Rally-Prep Fiesta Wears Upgraded Ford Racing Exhaust

Recommended Reading: Ford Announces Rally-Prep Kit, Race Series for Fiesta

Euro-style Rally Racing is one of the most exciting motorsports in the world. A combination of race driving skill, technology, planning, strategy, and good luck, a rally race is a lot like piloting an attack helicopter at tree-top level.

Part of the reason that rally racing is incredibly popular worldwide is that the cars seem more like regular old passenger cars than most race vehicles. Trophy trucks are really custom-built racers wearing a fiberglass body that’s sort of disguised to look like a production truck. The same can be said for NASCAR vehicles, but the resemblance between a Nascar racer and a real car are even smaller. Of course, open-wheel racing (off which I am a fan), bears no resemblance to production cars.

Rally Racing, on the other hand, features production-based Subaru’s, Fords, Fiats, Renault’s, and more. While these vehicles are heavily modified (suspension, powertrain, and frame), they’re more like a “real” car than most.

It’s no surprise that Ford is going to leverage the popularity of Rally Racing to promote the new Fiesta, especially considering that the Fiesta is a Euro-spec car. They’ve announced plans to start selling an R2 Kit that will include, among many other things, a T304 stainless steel exhaust designed to increase power and make the Fiesta sound a heck of a lot meaner…kind of like this:

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From Car and Driver Blog

Rallying and hatchback cars have never been as popular in the U.S. as in Europe, but Ford hopes to change that with the Fiesta R2 rally package unveiled at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. The R2 kit lets owners convert their factory Fiesta five-door into a rally-ready machine. It was developed by U.K.-based M-Sport, Ford’s official rallying partner since 1997, and debuted in Europe in March 2009.

The R2 treatment includes new pistons, connecting rods, valve springs, camshafts, fuel injectors, a louder exhaust, and a new air intake to bump the 1.6-liter engine’s output to 168 hp and 134 lb-ft of torque, versus 120 hp and 112 lb-ft in stock trim. Other components include larger brakes with AP four-piston calipers, Eibach and Reiger suspension components, a roll cage, race seats and harnesses, a limited-slip differential, a five-speed sequential transmission that permits full-throttle upshifts, and sundry other components needed for off-road racing. Read the full article…