No, Butsy didn’t need to build another custom Mk2 Focus RS. He’s already got two really cool ones. But being sensible never really blips on this guy’s radar…
“This car was meant to be a fast daily, not a show car.” Uh-huh, we should have seen this coming, really. Butsy does have a habit of getting carried away. His idea of ‘not a show car’ is rather different to most people’s.
For the uninitiated, Grant Butler (better known to most folks as Butsy) is something of a whirlwind in the Ford modding scene. He collects RS Fords like your grandma used to pick up Green Shield Stamps, and there’s no way any of his stuff can ever remain stock.
Regular readers of Fast Ford will have enjoyed his updates in the Fast Fleet section, and you can also find him waxing Celtically lyrical about his oval-badged projects on YouTube as Butsy Customised, along with his ever-bustling Insta feed. And if you haven’t seen our video of Butsy’s car collection then watch that now! What’s all the more remarkable is that this isn’t his day job – he’s an obsessive hobbyist who just can’t leave things alone.
Why build another custom Mk2 Focus RS?
Now, the genesis of this latest Ford project is amusingly odd. Because, as many of you will be well aware, Butsy already has two incredible customised Mk2 Focus RSs, one of which packs over 1,000bhp; both are built for ludicrous speed and impeccably agile performance while also being presented with a show-winning finish. So why did he need to build another one?
“Yeah, it’s best if you don’t ask my wife that question,” he laughs. “It does make sense, really; see, I was originally planning to wrap Shadow [his yellow Mk2 RS] in this shade of Caribbean Blue – but to be honest I love that car too much to change it. And around the same time as I was thinking about that, I was offered my good friend Daniel Neale’s old ‘Monster’ Mk2 as a swap for my Fiesta ST180 and Transit M-Sport van. The deal was too good to refuse, so they both went and this car went straight into KW Kustoms to be stripped back to a blank canvas and made my own.
Buying the car
“I’d actually known that Daniel was selling the car a while back, and it was taking him a bit of time to find the price it deserved,” he continues. “Then my mate who owns a raffle site bought it and raffled it off; it went to Manchester and ended up never really getting used… a year later my same friend Sandy bought the RS back and offered it first to me. The car was decent but just tired – it had kerbed wheels, a damaged vinyl wrap, and was generally in need of a serious clean and bodywork repairs to the detached wide-arch kit.”
So there were a few bits and bobs to do, none of which fazed Butsy – but the really attractive part, and the reason that he desperately wanted to own this car, was the engine. A forged five-pot fireball built by Matt Lewis Motorsport, a symphony of savagery, a typhoon of torque, serving up over 500bhp and yelping ungodly shrieks through its screamer pipe. Whatever would come next would all centre around this bulletproof powerhouse; he was essentially acquiring a remarkable motor and getting the rest of the car thrown in for free.
Planning the custom Mk2 Focus RS build
Upon taking delivery, it wasn’t too long before a concept began to form. The idea here would be to emulate the choicest ingredients and ideas from both Shadow and Blaze (the purple 1,000bhp+ one) and turn this third Focus into a sort of greatest hits of the other two. Each of the trio would have its own unique identity and purpose – just about – and thereby sidestep any potential marital discord by being objectively explainable. Or so the theory goes. The addition of air-ride was the really seismic difference, bringing something significant to the table that neither of the other Focuses had. “That only came about because Andrew, my cousin with the yellow Mk3 RS [featured in Fast Ford – September 2023], was taking the air-ride kit off his,” says Butsy. “I literally just took it straight off him and had it bolted into mine!”
Differences with this build
There was another crucial difference to the very nature of this project too, something that Butsy had never really got very in-depth with before. “The build was meant at first to be just a re-wrap and clean up, but after removing the old digital wrap the bodykit underneath was cracked and needed some serious refitting,” he continues.
“Instead, my obsession with detail got the better of me and I just ended up going to town again on it. The major difference on this car was that I was going to do all the bodywork by myself, which I’d never had to do before. It was a learning curve, I encountered a few head-scratchers – like trying to merge the extensions onto the bumpers and trying to make everything line up when the bumpers weren’t near the car to do so; some serious tweaking and smoke-and-mirrors has been done to just take your eye off the imperfections. No, it’s not perfect, but this car was meant to be used for a fast daily, not a show car… although it’s kinda gone the same way as the other two now!”
Reinventing the custom Mk2 Focus RS
It’s the personality and the creative approach that makes it what it is, of course. It would have been perfectly easy to buy the car and keep it as it was, and there wouldn’t have been anything wrong with that – but that’s just not how Butsy rolls. A lot of people in the scene know it as ‘Dan’s car’, and distinctive project builds will always be associated with the person who originally masterminded the whole concept – so all of this was a keen effort to make it unique and put his own stamp on it. “I had to go to the extremes to totally change it over,” Butsy reasons. “It’s no dig at Dan’s design or his creation, he built an absolutely cracking car. But I wanted the car for its engine, not its look.”
That’s what it’s all about really, trying out some new ideas and making something different and personal – and, frankly, getting a bit carried away with it all. Hey, you only live once, right? There may not have been a rational or overarchingly reasonable purpose for somebody with two heavily modified Mk2 Focus RSs (not to mention all sorts of other rapid Ford projects) to build a third one, but life’s too short to be relentlessly sensible. Balance is the key, isn’t it? Take time over the sensible stuff, but also fully commit to the silliness. You don’t always have to ask why. Sometimes it’s better to shrug, smile, and simply say: why not?
Photos: Ade Brannan.
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