|
|
|
January signifies not only the start of a new year, it also brings with it the annual engineering and motorsport showcase that is Autosport International. Mountune were exhibiting for the third consecutive year in the main show area displaying vehicles and products from both their race and road divisions with this years' lead announcements being the Focus Ecoboost MP200 and Ford Global Race Engine program. The Arena Motorsport Team AON Focus BTCC car of Tom Chilton received plenty of attention, joined alongside by the Mountune-built 2-litre duratec turbo that powered it throughout last years' campaign. The touring car flavour was echoed further with news of Mountune's development program for Ford of their Global Race Engine to be showcased first in the WTCC and CTCC - more details below. Meanwhile the MP200 kit - expected in Mountune's Ford dealership network from April this year, signified the teams' expertise in the versatile and impressive Ford Ecoboost engine. The Focus kit utilises a larger alloy intercooler and a new engine calibration to liberate 200PS and a target torque output of 320Nm. Even in a relatively large car like the Focus Zetec S on display, this additional output brings with it a significant performance uplift and really transforms the whole driving dynamic. Developed to partner the recently released Ford Focus Zetec S, the forthcoming MP200 kit will also be compatible with all 150PS Ecoboost variants too. You can read the full press release, here. Throughout the four days the team were kept busy with customer and trade enquiries with a lot of interest evidently surrounding the forthcoming Ecoboost road-car products. If that wasn't enough to keep them busy, entertaining the odd racing driver or BTCC team principals certainly did; Arena, Motorbase, Mat Jackson, Andy Neate and host of the other 2011 BTCC stand-out drivers and key players popped in for a chat and a coffee... and then there was long standing friend to Mountune's founder, David Mountain - the living-legend and hero of the written technical word, David Vizard. We're not exactly sure what octane Mr Vizard was running on but he managed to talk to fans from the Mini and CCC fraternity continuously for three days - and we only witnessed him coming up for air once! |
The announcement detailing the design and development program of a 1.6 litre EcoBoost turbo race engine was naturally met with great interest from the more motorsport-orientated publications. This engine is part of Ford's Global Race Car initiative to make engines and Focus car designs available for teams competing in Touring Car racing around the world. Derived from the highly successful World Rally Championship engine, first used in the Ford Fiesta RS WRC, this engine has been the subject of intense design and development during the latter part of 2011, with It first running on the Mountune dynos in November. The engine is designed to compete in every Championship round prior to rebuild; a racing distance of around 6000km. The Mountune-developed engine has a lineage back to the 1.6 litre Ford EcoBoost engine that completed its first full season in the WRC in 2011 and will again compete in the 2012 championship campaign for Ford. Only the engine block, sump and head castings remain and everything else has been redesigned to tailor it specifically for circuit racing. David Mountain, Technical Director at Mountune Racing commented; “We have been working closely with Ford and its rally partner, M-Sport, over the past nine months to design and develop this engine and we are extremely pleased with the results that we have achieved in terms of power, performance and durability. The engine will shortly begin chassis testing with the Team Aon Ford Focus followed by the Team FRD cars in China with the World Touring Championship opening at Monza in Italy on March 11. The Chinese Touring Car Championship starts on May 6 in Shanghai. More details on the new Global Engine can now be found, here. |
| Above: New Mountune Racing 1.6-litre Ford Ecoboost Global Race Engine in development on the in-house engine dyno cells |
|
