The History of Ford in the WRC to the Rhythm of Scratch

By Charles Sanz

DO YOU WANT TO ENJOY A WALK THROUGH THE HISTORY OF ONE OF THE MOST LEGENDARY CONSTRUCTORS OF THE WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP?

 

Ford is one of the most legendary constructors in the World Rally Championship. Since its participation in the first season of the competition, it has been present in every era and has rarely been absent from any of its editions.

 

Ford began its adventure in the WRC with the Ford Escort, achieving its first victory through Timo Mäkinen and making its mark in legendary events such as Finland and Great Britain. Ppronto became a great rival of the almighty Fiat 131 Abarth, especially in the hands of the magnificent Björn Waldegard.

The Ford Escort was replaced by the Ford Sierra, a car driven by racing legends such as Miki Biasion, Carlos Sainz or Juha Kankkunen in the hard fight against the hegemony of the Japanese brands.

 

Under the curse of the eternal sub-championship, Ford resorted to the Ford Focus to seek maximum glory through champions like Marcus Grönholm or Colin McRae with the aim of slowing down the advance of the most successful driver of all time: Sébastien Loeb. In the last stage of its history, Ford would develop the Ford Fiesta through M-Sport which, in the hands of champions such as Petter Solberg and above all the talented Sébastien Ogier, would lead the constructor to a dizzying dynamic, reaching both sweet glory and bitter defeat.

 

In this book you will find:

- Ford's motorsport successes before the World Championship with the Ford Falcon and Ford Cortina.

- The triumph of the Ford Escort Twin Cam in the European Championship.

- The International Marque Championship and Ford's merits in gaining entry to the first year of the World Championship.

- Timo Mäkinen and Ford's first World Championship win in Finland 1973

- The first victories of the Ford Escort in the world championship in Finland and the RAC.

- The constant fight against the Fiat 131 Abarth for the world championship with the arrival of Waldegard and Mikkola

- Björn Waldegard, the first World Drivers' Championship Champion

- Ari Vatanen and the last great victory of the Ford Escort RS

- The arrival at Ford of Stig Blomqvist, a true world champion

- The debut of Carlos Sainz in the world championship with Ford

- Didier Auriol and the last victory of a rear-wheel drive car in the championship

- The incorporation to Ford of a double champion: Miki Biasion

- The struggle of Biasion and Delecour against the rise of the Japanese marques

- Tommi Mäkinen's first victory in the World Championship

- The return of Carlos Sainz after winning two world championships

- The arrival at Ford of the most successful driver in the history of the championship: Juha Kankkunen.

- The Ford Focus and the goal of regaining maximum glory

- The return of Carlos Sainz and the arrival of Colin McRae and the exciting battles for the constructors' and drivers' championships.

- Markko Märtin and Toni Gardemeister's attempts to curb the French hegemony.

- The arrival of double champion Marcus Grönholm and the second-generation Ford Focus.

- The fight for the Ford Focus championships of Grönholm and Hirvonen against Citroën and the invincible Loeb.

- The Ford Fiesta and the irregular struggle between success and failure

- The signing of Petter Solberg, world champion in 2003.

- Ford's representation through M-Sport and the success story of a private team through a legend: Sébastien Ogier.

- The decline of Ford's recent past and its uncertain future in the world championship.

 

All this and much more in a journey through the time of one of the most wonderful brands in world rallying!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles Sanz
• Release date: Apr 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224316113

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Ford is one of the most legendary constructors in the World Rally Championship. Since its participation in the first season of the competition, it has been present at all times and has rarely been absent from any of its editions. And that has given rise to a wonderful story that you will walk through this book.

Ford began its WRC adventure with the Ford Escort, taking its first victory through Timo Mäkinen and making its mark on legendary events such as Finland and Great Britain. But Ford did not decide to enter the championship just to get one-off victories, and soon became a great rival to the almighty Fiat 131 Abarth, especially in the hands of the magnificent Björn Waldegard.

In order not to be left behind in time and seek glory with the advance of the editions, the Ford Escort was replaced by the Ford Sierra, a vehicle that was driven by competition legends such as Miki Biasion, Carlos Sainz or Juha Kankkunen in the tough fight against the hegemony of Japanese brands.

Under the curse of eternal runner-up, Ford turned to the Ford Focus to seek maximum glory through champions like Marcus Grönholm or Colin McRae with the aim of stopping the advance of the most successful driver of all time: Sébastien Loeb. In the last stage of its history, Ford would develop the Ford Fiesta through M-Sport which, in the hands of champions such as Petter Solberg and especially the talented Sébastien Ogier, would take the manufacturer to a dizzying dynamic, reaching both sweet glory and bitter defeat.

In these pages you will enjoy the history of this magnificent constructor in a pleasant and light walk through the trajectory of one of the main brands of the greatest rally competition in the world. I hope you enjoy this work.

Before the World Championship...

Long before the World Rally Championship appeared, Ford brand cars already had a great deal of experience in motorsports competitions.

The first victory for a Ford was in 1936, when the Romanian Ion Zamfirescu at the controls of the Ford Model A V8 and accompanied by co-driver Petre G. Cristea achieved the first victory for the brand in the prestigious Monte Carlo Rally.

Monte Carlo became a propitious test for the brand, since G. Baker Schut in 1938 and Maurice Gatsonides in 1953 would also achieve victory with a Ford brand car. However, they would do so as a private entry, since Ford as a manufacturer did not begin to compete in rally until the 1960s, when it decided to compete as a brand in various sports competitions.

To create a competition team in the rally discipline, he created a base in Boreham (England), from where he would develop all the material and equipment necessary for the competition.

Historia de Ford Motorsport - Boreham

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In addition, the brand participated in Formula 1 by supplying Cosworth engines, and for the endurance discipline it developed the Ford GT40.

The first years of the decade, the participations of Ford were rather scarce. The first participation in a rally competition with true aspirations for the Ford brand was in the 1963 Monte Carlo Rally where he drove three Ford Falcon V8 engine coupes, where the fastest was driven by the Swedish Bo Lungfeldt.

1963 Monte Carlo Rally Plate From Bo Ljungfeldt's Ford Falcon |

[2]

The driver performed effectively in the first stages, although he would eventually drop to 43rd position. However, it encouraged the manufacturer and the following year it sent up to eight cars, this time the 4.7-litre Ford Falcon Sprint model and 285 hp.

This time the Swede would have achieved the victory due to his great performance, but the regulations that were applied based on the displacement to compensate the cars, gave the final victory to Paddy Hopkirk's Mini.

After this edition, the American brand decided to abandon its involvement in the rally, leaving it in the hands of its British subsidiary, which began this stage focusing on the Ford Cortina, a two-door, rear-wheel drive sedan with a Lotus engine.

The Ford Cortina had achieved class victories up to 1,300cc in 1962 at Monte Carlo and in the Safari Rally driven by Kenyan Peter Hughes.

Peter Hughes in Ford Cortina Mk1 East African Safari Rally 1964 | African safari, Safari, Inspirational videos

[3]

This encouraged the development of the Ford Cortina, increasing its power to 140 hp in 1965, which almost enabled Vic Elford to win the Coupe des Alpes, which he missed due to a timing failure.

In 1966, the pilot Henry Taylor became director of the Ford team, which continued to trust the Cortina model, which suffered disqualifications in Monte Carlo for the incorrect use of headlights and in San Remo for homologation problems.

Although the Cortina proved to be an unreliable vehicle, its development led to several successes: Beng Söderstrom won the Acropolis Rally in 1966 and the Swedish Rally the following year. Belgian Gilbert Stapela would also go on to win the Geneva Rally.

In 1967 the second generation of the Ford Cortina was developed, which although it allowed Roger Clark to win the Scottish Rally and Ove Andersson to win the London Gulf Classic, the larger size of the vehicle made it less competitive overall.

This led to the Ford Cortina being replaced by the Ford Escort RS 1600, developed by Henry Taylor, head of Ford UK motorsports, chief engineer Bill Meade and motorsports manager Walter Hayes. The Ford Escort quickly replaced the Cortina in both commercial sales and competition.

The Escort used a Twin Cam engine with double overhead camshafts and a golden age for the brand began. It debuted in 1968 in San Remo cataloged in group 3 (vehicles manufactured in series with adaptations for competition) with a third place by Ove Andersson.

That same year, the modifications and improvements were so intense that it had to be classified in group 6 (prototypes) and this allowed its first victory in the Ireland Rally driven by Roger