Armed Escort

A modern take on an all-time classic this month, as we put a bewinged Ford Escort Mk 1 RSR in the MIRA wind tunnel

- SIMON MCBEATH

Our latest wind tunnel project car is the Escort RSR of Tim Foxlow, looked after by MEM Motorsport (a company well known in rally circles for producing, among other projects, the Proton IRIZ R5 WRC car).

The Escort RSR is actually one of SHP Preparations’ creations, featuring a tubeframe chassis with GFRP Escort Mk 1 lookalike bodywork and, in this instance, a 2.5-litre Duratec engine with around 320bhp. This particular example is raced in a sports/saloon championship in northern England and Wales. Its owner/driver felt that it was possibly being held back by its aero package, and in some circumstances felt light at the front end.

With that in mind we headed for the MIRA full-scale wind tunnel with a couple of less potent wings and some front end parts to evaluate, because visually the car’s aero package looked too rear-biased with its heavily cambered rear wing and modest front splitter.

The car’s static weight distribution saw around 52 per cent on the front axle, so our aero balance target for steady state conditions was to achieve around 45 to 50 per cent of the total downforce on the front.

First run