1.0-litre 3-cyl car beats Ferrari Enzo around Nurburgring
One-off road-legal version of Formula Ford records ‘Ring time of 7:22
By Shahzad Sheikh
To demonstrate the viability and performance of its extraordinary 1.0-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost engine, Ford installed it into a Formula Ford racing car, converted it to road-legal status and put in a lap time at the fabled Nordschleife Nurburgring of 7 minutes and 22 seconds, which is faster than Lamborghini Aventador and Ferrari Enzo, and the 11th fastest overall lap time according to a Ford press release.
It completed the 20.832km circuit at an average speed of 169kph. The tiny engine actually puts out about 200bhp giving the single-seater a 0-100kph time of under four seconds and an expected top speed of 255kph.
The one-off car was fitted with wheel covers, front and rear lights and indicators, wing mirrors and a horn. It has a six-speed manual gearbox and did the Ring time on street-legal tyres.
Sadly this is unlikely to go into production, before all your track-heads line up cheque-book in hand outside the local Ford dealerships, but Europe does see the same engine, which recently won ‘International Engine of the Year’ in a Ford Focus tuned down to about 100bhp and 125bhp delivering remarkable fuel economy figures of 4.8 l/100km and 5 l/100km respectively.
