Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i Fast Ford

Bicester Heritage is an increasingly popular venue for enthusiast-led automotive events, and the Scramblers meets are hugely enjoyable. Growing from the diverse Scramble shows, Scramblers is a rapidly growing car club which is free to join and lays on a variety of themed gatherings; in February it was Ford’s turn, and the turnout was spectacular. More than 150 Fords from both sides of the Atlantic lined the picturesque avenues of the restored WW2 site, with modern hot hatches mixing with Model Ts, 1970s Capris and the odd hot rod. Official auction partner Collecting Cars selected a Mustang for its display; a replica of Björn Waldegård’s RS2000 sat close by complete with period-correct livery, and the Wriggly Monkey Brewery’s Model A truck made its presence felt in the Motor Transport Yard.…

REVO RANGER INTAKE KIT £238.80 The Revo OEM+ intake system for the Ford Ranger improves performance and removes restrictions found in the OE system. Specifically designed to work in harmony with your vehicle and Revo software, it’s engineered to replace the stock plastic intake pipe and filter directly, coming with a silicone hose, air filter and fitting kit. This system fits the Ranger 2.0BI-TDI, from 2020 to present. Full details can be found on 01327 301901 or sales@revotechnik.com GAZ COMPETITION DAMPERS FROM £840 For many years, GAZ adjustable suspension has been a mandatory fitment in various UK race series. For 2023 the series which require fitment of GAZ suspension include Ford EnduroKa and the Ford Fiesta ST/XR Challenge among others; the fact that GAZ has been chosen as the exclusive…

It’s an enduring reality of motorsport that race cars aren’t built for posterity or longevity. They aren’t conceived to one day become icons. They’re just built to win. The team in question takes all of the know-how and technology – and budget – available to them and puts together the most competitive machine they can. And then, after a season or two, they build something better and chuck the old one away. It’s because of this utilitarian and efficient approach that it can sometimes be hard to unpick the history of old race cars; take the Mk2 Escort rally car with the registration number STW 201R, for example – more than one Escort that still exists today can lay the claim to that identity, each one arguably equally legitimately, owing…

There’s an oft-quoted cliché that gets rolled out whenever the subject of tin-top racing cars comes up: ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’. While wings-and-slicks openwheeled Formula cars provide a breathtaking spectacle, its arguably more engaging (and certainly more relatable) for the average Joe to see a car that looks like their own, stickered up and rasping around a circuit – or, indeed, through the forests – with carefree abandon and malice aforethought. Success in motorsport inevitably trickles down to road cars – that’s why today’s hypercars have hybrid systems designed for performance rather than the old model of using the tech for economy; it came directly from F1. And, stretching back into the swirling mists of time, it’s where mainstream disc brakes came from; Jaguar fitted Dunlop discs to…

The Ford Puma didn’t get off to the best of starts when it first arrived in 2019. Built to meet the demand of the ever-growing crossover market, fast Ford fans were sceptical that an SUV could actually deliver the same coveted driving excitement as small Fords of the past. That all changed with the arrival of the ST version at the end of 2020. Despite the whole world being on lockdown at the time, fans couldn’t wait to get their hands on the latest Blue Oval to bear the ST moniker. And with good reason. Based on the award-winning Mk8 Fiesta ST, the Puma ST has all the foundations of one of the hottest and most fun-to-drive hatchbacks the world has ever seen. Add in the extra practicality and loftier…

From a UK perspective, we’re pretty clued up on what a Ford Escort is. These are the cars most of us grew up with, we know all the generations and variants. So it’s a bit weird to think that the Escort name had a whole other life in other countries, isn’t it? Look at the USA: what we know here as the Mk3 Escort was a sort of ‘world car’, and they got a version of it in the States – although while it looked slightly similar and had the same window line, it was actually a very different car and nothing (aside from the CVH) was interchangeable between the two. And American Escorts continued to evolve in increasingly odd ways, culminating in 1998 in the thing you see here,…

Saving weight is like gaining free horsepower. Your car’s performance qualities are governed not just by its power, but by its power-to-weight ratio – so if, for example, you throw away your rear seats and spare wheel and a few other weighty things, your car will feel a bit quicker. If you follow this thought process through to its logical conclusion and make weight savings everywhere you can think of, the transformation can be dramatic; take this Fiesta RS Turbo, for example, which boasts a featherweight all-in figure of just 875kg. This has been achieved by gutting the internals of the doors, bumpers and tailgate, throwing away all the soundproofing and carpets, swapping out the bonnet for a fibreglass item, and replacing all of that heavy window glass with slender…

MAY 1 MAY BHP Show Kent County Showground, Detling bhpshows.com/pages/bhp-performanceshow 14 MAY Classic Ford Show Ardingly, West Sussex classicsworld.co.uk/classic-ford-show 20-21 MAY Retro Rides Weekender Goodwood Motor Circuit, West Sussex retroridesweekender.com 21 MAY Isle of Wight Takeover Royal County Showground, Isle of Wight www.iowtakeover.co.uk 21 MAY Simply Ford Beaulieu, New Forest, Hampshire www.beaulieu.co.uk/events/simply-ford/ JUNE 17-18 JUNE Players Classic Goodwood Motor Circuit, West Sussex www.players-show.com/players-classic 18 JUNE Retro Show Santa Pod Raceway, Northants santapod.co.uk/retro-show.php 24 JUNE RS Combe Castle Combe, Wiltshire www.rscombe.com JULY 13-16 JULY Goodwood Festival of Speed Goodwood Motor Circuit, West Sussex www.goodwood.com/motorsport/festival-of-speed 16 JULY The Ford Show Santa Pod Raceway, Northants santapod.co.uk/the-ford-show.php 21-23 JULY Modified Nationals Lincolnshire Showground www.modifiednationals.co.uk ORGANISING A SHOW OR EVENT AND WANT IT LISTED HERE? Email us with the details – fastford.ed@kelsey.co.uk AUGUST 4-6 AUGUST…

Cutting his teeth as a Ford mechanic for six years, it was safe to assume that Mark Nicholson was always going to have a soft spot for cars sporting the Blue Oval. And despite starting out in a Mini 1000, it was his mum’s Mk2 XR2 that really got his creative juices flowing. “Well, that and a passion I had from a young age having helped my grandad out on the driveway with cars he used to service and tinker with. The passion just grew from there…” Fast-forward a decade or so and Mark had his heart set on his mum’s XR2. “I ended up buying the car from her and that was when I started going down the modified road,” he says. No sooner had he got his mitts…

The 2023 British GT Championship looks set to be the most competitive yet thanks to an influx of world-class factory drivers and a rebound in GT4 numbers. This year’s championship features a capacity 36-car entry. Fast Ford attended the championship’s Media Day at Donington Park with Pershore-based Academy Motorsport to capture the mood for the upcoming season. A full entry list is split equally between GT3 and GT4 cars spanning nine manufacturers. There are also 10 former or reigning overall champions and eight full factory drivers amongst the 72. This year’s entry is the largest since 2019 when full-season numbers were capped at 36 cars. It is also the biggest fulltime GT3 grid since 2014, while GT4 numbers have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. The more road-relevant GT4 class will be…

WHY YOU WANT ONE… ■ Athree-door Sierra that’s still affordable, the XR4i has achieved classic status, with factoryoriginal examples ranking high on desirability lists – following in the slipstream of its biggerwinged brothers. ■ ABlue Oval muscle car for the European market, the XR4i is all about old-school appeal – with rear-wheel drive, lairy styling and an oversized normally-aspirated engine. ■ The XR4i laid the foundations for the mighty Cosworth, and achieved widely-overlooked competition success – Roger Clark rallied an XR4i, and Andy Rouse’s XR4Ti won the 1985 BTCC. WHY YOU DON’T… ■ It’ll always be called a poor-man’s Cossie. No matter where you go or who you meet, they’ll ask if your XR4i is a Cosworth and/or say you should’ve bought a Cossie instead. ■ Controversial when new and…

Ford Fair is pleased to announce that it will be joining forces with Maxton Design UK as the official Styling Partner for the 2023 show. Promising sophisticated automotive designs that are both fashionable and functional, their range of aftermarket upgrades provide your Ford with a stylish edge – and with a passion for cars at its very core, this highly-regarded company is Britain’s leading distributor of unique vehicle styling kits. Furthermore, the company has been a regular sight at Ford Fair every year since 2015, and they’re looking forward to their ninth successive year of meeting Ford enthusiasts and showcasing their wares. Since you’re reading Fast Ford, you’ll undoubtedly be familiar with the core range of Maxton Design UK’s products; the perennially popular lowline kits comprise front splitters, sideskirt diffusers,…

Popular TV series Wheeler Dealers returns for a new series this Spring, and there’s one episode in particular that’s bound to pique your interest. Mike Brewer pinpoints the Focus as a future classic, and sets his sights on a Mk2 ST-2: an affordable hot hatch which can be easily tuned but doesn’t come with the RS price tag. Spotting one for sale that has some problems including an engine management light, it’s only up for £2,795 – so if ace mechanic Elvis can sort out the problems, is there profit to be made? Check out the series on Discovery on Mondays, with all episodes available to stream on discovery+.…

It usually takes a while to build a car that’s truly spectacular, and not just because of the time, money and effort involved. It also usually takes a certain amount of knowledge and experience to embark on such a comprehensive project such as the rally-inspired, wide-arch Focus ST you see here. Backed up with a big turbo, forged engine, huge brakes, chassis tweaks and a race car interior, you could be mistaken for thinking this is the work of an experienced and accomplished project car owner with a long history of outstanding Ford builds. But that couldn’t be further from the truth, as Ken Williams reveals this is actually his first properly modified car and his second Ford; the first one being a Ka that he briefly used as a…

Twelve months ago, we had a crazy idea to buy a bogstandard Mondeo Titanium X and see if we could turn it into a race car. Ambitious? Perhaps. But not impossible. And our ‘Rep to Race Car’ project was born at the start of 2022. Fair enough, calling our Mondeo a ‘race’ car is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but calling the project ‘comfortable motorway cruiser to occasional track toy’ didn’t have quite the same ring to it. And we’ll be the first to admit it’s still a long way from a competitive race car. But, as a recent (and very wet!) track day at Thruxton proved, our Mondeo can now more than hold its own on a track thanks to some sensibly placed upgrades. But why start with a Mondeo? Good…

F inallyback on the historic roster, the three-day Race Retro was a mix of rally action, auto jumble, club stands and a jaw-dropping auction where, among the lots, a Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth sold for a record-breaking £596,250, walking past its £150,000 estimate. The laneways around Stoneleigh Park were where Fords featured heaviest, with the likes of two-time British champion David Llewellin (trademark moustache included) among the entertainers – both on stage and interview sessions where Fifth Gear’s Jason Plato and rally star Louise Aitken-Walker joined. A Colin McRae Escort went unsold at auction, but the Scot’s Focus brought back memories. It wasn’t just taking a gentle spin around the course either; in true McRae fashion, Stephen Chamberlain’s demonstration had the essence of an old Rally GB stately home stage…

“I don’t see impossibilities, but rather challenges to be overcome.” So says Nev Bertwistle, and we could all take a leaf from his book. Nev’s a seasoned Ford modifier, and has spent the last forty-odd years building, fixing, racing and enjoying cars, starting out with the likes of the Escort and Cortina and more recently focusing on the Focus. “I like to build things that are leftfield and unexpected,” he explains. “I have my own well-equipped workshop and do pretty much everything myself, except for paint and specialist tasks like plastic welding.” His current collection contains such treats as a Group C RS2000 race car, a Frozen White Mk2 Focus RS, and an ’07 Focus cabriolet that will soon be swapped to 5-cylinder ST spec and all-wheel-drive. And of course…