Top Car

64 TOPCAR.CO.ZA|January 2016

0-100kph in 4.7sec.

‘The brains of it all is the software,’ Johnson stresses,

before acknowle dging the initialsize of the gulf between

the potential and the actual. ‘When we first st arted out on

this we thought: once we get the RDU, everything else will

be a piece of cake. Well, once we got it, that’s when the work

started. Beca use it didn ’t exactly work the way we wanted it

to work. Or th e way that we expected it was going to work.’

This led to an epic amount of calibration effort, managing

input from ‘literally dozens of sensors’ and complicated by

the decision tooffer four di stinct – really distinct – driving

modes: Normal, Sport, Track and Drift. Tuning each of

these required a huge amount of graft. ‘And then figurin g

out the right combination...’ Johnson practically shudders.

‘I mean endless, en dless discussion onthe right

combination of the various factors that we had to try to

decide about settings. We think we got it right.’

If this is all sounding a little too PlayStation for you,

Gagstatter may offer some reassurance. Not only does he

confirm the software work was done by the same team

responsible for the near-omniscient ‘torqu e vectoring by

brake’ that allows the Fiesta ST to dance a jig around its

front axle – we can’t think of better provenance, and the

Focus RS has this as well – he explains that Ford retains a

thoroughly hardware-driven approach. ‘You start with th e

basic hardware tuning. Forget about electronics, electronic

systems, because our philosophy is you do not want

electronics to mask hardware and setup weaknesses.’

It also couldn’ t be all hardcore, all the time, since, as

Johnson puts it, ‘this ge nerally is not going to be someone’s

toy car. This is going to be their car that they take to the

grocer y store with th e kids in the ba ck.’ Henceadditi onal

complications/features such as the ‘dual-mode’ Tenecco

dampers, which can be switched from Normal to Sport and

ENGINE

Johnson: ‘We

wenttothe Mustang

guysoriginally and said

we’ve gotanideato

makeyourengine more

powerful. They weren’t

interested.Now

theyare’

SUSPENSION

Dual-modedampers are

40 % stiffer in Sport setting,

intendedfor circuit useonly.

‘Don’t complaintomeif it’s too

muchon the road!’ saysJohnson.

Frontsprings are 33% stiffer, rears

38 %. The rearsubframewas

originally designed for Volvo.

Fordhad tocheckit wouldn’t

contravene rear

crash regs

STEERING

2.5 turns lock-

to-lock, linearratio,

electrically assisted

with Normal andSport

weightings. Johnson: ‘We

spenta lot oftime on

steering tuning’

WHEELS

19-inch alloyswith

MichelinPilot Super

Sport tyres asstandard;

forgedoption saves 950g

perwheelandis available

with MichelinPilot

BRAKES Sport Cup 2tyres

Ductsand‘jettunnels’

directcoolingair tothe

35 0mm front Brembos, ‘the

biggest ever fittedtoanRS’.

Calipers havefour 38 mmpistons.

Optimisingbrake coolingsaw 20%

improvement: ‘We stopped the

carfrom 22 0kph 13timesin

a row before seeingany

fade’

FRONT

BUMPER

Biggest possible

apertureaids cooling,

while spoiler targets ‘zero

lift’ aerodynamic goal.

‘This is not easytodo

ona roadcar,’ says

Johnson