High-performing Fords at the Goodwood Festival of Speed
Ford Motor Company, a major sponsor of the Goodwood Festival of Speed since its inception in 1993, will again be supporting this prestigious event to be held over the weekend of 11-13 July 2008. The Festival of Speed is Europe's premier historic motor sporting event – a combination of hillclimb, rally stage, garden party, and motor show, all in the grounds of Goodwood House, the Earl of March's ancestral home in West Sussex.
Leading the array of famous Ford vehicles on the hillclimb and the forest rally stage will be the Ford Focus RS WRC, which recently claimed a record-breaking 100th consecutive points finishes in the FIA World Rally Championship. With a first and second-place finish on the recent Rally of Turkey, Ford became the first manufacturer since the launch of the WRC in 1973 to reach a century of successive scores.
A stunning array of Ford vehicles
In a year in which Ford celebrates two important dates – the centenary of the launch of the Model T and the 40th anniversary of the arrival of the Escort – there will be an array of famous Ford vehicles at Goodwood. Ford will be represented on the Hillclimb, on the Forest Rally Stage, and also in the Cartier Style et Luxe Concours. In addition, many of the famous racing F1 and racing sports cars present will be powered by Cosworth-Ford V8 or V10 engines.
There were successful Model Ts in motor racing in the 1920s, Ford V8s won the Monte Carlo rally in the 1930s, and since the 1950s Ford has always been prominent in racing and rallying, often with specially-developed cars such as the Escort RS1600 and RS1800, the RS200, the Sierra RS500 Cosworth, and racing Mondeos.
Ford-powered cars from all around the world will be present, ranging from Indy 500 winners, to successful British Touring Car Championship machines, an ex-Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford F1 car and Escort Mk IIs which dominated world rallying for so long.
Current WRC Champions
Ford success at world level continues to this day, and the record-breaking Focus RS WRC features on the Hillclimb and the Forest Rally Stage driven by current drivers' championship leader Mikko Hirvonen. Ford is also leading the manufacturers' standings in pursuit of a third consecutive FIA World Rally Championship after winning the manufacturers' title in 2006 and 2007.
Joining the Focus WRC cars on the Forest Rally Stage will be a Ford Escort RS1800 rally car driven by 1979 rally world champion, Björn Waldegård.
Visitors to the Goodwood Festival of Speed will see an astonishing variety of other famous Fords, ranging from the Le Mans-winning GT40, RS200, NASCAR Taurus, the 7-litre Galaxie which changed the face of British saloon car racing in 1963, and an ex-Jim Clark racing Lotus Cortina.
Escort and Model T celebrations
Immediately after its public launch in 1968, the Escort became a race and rally winner and went on to record many victories. Escorts won the European and British Touring Car Championships in the 1970s, and were twice World Rally Champions, in 1979 and 1981. Escorts won the Monte Carlo rally, the East African Safari and the London-Mexico World Cup rally, and they triumphed on the British RAC rally on eight consecutive occasions (1972 – 1979).
Although the Model T was not designed as a competition car, it became successful in everything from long distance trials, to specialised formula racing in the US. As the world’s best selling car of the 1910s and 1920s, Model Ts found fame in many ways. A selection of special types will be on show in the Style et Luxe Concours. Model Ts, it seems, not only provided trouble-free motoring and bargain prices for millions, but could also be used in show business, as commercial vehicles, and in the most inhospitable terrain.
