John and Jennifer Joseph know what it takes to make a car truly unique. When the time came to trade in their old daily driver for a new hot hatch, they followed a build path that would ensure their new ride was truly one of a kind.

While many new-car enthusiasts perform bolt-on performance upgrades to their new project cars, the husband and wife team decided the only way to make this project truly unique was to focus their build on a custom paint scheme with a Mystic appeal. Their hot hatch of choice for this epic build? None other than a fully loaded 2014 Focus ST.

“The car’s original color was Tuxedo Black,” Jennifer said. “When we started to realize that the black paint was accumulating a lot of rock chips from the harsh Virginia roads, we decided it was time to take that step and make our Focus ST truly unique.”

But finding a custom paint scheme to match the upgrades that they had planned for the 2014 Focus ST proved to be a lot harder than they thought.

“We originally tossed around the idea of a Calypso Green paint scheme for our Focus ST,” she said. “From there we looked at a few different purples, greens, and teals. We even thought about respraying the car Tuxedo Black.”

It wasn’t until Jennifer remembered seeing a 1996 SVT Mustang Cobra painted in the rare Ford Mystic that they finally decided this would be the Focus ST’s new unique color.

Now that they had found the right color for their build, the husband and wife went in search of a custom paint shop to bring their build to life. They found a shop in Virginia Beach that was able to transform the Tuxedo Black ST into the stunning new color.

Beginning The Build

• 
• 

It takes some guts to strip down the original paint on a new vehicle and respray it the way you want it! Check out that Mystic flake!

With the paint taken care of, they decided to work on this project gradually, doing the majority of the work themselves.

“Our first upgrade on the Focus ST was installing Turbosmart’s blow-off valve,” she said. “Because our ST is also our daily driver in Virginia, we ended up switching out the car’s stock summer tires for a set of all-seasons.”

And like most enthusiasts, once the first couple parts were installed, they were bitten by the upgrade bug, and it was on!

John and Jennifer next focused their build on some exterior modifications. Looking for a more aggressive stance, they installed the Street Scene Equipment front chin spoiler and side splitters that gave the hot hatch a more aggressive look.

They also added Cobb’s 6061 billet aluminum rear motor mount to keep the engine from flailing about the engine compartment on hard shifts.

Focusing On Performance
Now that they were happy with their exterior upgrades, the duo focused on performance. Because the stock 2014 Ford Focus ST’s 2.0-liter turbocharged engine already puts out some impressive power straight from the factory, John and Jennifer decided to stick with bolt-on performance upgrades that would add a bit more power without compromising the driveability as a daily driver.

• 
• 

In stock form, the 2014 Focus ST is no slouch. Its 2.0-liter turbocharged EcoBoost engine produces 252 horsepower and 272 lb-ft of torque. John and Jennifer raised that output by adding a Cobb Stage 3 tune as well as a cp-e cold air intake and high-flow downpipe.

“My husband has always been one to modify all of the vehicles that we have owned,” Jennifer explained. “Before we started our performance upgrades, many people were telling us to start building up the motor and adding a turbo upgrade. But with this car, we wanted to take our time and stick to bolt-ons.”

Even though the team decided to play it safe when it came to usable power for their daily driver, John is no stranger to big Ford performance builds. His previous builds include a 1998 Cobra, a 2000 Ford Lightning, and an anniversary edition 1999 Mustang!

• 
• 

You can really see just how much the Mystic paint shifts color in the different light!

In their pursuit of more bolt-on power, the husband and wife duo installed cp-e’s Cold Air Intake, Intercooler, and 3-inch catted downpipe. They also installed Borla’s full 2.5-inch Cat-Back exhaust which gave the ST a nice, aggressive sound. The ST was then tuned using COBB’s Stage 3 tune.

Their most recent upgrade was installing the Velossa Tech’s Big Mouth intake snorkel to allow max airflow into the intake.

John and Jennifer’s 2014 Focus ST build really is a unique build. Instead of focusing their build on big power upgrades, the husband and wife team focused their build on the vehicle’s Mystic paint, which is difficult to find these days.

With more enthusiasts using vehicle wraps to change the appearance of their vehicle, it’s nice to see a build that was not afraid to take a newer model daily driver’s paint and strip it down to bare metal. Respraying the entire ST truly made the Ford Mystic paint scheme the focal point of the build.

John and Jennifer did a great job replicating the iconic paint scheme that was originally applied to only 2,000 of Ford SVT’s 1996 Mustang Cobras. A modern hot hatch that gives a nod to the history of Ford Performance is definitely a project we can get behind. Great work, team!