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Ford WRC

Ford Fiesta RS WRC ready for Finnish start

Ford Fiesta RS WRC

There aren’t many better sights in the automotive world than a WRC weapon in full tarmac trim. The low ride height, big wheels and flared body kit. All finished off in race paint. This Fiesta RS WRC is no exception, it looks fantastic!

Ford’s latest WRC hope will make its competition debut at the Arctic Lapland Rally in Finland next week. The event will cap off four days of testing in Sweden starting later this week. Timely, as the WRC season kicks off at the Rally Sweden in February.

More pics after the break. Do yourself a favour and make sure you download the 2000px super image versions, okay.

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Audi BMW Ferrari Ford Holden Hyundai Kia Mazda Mitsubishi Subaru Suzuki Toyota VFACTS reports Volkswagen

New vehicle sales report – December 2010

FCAI banner

Congratulations Australia, for just the third time ever we have managed to send over 1 million new vehicles out the door. To be exact, 1,035,574 passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles found new homes in 2010 and that represents an increase of almost 100,000 sales on 2009 figures.

“This is an exceptional outcome and is the second highest result on record and only the third time ever that the market exceeded more than one million sales,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.

“With continuing strong levels of vehicle affordability there is no reason why the new vehicle market won’t continue to perform better than other areas of the economy.”

Toyota was the highest selling marque in 2010, with 214,718 sales registered. Holden and Ford followed with 132,923 and 95,824 sales respectively.

Holden can claim still bragging rights, though, with the Commodore proving to be Australia’s most popular car for the fifteenth year in a row. Its 45,956 sales placed it ahead of the Toyota Corolla, on 41,632, and the Toyota Hilux, with an impressive 39,896 sales.

Meanwhile, a number of other marques are shouting from the rooftops about their new records set in 2010, including BMW, Hyundai, Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki and Volkswagen.

UPDATE 7 January: Audi, Kia and Mitsubishi have released their brag sheets today, too.

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Ferrari Ford Pagani Porsche Top Gear Volvo

Top Gear – Series 16 preview

Volvo C30 Polestar

Season 16 of Top Gear is scheduled to premiere on BBC2 on Sunday 23 January. The Top Gear website has just published a preview of what we can expect to see in the upcoming series [click here to watch].

While the Pagani Zonda R, Ferrari 599 GTO and Ariel Atom 500 V8 will be great to see in action. It is a Volvo that AUSmotive is most looking forward to. It’s not just any old Volvo, either, but the 400hp all-wheel drive C30 Polestar Concept. That’s it above; looks fantastic, don’t you think.

The equally wicked Ford Focus RS500 also gets a thrashing around the Top Gear test track, and seeing that benchmarked against the C30 Polestar will be very interesting.

Also previewed in the teaser clip is a retro shootout featuring the awesome Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959, which should warm the hearts of Generation Xers who would have grown up with posters of these cars on their bedroom walls.

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Ford Video

Ken Block kicks it just for fun

Ken Block

You might remember last year we had some footage of Ken Block and Chris Atkinson living it large in an old skool Mk2 Ford Escort. Well, some new footage filmed around the same time has just been released. It’s waiting for you after the break. And, if your name is Tom, you may want to slip into something more comfortable first.

No fronts, no tricks…

[via Autoblog]

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Ford Motorsports Video

Ken Block Gymkhana Grid invitational

Ken Block v Tanner Foust

On the weekend Ken Block and his mates were living it up at the Gymkhana Grid invitational. The event even carried the name of the internet’s Sultan of Sideways. Promising to be a donut, rubber-burning fuelled festival of spin where “your mind will be blown the f@#! away” it looks like the lads had fun.

After the break you can see the promo clip advertising the event, followed by footage of the final race showing Ken Block and Tanner Foust ripping it up in a pair of Ford Fiestas.

[Thanks to Saad for the tip]

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Ford Motorsports WRC

Brendan Reeves and Molly Taylor earn WRC Academy drives

First filed 26 October 2010

Brendan Reeves & Molly Taylor

26 October 2010: Young Australian drivers Brendan Reeves and Molly Taylor have just been awarded €500,000 WRC Academy scholarships for the 2011 season. Both drivers were selected for the Academy following a successful showing in the recent Pirelli Star Driver Shootout.

The WRC Academy replaces the JWRC category and is a one-make series using Ford Fiesta R2s. There will be 20 competitors taking place in the Academy next year, but only six scholarships were up for grabs.

In addition to the six rounds of racing competition Academy participants will be given expert training for a future WRC career, including diet and mental preparation.

After being told of her success Taylor said, “My focus has always been working towards the WRC, so to be sitting here today knowing that this is actually a reality is surreal. This is just the beginning and the hard work starts now, I’m buzzing!”

Meanwhile, Reeves is also happy and grateful for the opportunities ahead, “This is a dream come true for me. I would really like to thank Pirelli and the FIA for giving junior drivers the opportunity to compete for such a fantastic prize. There is nothing else like it in rallying and for them to give young drivers like myself the chance to become a WRC driver, is awesome.”

Well done to Reeves and Taylor and here’s hoping both have a great 2011. Follow the source link below to see a brief video explaining the WRC Academy.

[Source: WRC]

UPDATE 4 November: The WRC Academy video from the source link has been added to YouTube and you can now watch the clip right here after the jump. Thanks to Chris for the tip.

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AIMS 2010: Photo gallery

AIMS 2010

Here is the AUSmotive photo gallery from the Australian International Motor Show industry day. There are 128 photos in all and you can simply click on each thumbnail to access a 2000px super image.

Highlights include a couple of track specials in the form of the awesome Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and the rear-engined V6 Renault Megane Trophy. Others to look out for are the Toyota FT-86G concept, the Ford Focus RS, a trio of Lamborghini Gallardos and the highly desirable Audi R8 V10 Spyder, which looks great in all white.

Dedicated articles on the following cars can be access by clicking on the links below:

A big thank you to Daniel McKenna who joined the AUSmotive crew at AIMS and brought you many of the pictures you see here.

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Ford Motor Shows WRC

Paris 2010: Ford Fiesta RS WRC

Ford Fiesta RS WRC

Ford has made it a trifecta of WRC reveals with these new images of their race-prepped Fiesta RS. The car has undergone 3000km of limited testing in Britain and France already. Next week the Fiesta RS WRC will be in Spain for more test sessions, the first with full 2011 specs.

Gerard Quinn, Ford of Europe’s Motorsport chief, says, “We’re delighted to preview the Ford Fiesta RS WRC in such a prominent Motor Show as Paris. There are significant visual differences from the Fiesta S2000 base car as well as major changes under the skin. The biggest, of course, is the 1.6-litre Ford EcoBoost turbo engine -the original version of which was developed by Ford’s Powertrain Engineering team.”

More pics and details after the break. Unfortunately the last three pics are only available in 1024px sizing. The first three can be viewed as 2000px super images and if I stumble across full versions of the other pics I will update them accordingly.

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Ford Subaru

Ken Block – Gymkhana Threepeat

Ken Block - Gymkhana Threepeat

It’s been a week since Ken Block’s Gymkhana Three video hit the tubes. Now, for your viewing convenience you can can watch all three Gymkhana videos in the one place. The YouTube clips for Gymkhana One, Two and Three are available after the break.

Following an average of 1 million hits per day since last week’s launch Ford has finally woken up and issued a press release to piggy back off Block’s internet success. Also included are three wallpaper sized images from Gymkhana Three.

Enjoy!

Categories
Ford

Ford Focus ST gets 184kW after being hit by the ugly stick

Ford Focus ST

Ford has released a few images of the new Focus ST ahead of its public reveal Paris Motor Show. The ST will complete the Focus line up on the stands in Paris, making it the first time all varitations of the next generation C segment platform car have been seen in the one place.

With this new hot hatch ST version Ford has certainly got one thing right, the power. There will be 250PS (184kW) on offer from a 2.0 litre turbocharged four cylinder. The lack of a five pot engine will force the XR marketing team at Ford Australia to scratch their heads – the current Focus ST is called an XR5 here. The XR4 name plate has been used for the Fiesta. Maybe sanity will prevail and we’ll get the call it the ST like everyone else on the planet.

Sadly, however, Ford got one thing horribly wrong, the looks. Perhaps that face won’t look as sad and shark-like in person. In pictures, it’s simply diabolical. Even the official name for the paint colour you see above is in on the act – “Tangerine Scream”.

Anyway, Ford hopes the new ST can become a global hot hatch player and it will go on sale around the world in early 2012. That’s some lead time, given the show car will make its debut more than 12 months ahead of the sales launch.

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Ford Video

Ken Block – Gymkhana Three

Ken Block: Gymkhana THREE

As previewed earlier in the month Ken Block is back. The location for his latest rubber burning escapade? L’autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry in France. Why there? Perhaps the 51° banked corners had a fair bit to do with it.

Sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy as Kenny rips his Ford Fiesta to shreds. Quite literally.

[Thanks to Todd for the tip]

Categories
Ford News

Coming soon: Gymkhana 3

Ken Block's latest weapon

It’s been over a year now since we first saw Ken Block light up the screens with his Gymkhana 2 video. Ken has now switched from Subaru to Ford power for his next feature. In fact, his new Fiesta has 650 horsepower. It can reach 100km/h in a staggering 1.9 seconds!

Filming for Block’s Gymkhana 3 film has taken place. For the first time Ken has ventured away from home shores to a secret European location. Chris Harris from Evo was there to experience it first hand:

Rubber scrubbed, he runs me through one of the scenes they’re about to shoot. And no, I’m not going to tell you what it is, but it involves horsepower, immense skill and tyre death. Ken’s control centre is simple, but very effective. He sits way back in the chassis, has a paddle shifter for the first time on a Gymkhana-steed and a massive, I mean MASSIVE handbrake lever embossed with the Ken Block logo, which he deploys at any opportunity. After which, he always grins.”

Follow the link below for more pics and the full report from Harris.

[Source: Evo]

UPDATE 15 September: Click HERE to watch Gymkhana Three.