Ford is preparing to enter the scariest event in motorsport when it tackles the infamous Pikes Peak in a monster 800bhp Fiesta.
Rally ace Marcus Gronholm will take the wheel in the Fiesta that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Ford Focus WRC car, as many of the components are shared between the two. The ferocious Fiesta will use a retuned 2.0-litre Duratec engine, and will run in the Unlimited class at the event where there are no restrictions on power.
Known as ‘The Race to the Clouds’, Pikes Peak is America’s second oldest motorsport event and covers a 12.4 mile course that finishes 4300 metres (14,100ft) above sea level in the Rocky Mountains. Rally nuts have been tackling the twisty Colorado hill route since 1916 in a variety of open-wheeled machines. Open-wheelers still compete alongside a variety of other classes, but the big guns now race in the Unlimited class where anything up to 1000bhp is the norm.
Ford and Gronholm will have some tough opposition not only in the shape of veteran Pikes Peak runner and multiple winner Nobuhiro Tajima, who currently holds the course record at 10 minutes 01.408 seconds for his 2007 run in a 1000bhp Suzuki XL7 Hill Climb, but also a sister Fiesta being run by the Olsberg Motor Sport Evolution team who will prepare Gronholm’s car.
Whatever the outcome, Ford are using the event as a marketing exercise ahead of the launch of the Fiesta in the States. The family hatch will go on sale later next year in the US and Ford hope that high profile events like Pikes Peak will help endear the Fiesta to US buyers.
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