The Development of the Ford Fiesta S2000

M-Sport and Ford's latest project has seen a move away from the tried and tested Ford Focus to the new highly-acclaimed Ford Fiesta which was selected as the base car for the S2000 rally car project.  With its strong aerodynamic package, light bodyshell and good road handling the new Fiesta was judged to be the perfect car for the team to work on within the latest FIA sporting regulations.

Those regulations, which place the emphasis on making the competition vehicle as cost effective as possible, have presented new challenges for Christian Loriaux and his team at M-Sport, all of which have had to be overcome in an extremely short space of time.  The experience gained from the development of the recording-breaking Ford Focus RS WRC has been put to good use throughout the project while also adapting certain aspects of the car to fit the new rules.

One of the biggest challenges was the size of the Fiesta's cockpit.  Despite rules which allow the maximum width of the car to be 1820mm, 20mm wider than the previous regulations, the passenger compartment of the car is still small.  With driver safety paramount, the crew have to be kept as far away from the outside of the car as possible so finding room for the competition seats whilst taking this into account was a real test for the designers.

An advantage of the extra width is that it allows more lateral grip and the Fiesta S2000, the first car to be designed within these new rules, really benefits from that.  Stricter definitions of the roll cage geometry have been laid out by the FIA and more basic requirements, like an increase in the size of the tube used to construct the roll cage from 38mm to 50mm, have been included in the compulsory guidelines.

M-Sport technical director Christian Loriaux and his team studied 50 different roll cage options, taking into account safety considerations alongside weight distribution and the stiffness of the roll cage to maximise the Fiesta S2000's handling abilities.  The cockpit itself has been designed to maintain the best possible visibility for the crew, who have to sit quite far back in the car.

The Fiesta S2000 has been designed in line with the latest FIA safety regulations and will be able to accept the new FIA safety seat design.  The car came through its FIA crash test with flying colours; a maximum deflection of 100mm is allowed and the Fiesta passed with just 10mm of deflection.

The new car's suspension is based on the MacPherson strut system, a simpler system than that currently in use on the Ford Focus RS WRC, but as on the WRC car, the Fiesta uses Reiger shock absorbers. However, new FIA rules which ban ball bearings in the dampers meant that significant research was needed into reducing the friction losses.

M-Sport selected Xtrac to supply the transmission system for the car based on their previous experience of S2000 technology with other manufacturers.  Engine development has again been restricted by the new regulations but M-Sport have continued to work with French company Pipo on the project.  The normally aspirated engine in the Fiesta S2000 uses the same basic two-litre block and cylinder head that was used in the Focus RS WRC.  The advantage of an atmospherically aspirated engine is that it fits comfortably under the bonnet of the smaller car.

After initial tests in the UK, the car underwent kinematic testing to measure suspension movement and stiffness, at Ford's proving ground in Lommel, Belgium before a rigorous week of tarmac and gravel testing in France with both Markko Märtin and Matthew Wilson sharing the driving duties. The car has now completed nearly 3,000 km of testing.