M-sport taking Evo upgrade orders

Ford founder Henry Ford would have approved of M-sport’s success with its 2016-specification Fiesta R5.

True to Ford’s mantra, the car won on Sunday and sold on Monday. Actually, that’s not exactly true: it led on Friday, was selling on Saturday and seriously selling on Monday.

M-sport’s Malcolm Wilson was delighted with the step his team has made in the development of the R5 car.

“It’s been the dream debut,” he said. “We knew the car was a big step forward, but until we saw it in action and in real competition, we didn’t honestly know just how big. It’s fantastic. For me, this is the biggest advance M-sport has ever made in the time we have been doing engines. We haven’t made as big a performance gain with anything we’ve done before. And the really good news is that we haven’t touched the car, it’s run absolutely faultlessly through the rally.”

Much of this first stage of upgrades to the Fiesta R5 are centred on the engine; the second stage – the chassis improvements– are coming in March.

“The good news for M-sport is that we’ve been taking orders for cars over the weekend,” added Wilson. “Understandably, people have waited to see what the car’s like before picking up the phone. But they’re calling now!”

Talking about the new car, WRC2 winner Evans said: “The car has come on leaps and bounds from where it started.”