Ford Europe has issued the following press release:
The Ford RallyeConcept, making its international debut today, explores the inherent competitive spirit of the new 3-door Fiesta. Its appearance at the Birmingham International Motor Show signals Ford’s intent to have a Fiesta-based rally car ready for competition within a year.
Ford RallyeConcept has been realised through an intensely close collaboration between Ford RallyeSport, the motorsport experts behind the Focus WRC rally cars, and Ford Design Europe, the creative team responsible for the new three-door Fiesta.
’This project represents a fundamental change in how we approach motorsport vehicles,’ said Chris Bird, Ford of Europe Design Director. ’This collaboration has unleashed tremendous energy, demonstrating what we can achieve by working closely together with the motorsport engineering team to make competition vehicles a natural extension of the product range. The Ford RallyeConcept shows that a performance vehicle can be both uncompromising and clearly coherent with the original design.’
Engineering Validation Next
Ford RallyeConcept’s marriage of the motorsport engineer’s objective for performance functionality with the eye for detail of the designer has been so effective that Ford has committed to an engineering development programme to bring a Fiesta-based rally car to reality. Aiming for FIA homologation by the summer of 2003, Ford RallyeSport is hoping that it will become Ford’s next success story in national and international rallying.
Designed to Compete
The Ford RallyeConcept’s purposeful, aerodynamically honed exterior features bold wheel arches, an aggressive looking front grille, special intake ducts in the bonnet and roof, a lustrous Machine Silver paint scheme with unique Ford RallyeSport ’Blue Dimension’ graphic treatment and body accent features in a complementary matte Magnum Grey finish.
Subtle touches of bright colour, including Print Blue exterior mirrors to match the Sparco seats, and bright red tow hooks front and rear, punctuate the engaging paint and graphic statement. A uniquely shaped rear spoiler adds further purpose to the Ford RallyeConcept’s shape.
Wider and lower, featured in road-hugging tarmac specification at the Birmingham debut, it stands poised and confident on quasi-slick, 18-inch Pirelli P-Zero performance tyres mounted to 15-spoke magnesium wheels. Its massive brake discs, ceramic-effect Alcon calipers and specially machined suspension elements are visible details of the joint effort to achieve competition excellence and design coherence. — Return of the fast Fiesta.
Inside ’ Function with Style
Fiesta’s spacious interior was ideal for development into the concept. Fiesta’s interior designers and the production-car team’s dedicated ergonomist were directly involved in adapting the car’s interior package especially for the rally application.
Bright blue, custom Sparco racing seats, a robust integral roll cage, special rally instrumentation and unique controls mark the interior of the vehicle as that of a purpose-built competitor. A rally-bred sequential gear shifter, custom-engineered for the Ford RallyeConcept, and a hydraulic handbrake ’ complete with integral master cylinder ’ dominate the lower centre console. These controls are engineered from machined aluminium, and the shifter’s direct gearbox linkage is a jewel-like detail with its brushed aluminium bezel.
Competition-Driven Specification
Under the skin, Ford RallyeConcept features an array of performance equipment.
Its 1.6-litre Duratec 16V engine features an aluminium head, block and sump, and is targeted to deliver high-revving output exceeding 200 bhp. The engine is mated to a Hewland six-speed, close ratio, front-wheel-drive, sequential gearbox.
Ford RallyeConcept’s suspension is custom designed for competition, with extensive use of machined aluminium elements, including suspension arms and uprights. The MacPherson strut front suspension also features a unique fabricated front cross member and a rocker-arm anti-rollbar.
At the rear, Ford RallyeConcept features a twist-beam suspension set-up. Dampers by Dynamic, with external reservoirs and specially engineered, machined aluminium top mounts, are featured front and rear.
Combined with power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering, the suspension system is designed to maximise Ford RallyeConcept’s grip and handling. — New Ford Focus family.
Stopping power is equally impressive. In tarmac specification, Ford RallyeConcept is fitted with 355 mm ventilated front discs with four-piston Alcon calipers in a ceramic-effect finish. At the rear, 265 mm slotted discs and two-piston Alcon calipers are fitted.
A high-flow Arvin Meritor stainless steel exhaust, with a four-to-two-to-one exhaust manifold design, is also featured in the concept vehicle. Its outlet tip also features the ceramic-effect finish used on the brake calipers.
Competition-Defined Ergonomics
The cornerstone of the interior was the positioning of the driver and co-driver’s seats. The engineers drew the boundaries by establishing the optimum placement for the seats that would allow for the best weight distribution throughout the package. Current Ford rally drivers were then enlisted to advise where everything else, including gear selector, switches and controls should fit around that base.
The driving position is different from that of a roadgoing Fiesta. The seating positions are further rearward and the steering wheel has longer reach.
The Fiesta design team’s dedicated ergonomist, Anna Humpherson, worked with rally drivers to optimise the position of the controls within the new interior.
’I rode with the rally drivers to understand the driving environment, and it was amazing to see how they operate,’ Humpherson said. ’We spent a lot of time with them to prioritise the location of the switches and controls. Our mapping of the switch logic drove the location of the controls. Some are positioned toward the co-driver and some especially toward the driver, including four important controls, like the starter, which are located on the steering wheel itself.’ — Ford Bronco Concept.
Finally, with the seating and controls positioned, the interior design team set about the task of ensuring that functionality and style exist more harmoniously than is usual on such a project.
’We ’picture framed’ each area of functionality within the car so that from any angle, and when taking any section in isolation, the inside of the car still pleases the eye in the same way as the road car it is derived from,’ Bury explained.
The distinctive arches of the instrument binnacle and dashboard mounted air vents remain in the concept but a sophisticated PI Research electronic display replaces the standard dials in front of the driver. The co-driver’s instrumentation is accommodated in lieu of the glove box and combines traditional time-keeping data with critical engine data.
Fiesta-style air vents have been added to the roof of the car, served by the large ’scoop’ vent that brushes the upper edge of the windscreen.
Engineering and Prove-Out
Ford RallyeConcept was developed within the framework of the FIA regulations for the Super 1600 class. Now that their vision for the vehicle has been established and shown for the first time in Birmingham, Ford RallyeSport will be undertaking an engineering development process to prepare for homologation of the concept as a Fiesta-based kit car.
’We’re excited by the potential of the Ford RallyeConcept and will be working hard to prove it out for a bright competition future while we also continue our World Rally Championship ambitions,’ Whitaker said. ’As we work toward achieving FIA homologation by the summer of 2003, it won’t be long before we see this sporting Fiesta at speed on rally stages.’
