Top Car

64 TOPCAR.CO.ZA|January 20160-100kph in 4.7sec.‘The brains of it all is the software,’ Johnson stresses,before acknowle dging the initialsize of the gulf betweenthe potential and the actual. ‘When we first st arted out onthis we thought: once we get the RDU, everything else willbe a piece of cake. Well, once we got it, that’s when the workstarted. Beca use it didn ’t exactly work the way we wanted itto work. Or th e way that we expected it was going to work.’This led to an epic amount of calibration effort, managinginput from ‘literally dozens of sensors’ and complicated bythe decision tooffer four di stinct – really distinct – drivingmodes: Normal, Sport, Track and Drift. Tuning each ofthese required a huge amount of graft. ‘And then figurin gout the right combination...’ Johnson practically shudders.‘I mean endless, en dless discussion onthe rightcombination of the various factors that we had to try todecide 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 heconfirm the software work was done by the same teamresponsible for the near-omniscient ‘torqu e vectoring bybrake’ that allows the Fiesta ST to dance a jig around itsfront axle – we can’t think of better provenance, and theFocus RS has this as well – he explains that Ford retains athoroughly hardware-driven approach. ‘You start with th ebasic hardware tuning. Forget about electronics, electronicsystems, because our philosophy is you do not wantelectronics to mask hardware and setup weaknesses.’It also couldn’ t be all hardcore, all the time, since, asJohnson puts it, ‘this ge nerally is not going to be someone’stoy car. This is going to be their car that they take to thegrocer y store with th e kids in the ba ck.’ Henceadditi onalcomplications/features such as the ‘dual-mode’ Teneccodampers, which can be switched from Normal to Sport andENGINEJohnson: ‘Wewenttothe Mustangguysoriginally and saidwe’ve gotanideatomakeyourengine morepowerful. They weren’tinterested.Nowtheyare’``````SUSPENSIONDual-modedampers are40 % stiffer in Sport setting,intendedfor circuit useonly.‘Don’t complaintomeif it’s toomuchon the road!’ saysJohnson.Frontsprings are 33% stiffer, rears38 %. The rearsubframewasoriginally designed for Volvo.Fordhad tocheckit wouldn’tcontravene rearcrash regs``````STEERING2.5 turns lock-to-lock, linearratio,electrically assistedwith Normal andSportweightings. Johnson: ‘Wespenta lot oftime onsteering tuning’``````WHEELS19-inch alloyswithMichelinPilot SuperSport tyres asstandard;forgedoption saves 950gperwheelandis availablewith MichelinPilotBRAKES Sport Cup 2tyresDuctsand‘jettunnels’directcoolingair tothe35 0mm front Brembos, ‘thebiggest ever fittedtoanRS’.Calipers havefour 38 mmpistons.Optimisingbrake coolingsaw 20%improvement: ‘We stopped thecarfrom 22 0kph 13timesina row before seeinganyfade’``````FRONTBUMPERBiggest possibleapertureaids cooling,while spoiler targets ‘zerolift’ aerodynamic goal.‘This is not easytodoona roadcar,’ saysJohnson