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Hot Car - Road Test: Fiesta XR2 Lumo 105T
"Blow By, Blow By, Blow"
July 1983
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Road Test: Fiesta XR2 Lumo 105T




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.....the wheels. But on the RS1600I and this particular car, it is only responsible for controlling roll. In this instance both fore and aft movement of the control arms are located by trailing links that are attached via ball joints to the aluminium crossmember. The standard roll bar has a certain amount of compliance when under load, whereas the RS1600I type is a straight link that removes this compliance to give superior handling. This method of roll bar location is used on the turbo version especially to handle the extra power.

The braking system has also come under special attention, the front discs and calipers are changed in favour of XR4i items which offer a 20mm diameter disc increase and therefore increased stopping power. This is especially noticeable at high speed. At the rear, the standard 7" diameter drums have been replaced for larger 8" items as found on the XR3i. Wheels and tyres on the RS Turbo are also of RS origin, of the type found on the 16001 and measure 6"x15" which are fitted with D4 Dunlop 50 series radial tyres. These combined with the tweeked suspension offer excellent grip in the dry although extra caution is needed in the wet. This is not really a tyre associated problem and is due more to the masses of extra power available as it is all too easy to get them spinning.

From rest, the RS Turbo accelerates to 60mph in under seven seconds with wheel spin all the way through first, and is a figure that we achieved on more than one occasion. The fastest figure being 6.7 seconds - a time that is quite staggering for a fully road trimmed car with only a 1600cc engine.

Top speed is equally impressive, so much so that it will see off a 2.8i injection Capri with power to spare. Turbo boost comes in at 2,500rpm in a progressive, smooth yet ever so powerful kick and remains there all the way up to 6,500rpm.

The only drawback that we found was illustrated when driving the car hard round a very tight circuit and concerned the way the power would come in with an almighty rush as boost came in. If the throttle is kept open and if you are half way round a corner, this sudden rush of extra power can send you understeering off the road (perhaps limiting the boost pressure to engine revs - as with the Metro Turbo - may solve this). For normal road use this characteristic doesn't really manifest itself, although as mentioned earlier, extra caution is needed in the wet.

The turbo kit is expected to retail at around £1,300, should be available from RS dealers now and is very good value for money. However, with the RS suspension which is essential for road use this puts the figure up to around £1,650. AK

Technical Viewpoint - RS Turbo

Whilst visiting Ford's Boreham Airfield a little while ago, Motorsport chief, Bill Meade, asked me if I'd fancy a run around the block in his latest creation. I think it must have been the way he played it down that made me sit up and take notice. A ten mile ride through the countryside around Chelmsford absolutely convinced me that we just had to have this car for a longer test period.

The Ford 1600 Turbo was built as a development vehicle for the Ford Rallye Sport Turbo Championship. And, having the club-man very much in mind, it had to be something that could be fitted as a kit by most competent mechanics. To further reduce costs it was based around the standard 1600 Ford Escort CVH engine. Now that is of some significance because, if you look at the results obtained with it, you can really see that it makes this conversion an easy winner out of the three.

The main reason for that, is the way the engine develops it's torque and the careful blending of the rest of the components to suit this particular characteristic. For example, the distributor is now of a different type, which has a 10° vacuum retard facility built in, which comes into play under full boost conditions. And then, to complement this, the mechanical advance has been adapted accordingly.

The pistons are the standard 1600 type which have the two ears on the sides of the piston's crown skimmed off to arrive at a compression ratio of 8'/2:1.

In practice this means that, unlike the other two in this test, this engine does not get quite so close to the detonation areas and thus the protection facilities built into the whole conversion can be kept simple as well. It also enhances the reliability without sacrificing driveability. The turbo-charger feeds the carburettor through an air to air intercooler, and from the figures available to us it lowers the charge temperature by.....

Captions -

Middle-Left - GBH number plate Is very apt, although Turbo badges on sides and rear tell the full story
Top-Right - From rest, the car launches particularly well, although there's lots of wheelspln
Bottom-Right - Specially designed allumlnlum brackets serve as new pick-ups for front tie bars on RS car