Kansas man bought a completely wrecked rally car and it turned out to be unbelievable fun
- This wrecked former rally car turned out to be a lot of fun
- It was rescued by YouTuber Westen Champlin
- He fixed it up and got it back out on the road
Published on Apr 04, 2025 at 4:39 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Apr 07, 2025 at 5:54 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
This man bought a completely wrecked Ford Focus RS former rally car and ended up having a lot of fun with it.
YouTuber and car lover Westen Champlin, from Kansas, bought the cheapest one he could find and decided to see if he could fix it up.
Although the car was cheap, there was a good reason for that: it was wrecked.
But just because the car wasn’t in great shape, didn’t mean it wasn’t a lot of fun.
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The poor old rally car had seen better days
Westen Champlin is no stranger to an automotive challenge, he’s previously bought a sight-unseen mini truck and attempted to drive it 1,000 miles, and even put blades on a Corvette and took it out on the ice.
So taking on a bashed-up 2017 Ford Focus RS shouldn’t be too much of a challenge, right?
The Ford had clearly seen better days, it had sustained some serious damage to the front right-hand side, but Westen managed to look on the bright side.
“Most importantly for us, it’s already crashed, so it was cheap,” he said. Well, that’s one way of looking at it.
Given the state of the vehicle, it should come as no surprise to learn that it wasn’t running when Westen and his pals got their hands on it.
However, the car lover was determined to get it back up and running again.
“I am so excited to put this car back together,” he said.
“I think this is going to be one of the funnest cars.”
Ford Focus RS rally car
First things first, they replaced the damaged Engine Control Module but that had to be taken to a Ford dealership to be programmed.
Once that was sorted – somewhat unbelievably – the engine turned over and the rally car was running again.
Although the car was up and running, it was far from job done. Westen still had to fix a bunch of other issues, including its suspension and fitting a new control arm.
He also got a new set of wheels and tires.
With all the work done and dusted, the time came to take the Ford Focus RS out for a test drive and it looked like a whole lot of fun.
“This car is epic,” Westen declared as he whipped the rally car around firing up dust as he went.
As you’d expect from a rally car, it was fast – very fast – making it ideally suited to pull off a few donuts.
Which just goes to show that just because a car has seen better days, doesn’t mean it’s only fit for scrap.
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Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Claire covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on cars, technology, planes, cryptocurrency, and luxury.
