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This is how you do proper Focus go-faster racing stripes. Ford’s collection of Focus RS Le Mans homage cars. Gaudy, yet historically accurate and therefore classy.
As Ford prepares for a new Focus, the current hot hatch RS version is in its last year of production and to celebrate the company’s Le Mans success, five Focus RSs in period-specific Le Mans liveries have been prepared.
These five cars each pay homage to a specific Le Mans landmark in Ford’s racing history.
The first MK II Ford to win at Le Mans in 1966 (after the company’s falling out with Ferrari) is honoured with a black RS sporting silver stripes.
Next up is the 1967 homage car, which features a fetching white stripe contrast finish over predominant red surfacing – commemorating Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt’s victory.
The RS drawing inspiration from a 1967 Ford Le Mans car (the MK IIB) is perhaps the most colourful – combining white paint with a blue stripe and thin red hued surrounds.
Of all those GT40s which won at Le Mans the Gulf Oil liveried cars of 1968 and 1968 were perhaps the most famous. Fittingly, the Focus RS finished in this classic sky blue and accented orange design is the best looking of all five homage cars.
Lesser known Capri also honoured
Rounding off the five-strong Le Mans Ford Focus RS collection is a two-tone royal blue and white car which echoes the success of the only non-GT40 car to capture the imagination during Ford’s period of Le Mans dominance in the late 1960s, a Capri RS 2600.
Mechanically all five Le Mans homage cars feature the full suite of Focus RS performance features – including a 224kW 2.5l turbo engine and Quaife front-axle slippy diff. Beyond the custom surfacing all five Le Mans homage cars features retrimmed cabins.
Seats swathed in diamond-quilted Alcantara with stitching colour-coded to the specific car’s dominant exterior finish are the most perceptible upgrade. Leather trim wraps the handbrake girdle and deployable armrests. Each one of the five Le Mans homage cars will received a dash-mounted number plaque to denote its collector’s status.
After being displayed at the Le Mans Classic event in early July the five RSs will go on sale, with each new owner being rewarded with a Classic Le Mans wristwatch. Contemptuous marketing? Perhaps. At least most local ST owners will now finally know what the origin and meaning behind their cars ill-executed ‘racing’ stripes are...
These five cars each pay homage to a specific Le Mans landmark in Ford’s racing history.
The first MK II Ford to win at Le Mans in 1966 (after the company’s falling out with Ferrari) is honoured with a black RS sporting silver stripes.
Next up is the 1967 homage car, which features a fetching white stripe contrast finish over predominant red surfacing – commemorating Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt’s victory.
The RS drawing inspiration from a 1967 Ford Le Mans car (the MK IIB) is perhaps the most colourful – combining white paint with a blue stripe and thin red hued surrounds.
Of all those GT40s which won at Le Mans the Gulf Oil liveried cars of 1968 and 1968 were perhaps the most famous. Fittingly, the Focus RS finished in this classic sky blue and accented orange design is the best looking of all five homage cars.
Lesser known Capri also honoured
Rounding off the five-strong Le Mans Ford Focus RS collection is a two-tone royal blue and white car which echoes the success of the only non-GT40 car to capture the imagination during Ford’s period of Le Mans dominance in the late 1960s, a Capri RS 2600.
Mechanically all five Le Mans homage cars feature the full suite of Focus RS performance features – including a 224kW 2.5l turbo engine and Quaife front-axle slippy diff. Beyond the custom surfacing all five Le Mans homage cars features retrimmed cabins.
Seats swathed in diamond-quilted Alcantara with stitching colour-coded to the specific car’s dominant exterior finish are the most perceptible upgrade. Leather trim wraps the handbrake girdle and deployable armrests. Each one of the five Le Mans homage cars will received a dash-mounted number plaque to denote its collector’s status.
After being displayed at the Le Mans Classic event in early July the five RSs will go on sale, with each new owner being rewarded with a Classic Le Mans wristwatch. Contemptuous marketing? Perhaps. At least most local ST owners will now finally know what the origin and meaning behind their cars ill-executed ‘racing’ stripes are...
