VIDEO: Ford turns a 7:22 at the Nürburgring — on three cylinders
Road-legal Formula Ford shows off the smallest EcoBoost engine. By Davey G. Johnson
It's got three cylinders, uses 'em all... Okay, we'll can the Charlie Ryan and get to it. As Nürburgring lap times have grown in primacy when it comes to performance-car marketing, sporting machines have generally become chunkier, beefier, heftier and generally more porcine than avian.
Though we've seen the trend begin to reverse over the past couple of years, there's no denying that your Aventadors and your Veyrons are heavy, heavy machines.
Ford decided to go out and do more with less. They knocked down a 7:22 around the 'Ring in a road-legal car powered by a tweaked version of the corporate 1.0L turbocharged engine.
(See video after the jump!)
Road-legal in this case means a modern Formula Ford with cycle fenders, headlights and taillights mounted on stalks, a horn and license plates.
The current iteration of the classic open-wheel formula calls for Ford's 1.6L engine, a mill due to be supplanted in most applications by the turbo three-banger. Ford Europe turned up the wick on the 999cc motor, boosting it from 123 hp to 205.
Dropped into the lightweight race-car chassis, it wound up being fast enough around The Green Hell to turn in the 11th quickest lap among road-legal vehicles, knocking storied performance paragons like the Pagani Zonda F Clubsport, the Porsche 911 GT2 RS and the Maserati MC12 down a peg.
Colin Chapman is dead! Long live Colin Chapman!
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First of all, this will NOT be "road legal" in the US.
Secondly, while the performance is impressive, can one really compare an open-wheeled race car with a production Porsche? Or any other production car for that matter?
Sorry! While it may be fun, I'll stick with an enclosed vehicle with air con.
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