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This is a discussion on Testing with Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.... within the The Lounge forums, part of the Off Topic category; Photos & Video at end of report The Day We Stalked M-Sport Stalking M-Sport…sounds pretty sinister doesn’t it? I imagine ...
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12-01-12, 02:37 PM
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| Mini Mac  Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cumbria
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   | Testing with Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team....Photos & Video at end of report  The Day We Stalked M-Sport  Stalking M-Sport…sounds pretty sinister doesn’t it? I imagine you have images floating around your head of us in all black, wearing balaclavas, equipped with night vision goggles, and crawling around in the undergrowth to get close to the organisation chosen by Ford Motor Company to mastermind the assault on Ford’s only Global Motorsport activity, the World Rally Championship…well, scrap those thoughts, that’s just silly! Mid-December I was contacted by David Crozier of CroSport, asking whether I would be available on the 5th January to take some photos of their new weapon which would be gracing the rally stages in 2012, a Mitsubishi Evolution 2 with around 300bhp. Of course I was happy to assist. So, 5th January came, and I set off on my way to Kirkbride Airfield for a day of testing the Evo. I was looking forwards to this as I had a lot of ideas in my head for some pretty ‘posy’ shots of the Evo in action. Upon arrival to the airfield I saw the Evo tearing up and down the tarmac so began to set up my photography equipment. About 4 minutes, and five photos later, the Evo pulled up to ‘service’ and it was apparent all was not well. Suddenly the tarmac beneath the Evo began to turn a psychedelic bluey-purpely-greeny-colour…probably the same colour that BP magically turned the waters off the Gulf of Mexico. The diagnosis...diff oil. So after just 6 miles of testing, it was Game Over. The next half hour we spent at Kirkbride figuring out how to get the car back (car was driven to the venue). During this time, a familiar looking truck was heading down the runway towards us…green, white, and red…Eddie Stobart! This wasn’t any old Stobart truck though, two men in blue were in the cab, and along the sides were numerous logos including; Kick Energy, Pirelli, Recaro, and Eibach. This was of course, one of the M-Sport fleet. Moments later and a plain white motor was burbling down the runway. A ’61 plate Ford Fiesta RRC. For those who don’t know, a RRC (Regional Rally Car) is a variant of the Ford Fiesta RS WRC. They share the same DNA, but the RRC has a 30mm engine restrictor and aerodynamic modifications to qualify for regional rally championship regulations. The RRC can be converted to WRC specification in just six hours by the boys (and girls) at M-Sport. Before too long, one of the M-Sport mechanics made his way over to where we were servicing and asked us a few questions. Basically, “Who the hell are you and what are you doing here!?” the simple answer being, “We have booked the venue for a full day of testing”. We had even contacted M-Sport prior to the day, to make sure they weren’t planning on using the airfield, and they had told us that they weren’t. The story behind this RRC? It had been built at the beginning of December 2011 for an unnamed customer, and was undergoing its final ‘shakedown run’ prior to being handed over to the customer. How much does one of these cost? I hear you asking. Well, somewhere in the region of £150-300,000 depending on the package you are after! Putting it simply, you contact M-Sport, tell them how much you have got, and they tell you what you can get! This includes just a car, car with parts, car with complete service crew for ‘x’ amount of rallies! Anyone care to donate £200,000 to myself, please contact me! Instead of heading home with our broken Evo, we decided that as we had booked the venue for the entire day, we might as well stay an hour or so to watch the Fiesta being put through its paces! And that’s what we did. We were treated to some fantastic sideways action, plenty of tyre smoking, and one exciting high speed spin-out….driver ran out of talent? Possibly. Driver hit some of our diff oil? More than likely! Of course, I wasn’t happy with just watching the Fiesta in action, I wanted to get some ‘covert footage’, so I set up my video camera and tripod, and started recording. Also brought out the ‘Mother Lens’ and snapped some sideways action! So what started out as a crappy day, turned out to be a pretty good day! Sadly, the M-Sport guys weren’t up for a race against my Zetec Powered Ford Fiesta MK1. I like to think they were scared!          VIDEO:
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12-01-12, 03:16 PM
| #2 |
| What to put...  Join Date: Mar 2010
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| Somebody forgot to take the wrapper off the side skirts 
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12-01-12, 03:23 PM
| #3 | |
| Mini Mac Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cumbria
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Oh bugger, wrong forum!
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12-01-12, 03:28 PM
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12-01-12, 04:59 PM
| #5 |
| iBook  Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Brizzle
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| some cracking pics there. kinda reminds me of ken block on his gymkhana showcase on airfield lol |
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12-01-12, 05:03 PM
| #6 | |
| Mini Mac Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cumbria
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| Quote:
 
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12-01-12, 06:12 PM
| #8 | |
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Don't get a better graphic man than Don (djoscar) all his stuff is first class 
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12-01-12, 06:15 PM
| #10 |
| Mini Mac Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cumbria
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| Based on the classic rally plates 
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12-01-12, 06:24 PM
| #12 | |
| Mini Mac Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cumbria
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*according to the mind of Dan Hurst. Owner of DRH Photography.
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12-01-12, 06:39 PM
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12-01-12, 06:43 PM
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| blah blah blah  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Here
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12-01-12, 06:46 PM
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12-01-12, 08:01 PM
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| I don't mean to alarm you, but I think the ford you were driving was a Transformer.
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12-01-12, 08:15 PM
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| Cool pics dude!
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12-01-12, 08:27 PM
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12-01-12, 08:29 PM
| #20 | |
| Mini Mac Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cumbria
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If it was about TAG Sport (which drastically needs sorted), I would have said; "Yeah, Ryan is top notch at web and graphic designing".
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I see you got the graphic watermark 
