M-Sport, Ford’s factory World Rally Championship team is building a new R5 Fiesta based on the regulations which are set to replace the Super 2000 in the future.
Powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine, the four-wheel drive R5 Fiesta is aimed at domestic and regional championships and will be seen in action for the first time early next year.
Ford isn’t the only manufacturer currently building a R5 machine, with Citroen and Skoda also believed to be working on a similar car. Peugeot meanwhile will unveil its own car at the Paris Motor Show.
R5 rally cars will not be running the same aero package seen on their WRC counterparts, although they both use the same basic shell. Engines on R5s will be more powerful than RRC thanks to 32mm restrictors – RRCs have 30mm restrictors.
The upright design is a lot less complicated on a R5 car compared to WRC or RRC, and this will help reduce the cost of a R5 to almost half of a WRC car.