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Baby Ford blows off supercars

Would you believe Ford's baby Formula Ford race equipped with the new one-litre EcoBoost engine can blow off a Lambo Aventador, Ferrari Enzo and Pagani Zonda at the Nurburgring?

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Well, it can, and did, and if that ain't a good reason for buying a baby Ford, then we don't know what is...

Here's how it all went down...

NO WAITING LIST


Ford slapped together a one-of-a-kind, road-legal version of the its Formula Ford race car powered, this time around, by the automaker’s one-litre, three-cylinder EcoBoost engine that's making waves in the latest Focus.

The single-seater covered the lap in 7min22 to record the 11th-fastest lap time on the circuit, a time that puts the plucky little racer ahead of supercars such as Lamborghini's Aventador, Ferrari's Enzo and Pagani's Zonda on the Nordschleife time sheets.

No other three, or even four-cylinder, car has posted a faster time at the circuit, Ford claimed.

Racing driver and course specialist Nick Tandy, who made the drive, said: “This little engine has people rubbing their eyes in disbelief. It’s simply astonishing that a three-cylinder, one-litre engine can deliver that kind of performance.”

Ford engineers have, over several months, worked on the project of switching the Formula Ford’s regular 134kW 1.6 EcoBoost engine with the specially tweaked 152kW version of the three-cylinder mated to a six-speed manual transmission.

GOOD FOR ROAD USE


The one-litre EcoBoost-powered Formula Ford has an unofficial top speed, the automaker said, of 255.5km/h and sprints from 0-100km/h in less than four seconds.

The petite racer completed the 20.832km Nordschleife circuit at an average speed of 169km/h.

The vehicle was also modified to legal on-road use with wheel covers, head and tail lights, indicators, external mirrors and a hooter. The car was driven with road-legal tyres. 

Roelant de Waard, vice-president of marketing and sales for Ford Europe, said: “We wanted to prove that size doesn’t matter by showing everyone what an amazingly capable engine we have developed in the one-litre EcoBoost.

“What better way than by beating some of the best supercars in the world on the Nordschleife, while using a fraction of the fuel.”

Ford’s new global turbocharged, direct-injection one-litre EcoBoost petrol engine was voted the 2012 International Engine of the Year and Wheels24 experienced it on a drive in Germany in June. It will be introduced in South Africa in the new Fiesta-based EcoSport crossover. 


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