Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i Fast Ford

DRIVEN STARD ALL-ELECTRIC RALLYCROSS FIESTA Thought all electric cars were boring? Think again. Fast Ford gets behind the wheel of the fully-electric STARD Fiesta that will be competing alongside its petrol-powered peers in this year’s British Rallycross Championship Words HAL RIDGE Electric cars are everywhere right now, including motorsport. And this year, for the first time, they will race within the headline Supercar category within the British Rallycross Championship, where they will go head-to-head against their petrol counterparts. The future is here, but how will the electric cars fare against internal combustion? Will they purely be making up the numbers? Austrian-based motorsport specialist STARD (Stohl Advanced Research and Development) is leading the field with its fully-electric Fiesta, which joins a fleet of conventional petrol-powered rallycross Fords that scooped successes in…

WHAT'S NEW CLUB PROFILE BRISTOL RSOC We catch up with Ian Pullin from the Bristol Group to find out more about this active branch of the RSOC When was the club first founded? The club was founded in 1984. This was a few years after the national club, and was formed to bring like-minded RS owners together in one place in the local area – in and around Bristol and Gloucester. How many members does the club currently have? Currently we have around 125 active members and around 385 Facebook followers – most of our active members are part of the Facebook group. Most of our members are based around the Bristol, Somerset , Gloucestershire and Herefordshire areas, with a few coming across the Severn bridge each month to join…

FAST FLEET Check out what’s been going on with our projects this month… JAMIE FOCUS RS Another quiet month for the RS, but Jamie is hoping to get out on track at RS Combe next month. In the meantime, Jamie’s been blowing the cobwebs off with odd trips to places like Cheddar Gorge for runs out. PAUL COWLAND MUSTANG V8 Wheels can make or break a car, and Paul’s been out shopping for some new rims for the Mustang this month. DAN FOCUS ST250 The Fondeo is back from a full front bumper freshen up, and is looking good once more. Next up, it’s MOT time for the ST. HANNAH FOCUS COSWORTH Shows are coming! With track days fast approaching Hannah is hoping to get some time behind the wheel…

EBC BRAKES’ MK7 FIESTA ST THE END IS NIGH The EBC Brakes team puts the finishing touches to its Ultimate Fiesta Build charity giveaway project before it gets given away to one lucky winner. We’ve got a feeling they’re going to find giving up the keys rather difficult… QUICK SPEC EBC Brakes Racing Apollo Balanced Big Brake Kit • Eibach Pro-Spacer Kit • Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres • Pumaspeed Stage 4 tune with X58EVO turbo • Forge BOV • Cusco Type RS LSD • ST XTA coilovers • Eibach ARBs • Ultra Racing strut braces • Powerflex bushes • Yiannimize vinyl wrap • Rota Recce alloys • Northampton Motorsport geo/alignment setup • P3 Gauges digital air vent gauge • Motordrive bucket seats • Pandora Alarms Light Pro V2 system…

SEASON OPENER UPDATE FORDS IN MOTORSPORT It’s great to see the motorsport season has started once again, and there’s plenty for fast Ford fans to get excited about in 2021 MOTORSPORT FORDS THIS ISSUE MB MOTORSPORT’S FOCUS ST BTCC CARS The MB Motorsport Focuses enjoy some silverware at the 2021 BTCC season-opener at Thruxton M-SPORT’S FIESTA WRC CARS We catch up with the M-Sport crew after the opening rounds of the WRC ACADEMY MOTORSPORT’S BRITISH GT MUSTANGS The British GT series kicked off at Brands Hatch recently, with the Mustangs flying the flag for Ford CLASSIC FAST FORD RACERS This month we follow the RS500s in the Historic Touring Car Challenge and the GT40 racers in the new Amon Cup…

HISTORIC RACING Words & photos PAUL LAWRENCE GT40S IN THE AMON CUP This just has to be the ultimate one-make race series: the Amon Cup for Ford GT40s. Named in memory of the famous New Zealand F1 and sports car racer Chris Amon, race promoter Motor Racing Legends is organising two GT40-only races this season, and the first 80-minute two-driver race was at Donington Park in May. The dreaded Covid restrictions kept some of the European cars away, but a dozen GT40s still made a wonderful spectacle. As well as being pretty handy in a touring car, Gordon Shedden is also very quick in a GT40 and has previously won the Spa Classic Six Hours in the car owned by Philip Walker. Sharing with accomplished historic racer Miles Griffiths, Shedden…

TECH SPEC SIERRA RS COSWORTH ENGINE 1993cc four-cylinder, 16V, DOHC YBB with cast-iron ‘205’ block and alloy cylinder head, 8.0:1 compression ratio, toothed belt drive, Weber-Marelli multi-point fuel injection and electronic management system, Garrett T03 turbocharger with intercooler TRANSMISSION Rear-wheel drive with Borg Warner T5 five-speed manual gearbox, viscous-coupling limited-slip differential, 204mm clutch. Final drive ratio: 3.65:1 SUSPENSION Front: MacPherson struts, Fichtel & Sachs gas-filled dampers, coil springs, lower track control arms, 28mm anti-roll bar; rear: semi-trailing arms, coil springs, Fichtel & Sachs gas-filled dampers, 14mm anti-roll bar BRAKES Front: 283mm ventilated discs and four-piston callipers; rear: 273mm solid discs and floating callipers; Teves ABS WHEELS & TYRES 7x15in multi-spoke RS alloys and Dunlop D40 205/50VR15 tyres EXTERIOR Three-door Sierra hatchback body with unique polycarbonate bodykit comprising deep front bumper,…

10 MINUTE TECH ALIGNMENT ARMS 10 MINUTE TECH ALIGNMENT ARMS This month we take a closer look at alignments arms. What are they? How do they work? And do you need some for your fast Ford? To find out, we spoke to Apex Performance about the range of Hardrace products the company offers WHAT ARE UPRATED ALIGNMENT ARMS AND WHAT DO THEY DO? Uprated alignment arms can offer various benefits. They are stronger than original equipment, are usually adjustable for length and usually feature either uprated bushes or spherical bearings. Adjustable length allows you to set alignment. It means you can dial out excessive negative camber introduced when lowering a vehicle, add negative camber to improve mid-corner grip, add castor to increase negative camber gain when cornering, or add…

WHAT'S NEW FORD STUFF The latest gear on the Blue Oval scene BC RACING FIESTA ST DS SERIES COILOVERS £999.00 BC Racing’s DS coilovers are now available for the Mk7 and Mk8 Fiesta ST. The DS system is built with digressive valving and offers the same great benefits of their popular BR Series model, but are considered a fantastic choice for those who are looking for a more track-biased coilover. The digressive valving offers more stability and enhances cornering ability at low shaft speed, which delivers a different ride from the conventional linear valving that is better suited to track driving demands. The coilovers come with 8kg/mm front and 6kg/mm rear springs as standard, but BC can offer custom spring rates upon request. www.bc-racing.co.uk RALLY DESIGN PUSH BUTTON BONNET PIN…

FIESTA ST200 BULLET WITH BUTTERFLY WINGS Floating like a butterfly but hiding a serious sting, Josh Gibson’s ST200 is bursting with flight and fight Words DAN BEVIS Photos JASON DODD Yin and yang. Light and shade. So much of life is about contrast between good and evil, right and wrong, peace and violence; the poppies on the battlefield, the smiling assassin, the fight at the wedding. The hunkered-down and supremely purposeful ST200 you see here throws this cosmic truth into sharp focus: it’s at once delicate and forceful, slender and muscular, a bullet with butterfly wings. Ford’s decision to slather the limited-run variant of the Mk7 ST in its own bespoke shade of Storm Grey fed neatly into the cultural zeitgeist of buying glossy grey cars, but…

FIESTA ST BOOSTED ST180s: respect your elders. With 475bhp, this ST150 is a real weapon Words BEN BIRCH Photos ADE BRANNAN When you’ve been through every imaginable upgrade for your naturally-aspirated ST150 and it’s still not fast enough, what’s the next step? Many would part-exchange it for an ST180 or Focus ST, and some might do the unforgivable and buy a Megane or something equally hideous. But a very tiny minority would persevere with their beloved Mk6 Fiesta and throw the kitchen sink at it in the quest for ridiculous performance. Adam Ford is that minority. And we mean that literally, because we can’t think of anyone who’s gone this far with an ST150. “I had a Mk6 Fiesta as my first car, and even though it was just a…

ESCORT COSWORTH WRC THE STORY OF… ESCORT COSWORTH WRC The Escort Cosworth WRC is a true fast Ford unicorn. Built in very limited numbers, it was simply the highest-specification and most technologically advanced of all the Cosworth rally cars. Graham Robson tells the full story of this legendary motorsport machine Words GRAHAM ROBSON Photos FORD PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES, ADE BRANNAN, & GETTY IMAGES Photo GREG WOOD VIA GETTY IMAGES Photo MIKE COOPER VIA GETTY IMAGES This story began in 1996, when Ford Motorsport’s Boreham operation was in transition. The Escort RS Cosworth was past its peak, chief design engineer John Wheeler had been promoted to run Ford’s Aston Martin DB7 technical operation in the Midlands, and there was turmoil at the top of the sport. The original World Rally Car regulations…

DAN FOCUS ST3 FEELING BLUE The Fondeo is treated to some TLC as Dan sees that the damaged and scuffed front bumper gets sorted in time for summer QUICK SPEC Focus ST-3 • Direnza MVT intercooler and hard pipes • Gravity sports cat • Gravity full exhaust system • Peron/AET Motorsport stage one remap • Steeda cold air inlet system (CAIS) • Turbosmart dump valve • Steeda short-shifter • H&R 25mm lowering springs • H&R 20mm wheel spacers • Powerflex Handling Pack • Focus RS Brembo callipers • EBC USR discs • EBC Bluestuff front/Yellowstuff rear pads • EBC braided brake lines • ST Mk4 19in alloys Trust can be tricky when it comes to handing over your car keys. I don’t mean chucking them into a bowl at a…

JASON MUSTANG V8 TIME TO SAY GOODBYE The time has come for Jason to part ways with the Mustang, so this month he reflects on some of the highlights of his time with the car QUICK SPEC 5.0-litre Mustang GT • Steeda axle-back exhaust, induction kit and H-pipe • RTR diffuser • MAP remap • Steeda IRS bushes, lowering springs, engine brace, K-brace, front and rear anti-roll bars • Carbon fibre deck lid • Velgen VF5 alloys • Steeda discs and Hawk pads Three-hundred-and-four-days, 28,000 miles, three track days, three trips to Santa Pod, and a 2000-mile round trip to St Tropez – these have been just some of the highlights I’ve enjoyed with the V8 Mustang. And now, after almost three years of ownership, it’s time to move on.…

FORDS IN MOTORSPORT SEASON OPENER WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP M-Sport’s Fiestas have been flying the flag for the Blue Oval in the WRC, and are showing they are a force to be reckoned with Words JAMIE & M-SPORT Photos M-SPORT The circuit-based championships may have only recently started up again for the 2021 season, but the World Rally Championship has been under way since the start of the year, and the M-Sport Fiestas have been competing well in the opening four rounds, getting stronger and recording better results with each event. It all started back in January at Rallye Monte Carlo. M-Sport is fielding a team of young and upcoming drivers this season in Gus Greensmith, Teemu Suninen and Adrien Fourmaux. Suninen and Fourmaux are alternating between the top-spec WRC and…

MK2 FOCUS RS SHADOW BOXING It may share a garage with a purple 1010bhp Focus, but this yellow RS is no shrinking violet. In fact, with a track-focused spec and show-car looks, it really is boxing clever… Words DANIEL BEVIS Photos ADE BRANNAN This Focus, vivid and vibrant acid-yellow as it is, goes by the nickname Shadow. It might sound like an incongruous and bizarre name for something that’s so in-your-face it might as well have spilt your pint in your first post-lockdown pub trip, but the fact is that it comes from another age. Focuswasnalways , and it was always assumed it would live in the shadow of its more raucous stablemate. This isn’t the only Focus RS that its owner, Grant Butler, has lavished great care and attention…

FOCUS ST FINGER-LICKIN’ FOCUS You can have buckets of fun in a factory-stock Focus RS. But ordering off-menu makes even Ford’s spiciest hot hatch all the more tasty Words DAN BEVIS Photos ADE BRANNAN Most people, generally speaking, enjoy a bit of fast food. It’s not hard to fathom why – the appeal of wandering in off the street and having a hot meal in your hand within a couple of minutes speaks for itself, as does the familiarity. If you find yourself hung over in Margate, Malibu or Madrid, a Big Mac will always be a Big Mac. Some of us always go for ‘the usual’. Creatures of habit, we visit the same outlets on the same days like clockwork, and always order the same things. It’s comforting, in…

WHAT'S NEW NEWS See what’s going down in the world of fast Fords... FORD HELPS UK’S SMALLEST TOWN TO SWITCH TO ELECTRIC The electric vehicle (EV) revolution is upon us, and while those living in the big cities and suburbs may see immediate benefits from all-electric cars, those who live in rural areas and small towns aren’t quite so confident about making the switch. New research shows a large majority of those in the countryside (82 per cent), small towns (79 per cent) and villages (76 per cent) would not feel confident purchasing an EV as their next vehicle, if a ban on petrol and diesel cars came in next week. Ford of Britain challenged the population of Fordwich, Britain’s smallest town, to switch to electric in the all new…

2021 SHOW DATES The Ford show scene is the best in the business – check out some of these cracking events coming up soon… JUNE JUNE 13TH IOW TAKEOVER Royal County Showground, Isle of Wight www.iowtakeover.co.uk JUNE 19TH PURE FORD Castle Combe, Wiltshire www.castlecombecircuit.co.uk JUNE 20TH FORD POWER LIVE – DONINGTON Donington Park, Derbyshire www.fordpowerlive.co.uk JUNE 27TH FORDMEET – START OF SEASON Squires Café, Leeds www.facebook.com/groups/fordmeet JUNE 27TH FORD NATIONALS & XROC NATIONAL DAY British Motor Museum, Warwickshire www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/ whats-on/ford-nationals JULY JULY 4TH THE FORD SHOW Santa Pod, Northamptonshire https://fordshow.co.uk JULY 10TH RS COMBE Castle Combe, Wiltshire www.rscombe.com JULY 18TH SIMPLY FORD Beaulieu, Hampshire www.beaulieu.co.uk/events/simply-ford JULY 18TH DURHAM & DERBYSHIRE RSOC CROFT TRACK DAY Croft circuit, Darlington www.facebook.com/ groups/257167457679647 JULY 18TH OLD FORD RALLY British Motor Museum, Warwickshire www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/ whats-on/old-ford-rally…

PAUL COWLAND MUSTANG GT ROLLING ON DUBS! Nothing changes a project car more than a fresh set of shoes, and finally, Paul has got his Mustang sitting pretty Spoiler alert for this month’s update! I reckon you eagle-eyed readers have already spotted what’s been going on. I introduced the rather lovely Dotz Misano in the last issue. Not only were they rather easy on the eye in their shapely 20in form, but they also represented a fairly monumental weight saving over the factory’s somewhat hefty 19in jobbies. Looking good and reducing rotating mass? I’m always up for a bit of that. My issue at the time was that although Wheelwright (the UK importer for Dotz) had done an amazing job of getting me the wheels on time despite all the…

ORION MISSED TRICK Did Ford miss a trick by not building an RS Turbo version of the Orion? Paul Wright certainly thinks so – and his homebuilt homage to the four-door Series One shows what could have been Words and photos JON CASS An Orion RS Turbo. Now, that would have been quite something. The perfect pocket-sized executive express. A car that, with hindsight, Ford should surely have built in the mid-Eighties. Want proof? Well, here’s the cleverly thought-out, painstakingly-crafted creation of Paul Wright. Only Paul’s not adhered to the norms of an RS Turbo replica – he’s taken it one step further, and instead of using an old CVH, there’s a peppy 1.8-litre Zetec beneath that trademark Diamond White bonnet. Sadly, we don’t come across as many modified Orions…

FORDS IN MOTORSPORT SEASON OPENER BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP MB Motorsport Accelerated By Blue Square enjoyed a fantastic opening day of the 2021 BTCC season at Thruxton Words JAMIE / Photos JAKOB EBREY & MB MOTORSPORT Jake Hill secured three podium finishes from his first three races behind the wheel of the Focus, meaning he leaves Thruxton leading the drivers’ championship. And, thanks to three manufacturers’ victories, the Motorbase Performance team lead the way in the manufacturers’ championship too. After unsettled weather conditions for qualifying, Jake Hill and Ollie Jackson lined up seventh and ninth on the grid for race one as they looked forward to making their way through the field. As the opening race of the season got under way, drama quickly ensued with Ash Sutton sent pirouetting…

BRITISH GT4 Academy Motorsport is campaigning the Mustang in British GT4, which saw the 2021 season kick-off at Brands Hatch Words MIKE RYSIECKI / Photos LEIGH JONES The traditional Oulton Park Easter weekend season-opener to the SRO-run British GT Championship has been postponed until September, which made Brands Hatch the first race of 2021. The timely introduction of Step 3 of the country’s pandemic response on the previous Monday meant spectators could attend, even if the paddock and garages were only open to teams, media and essential event personnel. The 2021 British GT Championship features nine rounds (five sprint and four endurance) at six venues over seven weekends. The championship will visit Donington Park twice, while Oulton Park and Snetterton will each host two one-hour sprint races, due to their…

SECRET FORDS ACCESS ALL AREAS: SIERRA TWIN TURBO Steve tells us more about a twin-turbo V6 Sierra project that would have rivalled the RS Cosworth if it had been built The strange universe of Secret Fords contains a parallel world of one-offs, cancelled cars and prototypes. This head-spinner is just one of them – a twin-turbo V6 Sierra that would have left the Cosworth for dead. Let’s look at how this car didn’t happen. Back in 1983, Ford’s head of engine development wanted to give his young engineers a challenge. He was fed up that SVE and Motorsport were getting all the attention, and this was his solution – to develop a twin-turbo installation for the Cologne V6 engines that powered the American Ranger, Explorer, Mustang as well as the…