There is a Pirtek Ford this year

Driver · 9 Mar 2006, 02:02 (Ref:1540862)

Story here is that Pirtek are the naming rights sponser for the Ford rally team.

Vanilla Dice · 9 Mar 2006, 02:58 (Ref:1540885)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Driver

Story here is that Pirtek are the naming rights sponser for the Ford rally team.

Any bets on how far into the rally they will be before Michael Guest destroys the car?

DAVID PATERSON · 9 Mar 2006, 03:53 (Ref:1540894)

I'll put $5 on SS4.

Average Punter · 9 Mar 2006, 04:24 (Ref:1540902)

Any bets on how long it will be before Mr VD bags another Australian motorsport competitor/team manager/sponsor???????

This really is getting tiresome...

dsg · 9 Mar 2006, 04:55 (Ref:1540907)

I'll put $5.00 on post 325.

retro · 9 Mar 2006, 06:20 (Ref:1540922)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Average Punter

Any bets on how long it will be before Mr VD bags another Australian motorsport competitor/team manager/sponsor???????

This really is getting tiresome...

Used to be a shot of penicilin in the old days - got any spare down there??

minty · 9 Mar 2006, 07:38 (Ref:1540937)

Tis' a Lean year for Pirtek Ford ahead...

pete55 · 9 Mar 2006, 09:04 (Ref:1540995)

I heard a rumour that Pirtek may in fact appear on a Ford V8 Supercar this year.

retro · 9 Mar 2006, 09:25 (Ref:1541009)

Quote:

Originally Posted by pete55

I heard a rumour that Pirtek may in fact appear on a Ford V8 Supercar this year.

Pirtek oil is rebranded Caltex oil?(don't tell anyone Pete)

I used to get a lot of info from my friendly local Pirtek dealer but he left under strange circumstances.

stmorri · 9 Mar 2006, 09:52 (Ref:1541570)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vanilla Dice

Any bets on how far into the rally they will be before Michael Guest destroys the car?

VD, you have real knowledge......if only you could find a way around your attitude problem.

mac · 13 Mar 2006, 23:43 (Ref:1547615)

And what a fine debut for the stunning feat of engineering excellence that is the Group N (P) Ford Focus ......

How they could get it so wrong is mystifying.

00 XR8 · 14 Mar 2006, 00:27 (Ref:1547630)

How can they get it right when the regs are likely to change before the season is out though?

Building a car to take full advantage of the N (P) rules now would be rather silly IMO, with S2000 just around the corner. But they can't commit to that either, until it is confirmed that these rules will actually be used down here.

It hasn't been the smoothest entrance into the category for them, but I am just glad that one of the two big manufacturers is putting money into Australian motorsport that isn't V8Supercar racing.....

mac · 14 Mar 2006, 01:03 (Ref:1547640)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 00 XR8

How can they get it right when the regs are likely to change before the season is out though?

They did not know about S2000 when they engineered and built the car.

The failure in Canberra had nothing to do with the regs, and everything to do with catastrophic engineering.

That it lasted seven stages on day one was a minor miracle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 00 XR8

It hasn't been the smoothest entrance into the category for them, but I am just glad that one of the two big manufacturers is putting money into Australian motorsport that isn't V8Supercar racing.....

Absolutely. There is no one in motorsport that does not want Ford to be successful in rallying. The whole paddock would have loved nothing more than for Ford to have been competing with Bates, Evans, Pedder et al. in Canberra.

But they have got the car seriously wrong in many areas.

TSR · 14 Mar 2006, 01:06 (Ref:1547644)

Were did Micheal Guest and the Pirtek Focus finish the rally or did he DNF. I have not herd all I know is the Bates won.

mac · 14 Mar 2006, 01:50 (Ref:1547656)

They retired from the first day on the second last stage, over 6 minutes down. And then pulled out for good on the first stage of day 2.

minty · 14 Mar 2006, 05:27 (Ref:1547693)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 00 XR8

How can they get it right when the regs are likely to change before the season is out though?

Building a car to take full advantage of the N (P) rules now would be rather silly IMO, with S2000 just around the corner. But they can't commit to that either, until it is confirmed that these rules will actually be used down here.

IIRC the Super2000 regulations have been supported by Toyota and Ford and will be implemented midway through the season, I also believe this is part of the reason why Subaru pulled out, due to (in thier opinion) too many leniencies being given to Toyota and Ford with Group N(P) and variant options.

racer69 · 14 Mar 2006, 06:26 (Ref:1547708)

mac - What car do you propose they should have built?

Save from dipping into a very old parts bin from Europe with the Escort Cosworth, where would a 4WD and Turbo system have come from?

Toyota's path with the Corolla was made easier as the Celica GT4 bits used came off cars the Bates already owned, and had driven for years.

Best sounding car by far, not a patch on an old Escort RS1800 at full noise in the forest though.

mac · 14 Mar 2006, 06:28 (Ref:1547709)

IMO Subaru pulled out because they did not want the ARC enabling other manufacturers to compete with them on a more level playing field.

Toyota and Ford are not supporting S2000. Toyota has made a commitment to evaluate it compared to Group N (P). While, after last weekend Ford now appears to be putting all its eggs in the S2000 basket in the hope that they may get it right there.

mac · 14 Mar 2006, 06:38 (Ref:1547710)

Quote:

Originally Posted by racer69

mac - What car do you propose they should have built?

Save from dipping into a very old parts bin from Europe with the Escort Cosworth, where would a 4WD and Turbo system have come from?

Toyota's path with the Corolla was made easier as the Celica GT4 bits used came off cars the Bates already owned, and had driven for years.

Best sounding car by far, not a patch on an old Escort RS1800 at full noise in the forest though.

Whatever they built, they should not have built a rear wheel drive car with woefully inadequate suspension.

A front wheel drive car would be much faster! Let alone an AWD one.

The opinion is that there were not enough people with significant rally experience involved in the car's development.

This is inexcusable when there is a Ford World Rally Team - there is even a link with Prodrive! What's to stop Ford Australia sending an engineer or two to Europe on a fact-finding mission to find out how to build a rally car.

The suspension is so underdone that there was a rumour that it did not survive the compulsory media day on Friday.

But, you are right about the sound - they got that right. And it looks pretty cool from the outside too.

minty · 14 Mar 2006, 06:52 (Ref:1547716)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mac

IMO Subaru pulled out because they did not want the ARC enabling other manufacturers to compete with them on a more level playing field.

Toyota and Ford are not supporting S2000. Toyota has made a commitment to evaluate it compared to Group N (P). While, after last weekend Ford now appears to be putting all its eggs in the S2000 basket in the hope that they may get it right there.

The beauty of Super 2000 being that it costs less to develop. But I agree - Ford really needs to sort itself out - these problems should have been fixed after the Bathurst anti-climax.

**GTRMagic** · 14 Mar 2006, 08:59 (Ref:1547770)

Quote:

Originally Posted by racer69

mac - What car do you propose they should have built?

Save from dipping into a very old parts bin from Europe with the Escort Cosworth, where would a 4WD and Turbo system have come from?

Toyota's path with the Corolla was made easier as the Celica GT4 bits used came off cars the Bates already owned, and had driven for years.

Best sounding car by far, not a patch on an old Escort RS1800 at full noise in the forest though.

And the Corolla AWD technology came from a Celica GT-FOUR that ended its life in 1994... so its 12 years old already...

Ford could have done anything with this team.. this opportunity... an AWD Focus was not impossible to put together (raiding the Mazda parts bin would have yielded the Mazda MPS drivetrain... perfect for this opportunity... or indeed there is always Volvo..)

From speaking to someone who saw the car come back to base... the entire rear axle fell out of the car... and not for the first time apparently... I guess it happened to GRM's Monaro too after 15 or so hours of punishment.. but they fixed the issue, and it never happened again..

.. somehow I dont think this project shall be so lucky..

TSR · 14 Mar 2006, 09:06 (Ref:1547776)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mac

They retired from the first day on the second last stage, over 6 minutes down. And then pulled out for good on the first stage of day 2.

Cheers mac, normally I recive a email from the ARC but it has not arrived yet, and I herd nothing from the weekend, plus I missed RPM.

Vanilla Dice · 16 Mar 2006, 21:36 (Ref:1550584)

From the "Did you know?" files...

.. were you aware that Ford, or more correctly M-sport, supplies Group N conversion kits for Ford Focii around the world, in the old model, and the new Fiesta..

These are FWD of course, and the workmanship looks scrummy.. way better than the local work.

Rumour has it that Ford has allocated $3m so far to this ARC project, and to date, havent finished a single day's rallying..

.. a far cry when they gave Steve Winwood panels and parts at cheap prices when running the Aussie Class Falcon XR's

The Price is wrong on this occassion.. it shall not get better. The people in the engineering group are not doing the job, in fact NBM rebuilt the rear of the car on Friday night using the bits they had been supplied by Ford.. and mentioned several areas where the blue oval boys could make it a LOT better.

Ford not understanding RWD cars? Fancy that

RotorFan · 16 Mar 2006, 22:09 (Ref:1550610)

Gosh, its a poor reflection on the australian arm of these manufacturers if they have to rely on pulling bits from other cars to build a rally car.

Head Rev · 16 Mar 2006, 22:52 (Ref:1550634)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vanilla Dice

From the "Did you know?" files...

Rumour has it that Ford has allocated $3m so far to this ARC project, and to date, havent finished a single day's rallying..

.. a far cry when they gave Steve Winwood panels and parts at cheap prices when running the Aussie Class Falcon XR's

Ford not understanding RWD cars? Fancy that

And Steve Winwood had a far better finishing record, something like 98% in his XR's. Bring back the XR8 Rally car I say!!!!

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