12 months from concept to reality, part IThe Ford Focus RS WRC 06 that will contest the 2006 FIA World Rally Championship has been conceived, designed, built and developed in a staggeringly short space of time. Less than 12 months after Ford reconfirmed its long-term commitment to world rallying, the Focus RS WRC 06 made its debut and set fastest stage times on Rally Australia, the closing round of the 2005 championship.
How did BP-Ford World Rally Team technical director Christian Loriaux and his team of designers and engineers at M-Sport and Ford TeamRS manage this feat? This timeline explains how they condensed a project that might have taken 18 months into less than 12 – and set technical benchmarks along the way:
November 2004
Ford of Europe confirms its commitment to the FIA World Rally Championship until 2008. In the vast workshops of M-Sport there are celebrations. And yet, at the same time, the team knows it will have barely a year to produce a brand new car, fit for new regulations that involve complex changes to the specification. The hard work is just beginning.
At M-Sport`s Dovenby Hall base in north-west England, technical director Christian Loriaux and his 14-man team set up base in a closed-off area of the factory. There they will have access to computer-aided design facilities that will allow the team to share information and to analyse data with Ford engineers across Europe. They also support the testing of parts and theories on an extreme hydraulic rig.
All development work on the 2004-specification Focus RS WRC has ceased. Instead, Loriaux and his team will work solely towards the debut of the new-shape Focus RS WRC in time for the 2006 season.
January 2005Loriaux has had access to design drawings of the new Ford Focus road car for a few weeks and the team begins to start work in earnest. They soon realise that as with the road-going Focus, the transition from current rally model to new will involve precious little carryover. “You`d think with only nine months for the project that we`d be taking over a lot of the current car,” he says. “But we`ve got elements like a brand new engine and a brand new transmission, and those are big bits on a rally car. There are a lot of key areas where we will see a big jump from the current car in terms of ideas and solutions.”
After consultation with Ford TeamRS, the new car will be based on the forthcoming three-door Focus ST model, although World Rally Car rules will allow the team to use an all-alloy Duratec 2.0-litre engine from elsewhere in the Focus range, instead of the ST`s 2.5-litre five-cylinder unit. The evolution of road car design, most notably the increased size of the new-shape Focus, presents Loriaux and his engineers with an interesting challenge – using a larger car but keeping the overall weight to a minimum.
In addition, new rules to be introduced in 2006 mean the car will not be permitted to use computer-controlled ‘active` front and rear differentials. M-Sport`s transmission partner, Ricardo, starts work on concepts for the solution, in close collaboration with M-Sport`s own transmission engineer.
February 2005M-Sport`s designers are in constant contact with Ford TeamRS and Ford engineers in Cologne, Germany, and Dunton, England. Ford`s road car engineers have the powerful ADAMS software model at their disposal, and it is proving a useful tool as Loriaux and his team strive to come up with the best concept for the new car`s layout.
“I know what I want in terms of suspension kinematics for the car,” says Loriaux. “With the ADAMS model we liaise with Ford in Germany and they can supply us with useful information. We tell them where we`re allowed to fit suspension points under the rules, for example, and give them my ‘menu` of what I want to achieve and they come back with a solution. Of course, there are always compromises to be made and with the ADAMS model they`re able to make me aware of them and of other potential solutions.”
Loriaux`s team begins an intensive period of exchanging data on the position of the engine, gearbox, differentials, suspension, fuel tank and driver and co-driver with Ford personnel in Cologne.
March 2005M-Sport starts to develop a radical theory – and one that makes its already-tough deadline look even harsher. Instead of the Focus RS WRC making its debut in Monte Carlo 2006, the team decides to aim for a `test` debut on the closing round of the 2005 season in Australia. The decision is made more complex because the long-haul nature of the event forces an extra week of travel time to be factored into the schedule.
Loriaux and his team now need to have the car running – testing, in anger and preferably on loose surfaces – by mid-October. The ADAMS software model work continues – and M-Sport also has a three-door Focus bodyshell on a jig to assess the stiffness and performance of various roll cage options.
April 2005Work with Ford TeamRS and the Cologne road car department leads to the basic concept being finalised by late spring. It emerges that the car will use a transverse gearbox, a more conventional system compared with the radical solution fitted to all Focus WRCs since 1999. “We think the advantages in weight distribution and loss of friction make it worthwhile to go transverse,” says Loriaux.
May 2005A new 10-tonne hydraulic actuator arrives and is swiftly put to good use, hammering suspension and chassis parts to test the theories in a monitored, controlled situation. This way, M-Sport engineers are able to corroborate the data provided by Ford TeamRS engineers, proving the theories and finalising the basic layout. A three-door bodyshell is now under preparation and the roll cage design is all-but-finalised. Layout is one thing - the detail work starts here.
June 2005The toughest month for M-Sport`s design team. If the Focus RS WRC is to run in September and be ready for its target of Rally Australia in mid-November, they need to finalise the detail design work on many of its parts this month. As such, late nights in the office become commonplace, with no-one leaving before midnight. “It`s been hell,” admits Loriaux. “I feel for the guys because they know the end of the project is in sight but they have to get through the toughest part of it now if it`s all going to happen.”
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