prospect of trying something new. The end result was fantastic, which we expected.
This also enabled Steve to document some of the build process via his successful YouTube channel, Kaitler Motorsport Engineering, which follows his various projects that are completed in his workshop.
Steve had to follow the step-by-step instructions provided with the cage on how to install it, even though it may not have been exactly what he would’ve done personally.
Then, on completion, photos were sent back to M-Sport in the United Kingdom for inspection and were approved, before they could be signed off with the tick of approval.
As always, Steve’s work was second to none. Through the build process, the compliments on the cage kept coming and it can be clear to see why his cars are always reliable.
The next build will again be placed in Steve’s talented hands – along with full engineering freedom. Something he was unable to use on this cage.
From the KME workshop in eastern Melbourne, it was back to RallySport Magazine for more work, however, since then, it’s been a slow process.
We’re somewhat following the M-Sport build guide as closely as we can, and it outlines everything from start to finish for building a Fiesta R2.
While we are not building it to full R2 specification, the basics of the processes are the same in terms of chassis preparation, weight reduction, and other fundamental base workings.
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