Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Fast Ford

The Mustang GT3 race car, based on the all-new 2024 Mustang Dark Horse, was unveiled during the centenary celebration on the eve of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This marks Ford’s official entry of the S650 Mustang into the global FIA GT3 category. Wider and longer than the roadgoing Dark Horse, it features a bespoke short-long arm suspension, transaxle gearbox and carbon fibre body panels, as well as a unique aero package. Multimatic, builders of the iconic Ford GT, were also involved in the Ford GT race program and will help build and support the Mustang GT3s, while British partner and two-time championship winning team M-Sport will assemble the Ford Performance-developed 5.4-litre Coyote-based V8 engines in the UK. Also revealed at Le Mans was the new, global Ford Performance…

Regular readers of Fast Ford will recall our ‘living with’ Mustang Mach-E feature from issue 441, December 2021. For that article we ran an ‘entry-level’ single motor, single battery, rear-wheel-drive example for a week, with both urban and long-distance use. For this story we are revisiting the same vehicle with similar use-cases but in the top-of-the-range Mach-E GT featuring twin-motors, two batteries and four-wheeldrive. This is the ‘halo’ model which came a little later and with performance figures that caught the eye of even the most doubtful electric vehicle sceptics. Of course, new car prices have also moved on and the predicted £67,000 on-the-road Mach-E GT is now £74,540. Initially, that may seem like big money for any Ford but the specification and performance puts it way up the field,…

“I t has offended a few Ford purists, for sure - and I have had plenty of people ask me why I cut into a perfectly fine brand-new car. But where would the fun be if we all did the same thing?” It’s an admirable sentiment, and one we’re very much on board with. It would undoubtedly be hugely nerve-wracking to get savage with the cutting tools on a box-fresh hatchback, but James McAllister has sacrificed his warranty for the greater good. You see, bravery is an intrinsic part of innovation. It’s often said that a short-cut is a short-cut because otherwise it’d just be the way, but it’s when we go in the other direction, deliberately taking the long way round in order to determine whether we can find…

FAST FLEET See what’s been going on with our projects this month… It’s been a journey to get here, but the Ranger King Cab has got to a point where a lot of the cool stuff is happening at once, and the finishing line is just tantalisingly over the horizon. The really big news this month is that the custom chassis, components and narrowed rear axle have all been powder-coated and assembled, and as you can see from the photos there’s some truly outstanding engineering and fabrication here. I simply cannot thank Phil James at The Install Company enough for how much time, effort and skill have gone into making this chassis come to life! Nothing created here ever existed before he imagined it in his mind, and the…

Yes, well. That didn’t go according to plan, did it? I went to Oulton Park with high hopes, partly after my win at Thruxton and partly because of it being the venue of my first British Touring Car Championship win back in 2021, but it turned out to be a frustrating weekend. Qualifying was affected by track-limits penalties again and I lost two lap times for running wide. Yes, I shouldn’t have done it, I accept that, but the inconsistency rankles. Look, the MotorSport Vision circuits [Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park, Oulton Park and Snetterton] have these pressure pad sensors but now they are redundant because they are in the wrong place for the current regulations. Therefore, we are back to a judge of fact, a marshal, a human being. I…

Claiming that using a specific oil in the engine of a car will result in it going faster isn’t quite what specialists such as LIQUI MOLY want to promote. Instead, they are more concerned about ensuring an engine and its drivetrain can operate at their optimum level of performance, while at the same time minimising internal wear. What this also results in is the lowest fuel consumption and potentially the lowest emissions. We put the following questions to the experts at LIQUI MOLY in an attempt to dissect how they manage to ensure their oils for the engine, gearbox and differential can help to reduce wear and ensure the moving components within run at their optimum output. So if you want to know more about molybdenum disulfide and independent wear…

COSWORTH F OCUSCONCEPT The Mk1 Focus RS arrived to market in late-2002, but you can see here how the seeds were sown back in 1999 with the Cosworth Focus Concept. With the Ford Motor Company having acquired Cosworth Racing the previous year, they were keen to explore opportunities to tap into the long-held nostalgia of such iconic models as the Sierra and Escort RS Cosworth, and the shiny new Focus was sitting there just ready to be played with. Unveiled at the Geneva International Motor Show, the Cosworth Focus Concept owed a spiritual debt to the ’99 Focus World Rally Car, and boasted a pretty mouthwatering specification: power came from a Cosworth-developed 2.0-litre turbocharged and intercooled Zetec-E, good for 200bhp+, and the 5-speed MTX-75 ’box was treated to a viscous…

Some cars are so good, they don’t need modifying. Perfect and unimpeachable in factory form, every now and then a manufacturer gets it completely right from the off and creates something magnificent, perfect, beyond any possibility of enhancement. …at least, that’s what someone with no imagination might tell you. The fact of the matter is that nothing’s perfect, there are always compromises and broadened tolerances and legislation to be pinned to; in addition, technology keeps advancing, so something that’d score a full five-stars at launch may get downgraded to four stars or fewer as newer models come out. Whatever the reasoning, there’s no such thing as a perfect standard car. And besides, since you’re reading this esteemed publication, you’ll no doubt be on the same side of the fence as…

It pays to be realistic when revisiting the cars we used to love. How many of us have dived headlong into the purchase of a car we coveted growing up, or something you might have owned a few decades ago, only to find that all these years on, even a carefully-chosen example turns out to be a bit of a project, with half your effort going into maintenance and upkeep, rather than enjoyment and modification? That’s one of the reasons James Merrett sought out the Mk7 Fiesta ST you see here, in just the right spec, colour, and condition, rather than opting for one of Ford’s older icons. “The thing that stopped me getting a Mk4 Escort or another Cosworth,” he explains, “is that even back in the day I…

Just last night, we were on a certain primary-coloured auction website when we stumbled upon a Ford Escort RS Cosworth. It was red, road spec, but had apparently once been a rally car. That means, in no uncertain terms, it’s been hammered. It was all there though, and road legal, but was ultimately being sold as a rolling project. The price for this? £36,500. For an ostensibly rough EsCos. No thanks. We’re not pointing fingers, as there is no one place at which to point. But we do need to acknowledge that things have maybe become a bit… silly. But what’s the alternative? A replica, that’s what. And that’s exactly what the determined and talented Dan Pearce has done. As you can see, it’s stunning. And it looks the part. Replica…

As I write this month’s update we are just two weeks away from the Max Power Reunion Show where we will reveal Project 2000 for the first time since its transformation. To say I am proud of the team who have made this happen is an understatement, and I have to heap praise on Kev at MRM Speedshop who has managed the project and Jay and Tig at JM Details who have gone above and beyond with the bodywork, recreation of the bumpers and sideskirts and paint, which is a wonderful segue into where we left off last month. The car has now been repainted in a fresh coat of Porsche Karminrot, and as you can see from the pictures it looks incredible; I was delighted to see the…

Academy Motorsport arrived at Snetterton hoping to continue the consistency that has helped Erik Evans and Matt Cowley achieve 3rd place overall in the GT4 class. So far this season, the #61 car hasn’t finished outside of the points and two podium finishes have kept it in the top three. The nature of the Norfolk circuit revealed shortcomings in the current GT4 Balance of Performance (BoP) during qualifying and in the first race. With qualifying times so remarkably close for all four of Academy’s drivers, the team’s attention has to focus on the cars. Team Manager Andrew Dean explained: “We got all the performance out of the cars that we have available to us this weekend. We executed without mistake, we got no track limits issues, pit stops were bang…

Vehicle data supremos Carly will code data combined with additional be joining us for Ford Fair 2023 as our brand-new Tech Partner. Carly’s goal is to save you money by showing you all the essential data and to help you understand any issues before shelling out for a professional mechanic. What Carly do with their patented OBD-II scanner is unlock your Ford’s electronics and make the data easily available. By plugging their device into your diagnostic port and connecting to their smartphone app, you can take control of diagnostics and fault code reading, and view hundreds of manufacturer-specific parameters in real time. The clever gizmo can serve up a whole load of extra features too – here are the key five benefits: 1) CARLY DIAGNOSTICS Your car’s health…

Evolution is an interesting thing. Kangaroos have sturdy tails that they can lean back on to make them really good at kick-boxing. Humans have strong and versatile opposable thumbs to allow them to excel at Instagram and Gran Turismo. Chameleons can blend into their surroundings pretty cunningly, as can stick insects, by looking like other things. Trees are able, on a chemical level, to talk to each other to communicate information about spreading tree diseases. It really is astounding how the natural world teaches itself to constantly adapt and perpetuate by remaining fit for purpose. Some things will always refuse to evolve, of course – stromatolites, platypuses, Donald Trump… and, of course, if you’re a religious type then the whole idea flies in the face of your entire belief…

Your memory bank of great automotive noises isn’t complete unless you’ve heard the V6 howl of Ford’s 1990s Mondeo super tourer up close and personal. In fact, the only way you can really top that is by adding a few more Mondeos, plus maybe a few of Volvo’s five-cylinders, and then fill the rest of the grid with a dozen more rasping four-cylinders from Renault, Vauxhall, Nissan and others. If you were at Super Touring Power at Brands Hatch on the first two days in July then you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about, as the Kent circuit played host to the great and the good of one of the most exciting periods in racing history. The Mondeos were out in force both in the Classic Touring Car Racing Club’s…

ORGANISING A SHOW OR EVENT AND WANT IT LISTED HERE? Email us with the details – fastford.ed@kelsey. co.uk AUGUST 4-6 AUGUST Ultimate Street Car Santa Pod Raceway, Northants ultimatestreetcar.co.uk 13 AUGUST Ford Fair 2023 Silverstone Circuit, Northants events.fastcar.co.uk/ford-fair 19 AUGUST RSOC National Day Donington Park, Derby www.rsownersclub.co.uk/rsoc-nationalday 25-27 AUGUST The Classic Silverstone Circuit, Northants www.silverstone.co.uk/events/the-classic 25-27 AUGUST Car Fest Laverstoke Park Farm, Hants carfest.org 26-27 AUGUST Gravity NEC, Birmingham gravityshow.co.uk SEPTEMBER 2 SEPTEMBER Forge Action Day Castle Combe, Wiltshire castlecombecircuit.co.uk/shows/forgeaction-day 8-10 SEPTEMBER Goodwood Revival Goodwood Motor Circuit, West Sussex www.goodwood.com/motorsport/goodwood-revival 10 SEPTEMBER European Ford Event Raceway Venray, Netherlands www.xrst-club.nl NOVEMBER 5 NOVEMBER Ultimate Stance Telford International Centre www.ultimate-stance.co.uk *CHECK BEFORE YOU GO! While all dates and details were correct at the time of going to press, we urge you to…

Honestly, we don’t know how those Players guys do it. Every year, without fail, the Players Classic at Goodwood is bathed in wonderful sunshine. You might assume that’d be a gimme in June, although these days you can’t predict anything; OK, it rained for about ten minutes on the Saturday – cue everybody sprinting to close their windows, sunroofs or soft-tops – but on the whole it was your typical lobster-red scorcher. This year was the tenth running of the Players Classic (it started in 2013, although couldn’t be held in 2020 for obvious reasons), and it was absolutely the biggest and best one yet. Throughout the weekend we found the cream of modified cars from across the UK and beyond into Europe, with thousands of people making the pilgrimage…

The world’s best-selling sports car, the Mustang has been an integral part of the motoring landscape since its big reveal at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. Indeed, the story of the ’Stang is a pretty incredible one: still available as a new model today, it’s America’s best-selling sports car of the last fifty years, and in late 2018 the 10,000,000th Mustang rolled off the production line at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan. It’s undeniable that the Mustang is part of the cultural bedrock of America, and the original pony car has always been a pretty diverse offering too; right from its early days you could specify it as a saloon or a convertible, with a racy fastback arriving in the line-up to really tap into teenage…

You would think that with me having a fair old collection of Fords that I’d be at the end of my tether working on them and trying to keep them on the road… but no, it appears I’m a glutton for punishment! As you may know, I run my own joinery business. Brian, who is my right-hand man working alongside me, has a nifty little Mk6 Escort van. A mate of his started restoring it, welding up a new Mk5 front end to accommodate the RS2000 bumper and bonnet Brian managed to source. The van had some major panel surgery and was painted a stunning Cosworth Aubergine. But the build ended and unfortunately it’s been sat dormant in his garage for 18 months waiting on him finishing it – until…

The RSOC’s annual takeover of Castle Combe was once again a bustling event in 2023, with many Ford clubs being invited to come along and show everyone what their chapter of the RS fraternity has to offer, both on the show field and also on the hallowed track if they fancied it. There was a hotly contested show-andshine section with some of the best Ovalbadged car porn in the country turning out to show what clean looks like, from Escort Cosworths to Sierra Sapphires and even a few Escort RS Turbos. There was also a concours section which displayed an even higher standard of cleanliness; if you’re bringing fifteen mirrors to show people the underside of your car – yes, I said the underside – then you had better have…

Is it a sleeper? Well, that depends upon your definition, really. The low-slung stance and rallyinspired wheel choice speak of an owner who knows a thing or two about quality upgrades, so that acts as an immediate marker to fellow enthusiasts. But to the average passer-by on the street, this hopped-up street-racer is little more than a well-kept Mk4 five-door. Sneaky sneaky. Of course, we’re looking at something more than the average Escort shopper runabout, even before we get onto the subject of modern performance modifications. The Eclipse was a runout special with a whole bunch of tasty options thrown in, and it’s worth bearing in mind that Mk4s are distinctly thin on the ground these days anyway, especially in this sort of condition. This car was a lucky…