Ford and M-Sport UK revealed today the long-waited Fiesta S2000 rally car. The car will be homologated in January 2010 and will compete in rally championships as IRC and S2000 World Cup.
The Fiesta S2000 has already completed nearly 3000kms of testing both in the UK and Europe and that extensive testing programme will continue into the start of the next year in readiness for the car’s competitive debut.
The Fiesta S2000 is the latest in a long line of rally cars produced as a result of the successful partnership between M-Sport and Ford, starting with the Escort Cosworth in the 1990s and moving on to the record breaking Ford Focus RS WRC and Ford Fiesta ST.
When Ford decided to enter a couple of rally cars at the 2009 X-games we were excited to see the new Fiesta wearing a set of bulging boxed fenders, a WRC style wing and some tarmac spec rollers. Perhaps even a showroom version. The blue oval should be happy that they chose to run an assortment of their Fiestas both new and old because the weekend’s broadcast television action sports etravaganza finale featured a 2010 Ford Fiesta going up against the golden boy Travis Pastrana and his fully built Subaru Impreza WRX STI. The boy and his Subaru had taken the gold the year before but after clipping a little too much off of his last apex, it was Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Brack who was jumping up and down celebrating on the roof of a car that looked alot like this on
After a highly-successful inaugural event last year, the GoldRush Rally is back for a much-anticipated second serving.
The 2010 GoldRush Rally, which is being billed as gR2KX, will take place from June 8-13, 2010. From what we’ve heard, the route for the second GoldRush Rally will being in Seattle going to Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, before concluding in Las Vegas.
The GoldRush Rally is a great way for car aficionados to get their fix of the latest and fastest machines in the planet today. Taking from the success of the inaugural this year, the 2010 GoldRush Rally is shaping up to be one for the books.
Check out this video for a small teaser of what to expect for the 2010 GoldRush Rally.
The Ford Mustang was built for muscle so it came as a surprise to us when J.B. Niday, managing director of Rally America and latest winner of Ford’s 10 Unleashed program, decided to turn his brand new 2010 Mustang GT into a rally car. But that’s exactly what he did after challenging two of his friends to a nice and dirty head-to-head race at the Ojibwe Forests Rally in Minesota.
To prepare for his Mustang rally debut, Niday configured his GT with all the necessary tools and safety equipment that is required in rally cars, including the installation of a roll cage, race seats, rally computer, off-road tires and HID light bars. After that, it was off to Minnesota to race against Mike Hurst and Mark Utecht with the winner taking home the Mustang GT itself.
As the economic crisis hit the automobile industry, certain manufacturers were forced to scrap a few of their popular programs in an effort to save a few bucks and make their board of directors happy. One particular racing series that felt the blow from the lack of racing enthusiasm was the World Rally Championship. Many of the sports long time runners have dropped out of competition for financial reasons, leaving the field quite empty. Thanks to the world’s best automotive magazine, Car, who recently released a few snap shots of Ford’s upcoming rally racing version of the Fiesta conducting an initial shakedown run in Cumbria, we can rest assured knowing that at least one automaker is thinking of a future competing in the adrenaline filled world of international off road racing.
This particular flared and caged Ford Fiesta has been developed over the past six months by M-Sport, the company responsible for producing Ford’s current WRC Focus, with the intention of campaigning in the FIA’s S2000 category. The class has been designed for naturally aspirated production cars that make up to 270 HP, while a full fledged WRC car is allowed a turbocharger and additional aerodynamic aids. So with a little bit of boost and a few oversized wings, the S2000 Fiesta could be up to WRC specification. M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson said, “The important thing now is that we undertake a strong test and development campaign in order to provide our customers with the best possible S2000 package… I’m sure that this car will also provide a very strong base for Ford’s next generation WRC car.”
Now the only question that remains to be asked is whether or not Ford will come out with a street version of their WRC hopeful. A new Fiesta being sold with wildly flared fenders and low profile tires would certainly inspire a few other new car shoppers to consider Ford’s new compact hatch as their city car of choice, especially with a newfound high performance attitude.
If you don’t remember D.C. Shoes cofounder Ken Block’s tire smoking gymkhana antics, then we suggest you take a moment to refresh yourself with his catalog of adrenaline inducing videos with his power sliding sideways Subaru as the star of the show. In a recent interview with Edmund’s Inside Line, Block admits that his first generation gymkhana car was nothing more than an extremely modified streetcar that had gone through a series of complete revisions. The STI started out as a way for Ken and friends to enjoy cross country rallies before dabbling in the world of the Japanese art of autocross know as gymkhana. Gymkhana is like any other time trial that takes place in an oversized parking lot, except there is a lot more rally style sliding in order to get your car around the orange cone even quicker.
So when Block wanted to get serious about gymkhana, he contact the folks at Crawford Performance and teamed up to produce a race ready 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI. The first thing that the racers did was shed every unnecessary ounce from the STI and then stiffen the chassis with an extensive roll cage. Weighing in at 2,775 pounds, the Crawford car is almost 600 pounds lighter than a stock STI. The weight reduction helps the 565 HP high performance flat four make the Subaru absolutely fly. Almost every part of the stroked 2.65 Liter boxer engine has been replaced in favor of lightweight reinforced pieces. Sitting atop the neon green powder coated charge pipes is a Garret GT35R turbocharger that compresses a maximum of 30 psi of boost to make a total of 590 E85 burning lb-ft of torque.
One thing that you don’t get an appreciation for with those slow motion pans and rubber burning power slides is exactly how quick Ken Block’s car is in a straight line. First of all launching an all wheel drive turbocharged car can be difficult, you have to get the revs up around 7,000 to keep the turbo spinning and then absolutely dump the clutch so that all four drive wheels can get power without bogging out the engine. But after all the Crawford STI is a racecar and even without the aid of fifth gear it can go from 0 to 60 MPH in just 3.0 seconds and run the standing quarter mile in only 10.8 seconds at 123.7 seconds on a set of 275/35R18 BFGoodrich g-Force Drag Radials, now that is 0.7 seconds faster than a Corvette ZR-1 super car, so you know that this tuned STI is fast.
Have you ever seen a basketball game on High-Definition? If you have, then you must have noticed the sweat dripping from the foreheads of all those basketball players, not to mention those over-sized zits and acnes some players still have.
For better or for worse, that’s the novelty that is HD. If you’re looking for unheard of levels of realism from your TV, then HD is for you.
Now, imagine watching a rally car race on High Definition. Imagine all the dust and dirt being thrown around by those rally cars jumping over dirt mounds and spiralling out of control in the process. We’ll tell you now: its must-see TV.
If you haven’t seen a rally car race on HD yet, here’s your chance.
Beginning on the 4th of October the Discovery Channel’s HD Theater will become the new home of the World Rally Championship for the next two and a half months.
What this means is that you can now have a ‘front-couch’ seat at the
pulse-pounding, gravel-throwing, car-flying action that is the WRC. To give you an appetizer of one you’re in for, HD theater will be showing six non-stop hours of rally racing from 3 pm to 9 pm ET this Saturday. The schedule continues with a race every Sunday from 8 pm to 9 pm ET until December 20.
If you’re a fan of rally car racing – or any form of racing, for that matter – we don’t have to tell you twice to subscribe to the HD Theater. If you’re thinking of doing so, but you don’t have an HDTV, then we suggest you buy one first.
Click after the jump for the official press release, including the TV schedule.
If you were at Silverstone over the weekend for the launch of the new Dirt 2 rally game, you probably would have been content sampling the game for free and hopefully pick yourself a copy before it runs out.
Never in your wildest dreams would you have bet that Ken Block would take you for a ride on a real rally car. But that’s exactly what happened to these lucky fellows who got a chance to sit shotgun while Block runs through a course on his WRX STI rally car?
We can’t tell you how jealous beyond measure we are, but from the look – and sound – of the video, we figured that those who got a chance to ride with Block never expected to scream as much as they did. One guy even asked Jesus for some divine intervention.
That should tell you never to mess with Ken Block on a rally car.
The world of rally racing is filled with edge of your seat excitement and some of the most fearless drivers in the world. In this particular instance it was the Russian rally driver Evgeny Novikov who managed to make his co driver pray to the deity of his choice as their yellow Citroen C4 was sent skyward after launching off a jump with a little too much zest during a special stage in the recent WRC Rally Finland.
The World Drifting Champion Rhys Millen recently raced his new highly modified RMR poweredHyundai Genesis coupe up the 12.4 mile hill climb course that consists of over 150 turns, many of which have no safety barrier and the consequences of running wide is a quick trip down the side of the mountain. However the multi disciplined driver had no prooblem tckling the hill, and broke the record for a 2WD Time Attack production based car in his 17th attempt conquering Pikes Peak, reaching the finish line in 12 minutes and 9.39 seconds.
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