Motor-sports Professional News – November 2009
Ford Develops New Formula Ford Engine
Ford has launched an all-new version of the ford Duratec 1600cc engine, offering 110ps. It is designed to complement the highly successful 155ps Duratec unit, which since its introduction in 2006 has powered Formula Ford back into the single-seater limelight.
The new Duratec 1600cc 110ps engine, which has been in development for the last 12 months, will be available from the end of 2009 with a price tag expected to be around GBP5,000 (€5,500/$7,500). It will be able to be fitted into new Formula Ford chassis, or in older cars as a replacement for the1600cc Kent or Zetec 1800cc engines. "The new power unit will be ideal for fitment in new chassis; it will be a stepping stone to the more powerful Duratec engines used in the MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain and other series worldwide," said Mike Norton, motor-sport manager, Ford of Europe, "and the engine will be -made available throughout world, from the US to Europe, Australia to Africa." The highly robust and efficient 1.6 litre Duratec engine, as used in the Ford Focus and Ford Fiesta road cars, has proven a very successful race engine in Formula Ford championships around the world.
Formula Ford Lifeline
Ford has put the legendary Kent engine block back into production thereby throwing a lifeline to thousands of historic Formula Ford racers worldwide. Engineering work has already begun at Ford Racing's Performance Parts division in the US, with sales scheduled to start in 2010. The Kent engine began its production life 50 years ago and was the perfect choice of power unit when Formula Ford was created in Britain in 1967. Though the engine was superseded at the top level of Formula Ford racing in the UK in 1993, between 5,000 and 7,000 Kent-engined cars are competing around the globe and engine parts are becoming increasingly scarce.
Now expertise gained by Ford Racing Performance Parts through its remanufacturing of use on the Kent.
"Our parts division has many years of expertise in re-making blocks," said Ford Racing engineering supervisor Andy Slankard, "and we are going to take our knowledge of modem techniques to remanufacture the Kent block and improve its durability. Our aim is not to make performance gains but to strengthen it and to make the unit more reliable.
"There are many thousands of Kent-engined Formula Ford cars still racing around the world - particularly in the US which never adopted the Ford Zetec engine which replaced it in Europe - and we believe that the majority of owners of these historic machines will want to retain the originality of their car by using a genuine Ford engine."
The news is welcomed by Mike Norton, motor-sport manager Ford of Europe. "It is fantastic news that the legendary Kent engine is to be reborn. This engine powered some of motor-sport's greatest names to their first championship successes - drivers like Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Nigel Mansell and Mika Hakkinen - and we very much hope that the plan to remanufacture the unit will lead to even more names being added to the list of Formula Ford greats in future seasons.
www.racetechmag.com November 2009
