Ford unleashed its 1,0-litre EcoBoost Formula Ford racecar on the Nürburgring with astonishing results. Could the Blue Oval be mulling a road-legal production model to take the fight to such lightweight track specials as the Arial Atom and KTM X-Bow?
This road-legal lightweight racecar is powered by an uprated version of the same 1,0-litre, three-cylinder, direct-injection turbopetrol unit being utilised in such workaday models as the EcoSport compact SUV, Focus and 2013 Fiesta.
In the Formula Ford EcoBoost car this unit has been tuned to develop 150 kW – enough to propel the +-420 kg car from standstill to 100 km/h in under 4 seconds on to an unofficial 255,5 km/h…it even returns an average fuel consumption figure of 5,0 L/100 km at 120 km/h.
In posting a 7 minutes, 22-second Nordschleife run the EcoBoost racer is the 11th-fastest car to lap the famed circuit. This means that it blows the likes of the Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari Enzo and Pagani Zonda into the weeds.
Reports have emerged suggesting that Ford is mulling a limited-production run of this car. Indeed, at the recent unveiling of the 2013 Fiesta the firm announced that it would like to produce such a racecar with targeting well-heeled track aficionados at a projected price of around R1,2 million.
Should such a car get the production go-ahead it will be sharing track space with some formidable machinery…
Click here for a video of the Formula Ford EcoBoost in action on the Nordschleife.
Click here for Sudhir Matai’s blog on lighweight sportscars.
