5 MINS WITH...
Pumaspeed have been right at the forefront of Ford tuning in recent years, so we grab main man, Tony McQuire, to find out more about the company…
We catch-up with Pumaspeed's Tony McQuire for a quick chat.
When did Pumaspeed first start? And where did the name come from?
We have been established for a long time – 20 years this month! The name came from the first car I started out tuning, the Ford Puma 1.7… but obviously things have progressed a lot since then…
What’s the most popular car you work on these days, then?
The Mk7 Fiesta ST180 and Focus RS Mk3 are the biggest markets for us, but to be honest we see all the modern Ford models on a regular basis – anything from the 1.0l Fiesta to the very latest Mk8 Fiesta STs and Mk3 Focus RSs.
By far our most popular upgrades are the MAXD Out Mapping as well as the range of R-Sport intercoolers, exhausts and intake kits.
We see you’re already getting impressive results from the Mk8 Fiesta ST, what tuning potential do you think this car has?
The MAXD Out Mapping has given this car an astonishing turn of speed, we have seen over 245bhp on the Stage 1R mapping. We have Stage 2 in development already, as well as a hybrid turbo sat on the bench just waiting to go on. Time will tell, but we would like to push over 300bhp in the future.
We’ve heard you’ve fitted a Mk8 Fiesta with a 1.6-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost from the Mk7 ST, what gave you the idea to do this?
When it was first announced that the new ST was going to be a three-cylinder a lot of people weren’t that impressed. We hear lots of comments like ‘The 1.6-litre EcoBoost is the best engine Ford has made, I wish they'd put that in the new ST!’, and similar. So, that got us thinking, and one day myself, Danny, Jason and the team had a chat over a few beers and we thought ‘yeah, let’s do it!’ A few months later the only 1.6-litre Ecoboost Mk8 in the world was born. It’s changed a lot since then too, it’s now running approx 450bhp and is the fastest Fiesta Mk8 aside from the rally cars! We are even offering it as a conversion that can be carried out in house at Pumaspeed HQ in Yorkshire.
Where do you see the future of Ford tuning going?
The trend for downsizing I think will continue. We are interested in seeing if electric-assisted turbochargers will bring a new wave of tuning possibilities in the years to come. But there will always be people like us, who are prepared to fit bigger capacity engines in newer cars as they come out!
What’s in store for Pumaspeed over the next 5 years or so?
We will continue our development of the Mk8 Fiesta ST as well as the Mk4 Focus ST as soon as it is released, and, of course, we'll continue to work on the current RS models too. MAXD Out remapping is expanding into the BMW and VAG Tuning world too, so it will be interesting to see how This develops. We are growing and expanding at a rate that is nearly too much to handle at the moment, so we are looking for motivated enthusiasts to come work for us – if you think you have what it takes get in touch!
As always keep up to date with us by checking out www.pumaspeed.co.uk as well as Pumaspeed Performance on Facebook and Instagram.