Wednesday 5th December 2018

M-Sport reveals new Ford Fiesta R2 rally car

200hp per litre, a Sadev sequential and Reiger dampers for M Sport's latest fast Ford

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Having just won the World Rally Championship with Seb Ogier in a Ford Fiesta, 2018 has been a fine year for Cumbria-based M-Sport. While missing out on the manufacturers' title might have been a disappointment, to have taken on the might of full factory teams as an independent outfit (albeit with backing from Ford) and achieve such success is incredible.

M-Sport of course has a long and illustrious history with the Blue Oval, arguably stretching back to Malcolm Wilson's first rallies with an Escort in the 70s; now the very latest chapter has been revealed, with the new Fiesta R2 rally car.

See rallying is getting a little bit of a shake up next year, with WRC3 disappearing, and the Junior WRC set to be the only series beneath it (they used to run side by side). The winner of next year's JWRC will automatically get a WRC2 seat in a Fiesta R5 for 2020, part of a scheme to promote rally drivers through the ranks in a similar way to their contemporaries on track. It was first introduced this year, with Emil Bergkvist the 2018 JWRC champion.

Crucially all competitors in the JWRC for 2019 will use these Fiesta R2s, built to new regs. Developed predominantly by M-Sport Poland in Krakow (also responsible for managing the championship), the R2s use the road car's 999cc Ecoboost triple, albeit tweaked here to 200hp - up from 170 in last year's cars. With a Sadev sequential five-speed gearbox, Reiger dampers (three-way adjustable at the front, two-way at the rear), Alcon brakes and uprated Eibach springs, it's clearly a very serious little rally car.   

Maciej Woda of M-Sport Poland said: "The all-new Ford Fiesta R2 is a massive step forward and something everyone at M-Sport Poland is extremely proud of.

"It's the first car to be fully designed and developed here in Krakow and a tremendous amount of effort, passion and enthusiasm has gone into making this project as successful as possible."

According to Autosport, 100 R2 kits have already been committed to build by M-Sport (with rumours of a separate one-make series also happening), and 20 of those should be ready for the JWRC opener in Sweden next February. All well and good, and fantastic for budding rally superstars, but hopefully it also means M-Sport might turn their hands to the road-going Fiesta once more - the last one was fantastic, after all...

[horsemeatscandal]

What I really wanna know is, when are they opening this to the public?

[RyCliff]

horsemeatscandal said:

What I really wanna know is, when are they opening this to the public?

Me too, my folks live just down the road and I've wondered how long it would be before they applied for the relevant licenses to open to the paying public.

[rastapasta]

Might be sooner than you think if the stories of M Sport not having the money to enter the wrc next year are to be believed.

[DomRoePhotography]

rastapasta said:

Might be sooner than you think if the stories of M Sport not having the money to enter the wrc next year are to be believed.

If they are struggling for funds, I'm not sure opening the private track to general public, even for trackdays, would be a good way of bringing the money in... My understanding is that trackdays provide very little room for profit once the appropriate insurances, marshalling/emergency services and other affiliated gubbins have been sorted out. (Happy to stand corrected though)

Get sponsors. Put stickers on the cars and trucks. That's how to make money!

[Steve Benson]

There are zero plans to open it to the public. It is built to strengthen and develope their circuit racing program like the Bentley in GT3.

[rastapasta]

DomRoePhotography said:

rastapasta said:

Might be sooner than you think if the stories of M Sport not having the money to enter the wrc next year are to be believed.

If they are struggling for funds, I'm not sure opening the private track to general public, even for trackdays, would be a good way of bringing the money in... My understanding is that trackdays provide very little room for profit once the appropriate insurances, marshalling/emergency services and other affiliated gubbins have been sorted out. (Happy to stand corrected though)

Get sponsors. Put stickers on the cars and trucks. That's how to make money!

Yeah while I agree with your comment re the track, Companies are not exactly falling over themselves to put their names on rally cars though... since the Fag money left motorsport is climbing a mountain in terms of finding financial backing. M Sport are no different.

[DelicaL400]

horsemeatscandal said:

What I really wanna know is, when are they opening this to the public?

If you're meaning the track they won't be, the planning conditions are very strict on usage etc.

If you're meaning M-Sport in general then they already do occasional tours, well worth going on to see inside the workshops + the collection of some of Malcolm's cars. There was a lovely blue RS1700T last time I was there.