WRC 2011: Rally Mexico . Ford´s special preparations for Rally Mexico

Ford has used a special testing laboratory to ready its 1.6-litre turbo engines for Rally Guanajuato Mexico.

The gravel event located in Leon, 400 kilometres north-west of the capital Mexico City, features stages that climb to more than 2700 metres above sea level, making it the highest event on the 13-round WRC calendar.

Running at altitude means engines can simply run out of breath with power levels falling by approximately 20 per cent. Because championship regulations prevent teams from testing outside of Europe, Ford has attempted to simulate the conditions it expects to find on the gravel rally by visiting a special research facility in Essex, UK.

The team spent two days in the Environmental Testing Laboratory at Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre where it was able to run the engines of its Ford Fiesta RS WRCs at altitudes encountered in Mexico. During Ford’s pre-event test in Portugal, the team’s engineers also replicated the predicted power levels they will experience in Mexico to help its drivers gauge different braking points.

“Altitude is a major challenge in Mexico and we know the engines will be down on power compared to Sweden,” said Tim Jackson, Jari-Matti Latvala’s rally engineer.

Ford hopes its switch to a six-speed gearbox with its Fiesta, having relied on a five-speed for its previous Focus model, will also aid its cause in Mexico.

“The torque of the old [2.0-litre] engine was a lot flatter so if you were ever in the wrong gear coming out of a corner you could get away with it,” said Jackson. “With the high-revving engine and a six-speed gearbox we can use the optimum power of the engine all of the time, which is particularly important in the altitude.”

As well running the new-generation World Rally Cars in altitude for the first time, Ford and the rival Citroen team will be putting their cars through their paces in high ambient temperatures, which impose greater stresses on the engines, transmissions and tyres, not to mention the drivers and co-drivers, who will endure higher temperatures in the cockpit.

“When there is less air it’s more difficult to refresh the brakes, cooling systems and engines, which suffer more when you have hot weather,” said Xavier Mestelan-Pinon, Citroen’s technical manager. “It’s a big challenge.”