Ford is offering equipment for the Fiesta hatchback in Europe that will transform it into something close to a rally car. This package is developed by Ford’s official rally partner M-Sport. The major change is very much under the hood – the 4-cylinder 1.6-liter engine now develops 168hp and 134 lb-ft of torque, 40% more than what you started with.
Other upgrades include:
* Five-speed Sadev sequential gearbox with flat shift gear cut
* Reiger adjustable dampers with Eibach springs
* Ventilated disc brakes with AP four-piston competition calipers
* T45 steel multipoint roll cage
The innocent and silent city hatch will be transformed into a crazy roller-coaster after the treatment. If you’re looking for something lighter and madder, then you should go for the R1 package that has a roll cage, ball joints, engine performance upgrades, dampers and a limited-slip differential. Once you put those into place, your Fiesta is ready to take on any Rally course.
We’re not aware if Ford offered such a package for the previous generation Fiesta (sold as Figo in India), but if they did, Ford India must fancy bringing some of it here. Ford cars are always fun to drive and the Ford Fiesta 1.6 S highlighted that with a tighter suspension setup and special tires. Perhaps it’s time for Ford to go one better by offering something such as the sports package for the enthusiast crowd.
Entry posted on November 2, 2010 by
Shrawan Raja;
Read More on Ford
If you were wondering where our updates were, I have to tell you that I just got back from Ford’s event to celebrate sales of 50,000 Figos in India, here in Chennai.
Instead of announcing a special edition or offering free accessories and discounts, Ford hosted a special drive by picking four couples through a competition on their facebook page. They drove from Chandigarh to Chennai and many of them, going by their excitement, have fallen in love with the Figo.
The 50,000th Figo was decorated by artist Rob (remember his creativity on Pogo?) and it has been auctioned for 20 lakh rupees. The money Ford raised will be transferred to neighboring schools in Chengalpet to develop their infrastructure.
Only one of the couples were Ford owners. Ford picked the couples based on the character “Sandeep” which the Figo was designed around. The Figo has reached 50,000 units, second only to a Maruti Suzuki product in the history of Indian automobiles. In the last six months, Figo has remained in the ten best selling cars.
Michael Boneham, president and managing director, Ford India -
The Discover Smart Drive has helped us connect and thank consumers across India. The Figo has achieved outstanding results.
Ford will export the Figo to 48 nations next year. They aren’t willing to share the countries except for like North Africa and United Arab Emirates. Ford isn’t interested in talking about what the eight products are that will hit India by the middle of this decade though we had it figured recently.
Mercedes Benz India Limited is looking forward to 2011 where it could break more records. The company has been consistently doing well this year and is currently ahead of Audi and BMW in India.
Mercedes India Director (sales) Debabhis Mitra -
We have already sold 4,221 cars till September and crossing the 5,000-mark this year is not impossible. We expect to do a business of 500 cars from the pre-owned cars segment.
Mercedes began second-hand car sales in May this year in four cities and about 400 vehicles have been sold through that route. The company will introduce more models in India next year. Among the expected lot is the facelifted C-Class and diesel engines on some of the existing models.
The company will face tough competition in the form the BMW X1 next year. The numbers generated by the less expensive X1 is expected to shoot BMW past Mercedes Benz next year.
Autocar India has the first pictures of the Renault Fluence testing in India. Spotted in Chennai, the Fluence is said to compete with the Toyota Corolla and Chevrolet Cruze when it is introduced in 2011.
Autocar India says the Fluence will have heavy equipment like button start and Bluetooth Connectivity.
Autocar India is reporting that Mahindra is working to cut down weight of the Scorpio by as much as 150kg (Project codename – T026). This is a very ambitious project which Mahindra hopes to accomplish with the use of special plastics and low-weight high strength steel.
Mahindra is also working on the American Scorpio (Project codename – W104) whose fate relies on the Scorpio pickups’ performance in the US market. Mahindra will not introduce the next generation Scorpio in India. It instead will fine tune the current model making it more fuel efficient and refined.
Art cars are nothing new on IAB. A few months back, we published a story on the Chevrolet Beat Art car. Then there was Michael Vaughn who used cricket as his brush to paint the Cruze.
Following those Art cars is Hyundai with its i20 at the Sydney Motor Show. Australian artists Beastman and Numskull created an i20 art. To know how they did it watch the above video and the one posted past the jump.
