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News
and photo: Ford Rallye Sport
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FORD
RALLYE SPORT today unveiled the most technically advanced
and revolutionary rally car ever when it launched the Ford
Focus RS WRC 03 at the team's Dovenby Hall base in Cumbria,
England.
Innovative
in its radical styling, the evolution version of the successful
Focus RS, winner of 11 world rallies since its debut in 1999,
will make its competition debut on the fourth round of the
FIA World Rally Championship, the Rally New Zealand, on 10-13
April.
The new
Focus RS is radically different in both looks and mechanics
to the car which competed on the opening three rounds of the
2003 championship. Technical director Christian Loriaux and
his engineering team at M-Sport, the company which operates
Ford's world rally programme, have added significant performance
improvements to the most dependable and reliable car in the
championship and a stunning new aerodynamic package gives
the Focus RS an eye-catching contemporary look.
Highlights
of the new Focus RS include:
- Radical
changes to styling and aerodynamic package to increase performance
on faster rallies
- New
rear suspension system
- Improved
weight distribution
- Weight
savings throughout the car
- New
body shell and a roll cage which far exceeds minimum FIA
safety requirement
- New
lightweight engine developed and built by Cosworth Racing
with improved response and more top end power
- Revised
wiring loom and electronic control system
- More
efficient engine and transmission cooling
- Enhanced
Digital Messaging System to relay data to the co-driver's
dashboard display
- Revised
hydraulic control system
The car
is Loriaux's first design since joining the team at the start
of 2002. Starting with a clean sheet of paper, initial design
work began in mid-May 2002 and just seven months elapsed between
then and the car's first brief test run six days before Christmas.
Since then the car has undergone a comprehensive testing programme,
most of it on gravel, in advance of its New Zealand debut.
Engineers
at M-Sport and Ford's newly announced Team RS technical department
in Cologne, Germany, worked closely on the project. Mainstream
engineers at Ford undertook detailed analysis on Loriaux's
roll cage design and the new rear suspension while the climatic
wind tunnel in Cologne was used for advanced testing in the
development of the cooling system and aerodynamics. The dynomometer
there was also used by Ford and Cosworth Racing for dyno work
on the new engine.
Martin
Whitaker, Ford's European director of motorsport, and Malcolm
Wilson, Ford Rallye Sport's team director and managing director
of M-Sport, unveiled the Focus RS this morning at Dovenby
Hall where the finishing touches are being put to the two
entry cars for New Zealand. They will be driven by Markko
Märtin and co-driver Michael Park and Belgian team-mates
François Duval and Stéphane Prévot. The
team's third pairing of Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen
will continue to drive a 2002-specification Focus RS for the
rest of the season.
"The
new Focus RS World Rally Car is the first visible product
of our decision to restructure the Ford Rallye Sport team,"
said Whitaker. "We made a decision to channel more of
our resources into developing a rally car that is even more
capable of winning. I firmly believe that the efforts of Malcolm
Wilson, Christian Loriaux and his engineering team at M-Sport
have given Ford Rallye Sport exactly that. Ford is at the
forefront of rally technology with this car and I believe
it takes the sport to a new, higher level.
"Rally
car development and the regulations have changed to such an
extent over the last few years that the days are gone when
one single step forward could produce a huge leap in performance.
Now it is all about gaining tenths of a second, but those
tenths of a second are the difference between victory and
coming second. I am genuinely excited by what the team has
developed here and I think the car looks sensational. I am
sure that there are more than a few tenths to come on the
basis of this new design. I hope that the first day of the
Rally New Zealand will be a proud one for not just everyone
within the team, but also for all the employees within Ford
Motor Company," added Whitaker.
Wilson
described Loriaux's design as 'radical' and said some of the
ideas were quite revolutionary. "Christian was given
the brief to design a new Focus RS WRC with performance improvements.
We have an incredible reliability record with the Focus, which
has scored world championship points on each of the last 17
rallies, a feat unprecedented in the modern era of the sport.
The next step is to raise the performance level. We're confident
that will not be at the expense of reliability but we have
to be realistic and expect a few problems in the early days
of the new car," he said.
"How
much was new and how much was carried over to the new Focus
was initially Christian's decision. His ideas were exactly
the reason I brought him to Ford Rallye Sport. He has made
an in-depth review of the regulations, with some radical thinking,
and more than 80 per cent of this car is totally new.
"We've
made tremendous weight savings everywhere, reductions in which
Cosworth Racing and Pi Research have played a major part.
This has allowed us to ensure the weight is at the minimum
level. We could have gone below that figure and so that has
enabled us to add weight by strengthening parts in key areas
to achieve a weight distribution which best benefits the balance
and handling of the car.
"Having
said that, we have actually increased the weight of the roll
cage to improve driver safety. The Focus has a reputation
for being a strong and safe car but we took the decision that
if we could raise driver safety levels to an even greater
level then that's something we should do," added Wilson.
The Ford
Focus RS WRC 03 is due to undergo the necessary parts inspections
by the FIA later this week and is due to be homologated as
a World Rally Car on April 1.
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