The story of the Ford Focus WRC (newsreel)

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Күн бұрын

This Ford-produced newsreel features extensive behind-the-scenes footage from the development of the Ford Focus WRC in throughout 1998, including unprecedented access to the team at their R&D base in Millbrook. It also includes interviews with key personnel, such as team boss Malcolm Wilson, project leader Guenther Steiner, and driver Colin McRae.
Converted from VHS commercial newsreel release.
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Пікірлер: 62

@eilidhmm 9 ай бұрын

Wow, Guenther came out of nowhere in this, nice to see him in his younger days...

@maosborne98mo 9 ай бұрын

Yes, I forgot to keep chewing my food when he first appeared!

@d-d-i 9 ай бұрын

He actually had interesting career. Starting with Mazda Rally Team Europe in the late 80's, then going to Jolly Club in the early 90's and from there he went to Ford and further venturing into F1 starting with Jaguar, where he has been ever since.

@ALLRNDCRICKETER 4 ай бұрын

@@d-d-i Was also at Subaru for a time when Burns was there

@snowjammma 2 ай бұрын

Amazing catch hes done quite well moving onto F1!

@danc7053 7 ай бұрын

Thank you for all of these wonderful VHS Rally uploads. I greatly appreciate everything you have done for all of us obsessive fans. These videos bring me so much joy and comfort to watch.

@robin_marriott 9 ай бұрын

Thanks for the upload. The mk1 Focus WRC is a legitimate hero car for me, I’ve always loved the way it looks and I’ve spent years accumulating as much memorabilia as I can - books, magazine articles, models, everything. The one thing which has eluded me so far is a wheel.

@VHSRallies 9 ай бұрын

M-Sport did a book on the Mk1 WRC, with quite a few behind-the-scenes pics and close-ups of components etc. Worth checking it out if you can find a copy (long since out of print).

@robin_marriott 9 ай бұрын

@@VHSRallies I’ve got one, cost me £100 and I was trying to find a copy for a few years. It was worth the wait.

@explodingrabbit51 5 ай бұрын

@robin_marriott is it WRC: The Focus Era?

@robin_marriott 5 ай бұрын

@@explodingrabbit51 there’s two similar books. One by Graham Robson called “Ford Focus WRC - The autobiography of a rally champion” and the M-Sport one titled “WRC - The Focus Era” Both are excellent.

@andrewdrabble8939 9 ай бұрын

Always loved the shape of the Focus. Owned a Mk1.5 and currently own a Mk2. Never let me down

@d-d-i 9 ай бұрын

First gen Focus ST is definitely starting to be a classic, beautiful shape on that car, and looks spectacular with that deep Ford blue.

@paulleggett9735 9 ай бұрын

Always good to see this resurface. This white focus also make an appearance in Dirt Rally 2.0 which is a nice touch.

@charlesshamseldin9555 9 ай бұрын

This is fantastic, a lot of footage I've not seen before

@VHSRallies 9 ай бұрын

Yes, I guess it was a newsreel supplied by Ford and then broadcasters were free to pick snippets as they needed them. Nice to save it as a whole.

@rasuu17 9 ай бұрын

amazing footage, thanks for sharing.

@VHSRallies 9 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching

@kay_c1773 9 ай бұрын

Good old, or rather young Guenther, I forgot he was at M-Sport.

@kelevra558 4 ай бұрын

Yeah so i bought a totaled focus rs. Ive had a 2003 focus hatch for 6 years. Im about 65% done combine the two. Shes gonna be something special.

@cutters74 9 ай бұрын

I had a 1.8 Zetec, two door, in silver, great car ❤

@djlumi4863 5 ай бұрын

You know any other channels that preserve old motor sport footage? I got an old recording of the 1990 Bathurst that'd be cool to upload!

@y2fmc 7 ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing.

@camrsr5463 9 ай бұрын

3:11 Yeah energizing for sure. Dude is bouncing all over the room with energy.

@sologanglabel 9 ай бұрын

I have a 1.8 tddi 2 doors focus from 00’ a lil bit tuned and I love it it has 480 000km and never failed me turns very well the turbo kicks in the right time its always a joy 😁

@John_Wood_ 9 ай бұрын

Great video. I'd like to know how Malcolm Wilson get M-Sport up and running. What a success story.

@paulolouro7300 8 ай бұрын

Excellent Video. I'm a happy happy owner of Focus RS Mk1 :)

@ruleninetyone 9 ай бұрын

Good to see again! 👌

@geoundici 9 ай бұрын

malcolm doing donuts to test the car is just a great thing to see

@christiantracey915 9 ай бұрын

Gunther Steiner at 7:30!

@Holanduzo 9 ай бұрын

Some certain Gunther Steiner there in the video...

@dct1 9 ай бұрын

Great upload!

@VHSRallies 9 ай бұрын

Thanks for the visit

@awakawiateazrutyialocinadn5207 7 ай бұрын

Its deeply critical to think of Ford and its motorsports history (such as that video) as given that Ford's current WRC performance - with the Puma Rally1 - has been far from 20th century (referring to Ford's glory days in motorsports especially rallying) as during the period Ford owned stocks in Mazda, Jaguar and Aston Martin while the Blue Oval too eyed to acquire shares in Volvo and Land Rover until these got affected by the 2007-2008 global financial crisis - leading Ford to sell shares in Jaguar/Land Rover to India's Tata, Volvo to Geely (which also and currently owns Aston Martin) and even Mazda. (Now Toyota owns a 5 percent stake in Mazda even though the latter remains independent.) The first-generation Focus, whose chassis was later reused in the North American market-only second-generation model, was not sold in Southeast Asia (ex: Thailand) until the international markets version second-generation Focus - which was later used as basis for the 2006-2010 Focus WRC driven by Marcus Gronholm, Mikko Hirvonen and later current Toyota WRC boss Jari-Matti Latvala - was introduced on sale in 2005 and thus making it as the first Ford Focus model to be sold in Southeast Asia until the third-generation model circa 2010s. The Focus - along with its WRC replacement Fiesta - became the last Ford passenger cars to be marketed and manufactured in Southeast Asia, as Ford (apart from the mechanically-dated Puma and the VW-based Europe-only Explorer) has already been committed not to develop contemporary passenger cars since closing down its (Ford's) Brazilian factory in 2021 and as well as leaving India at the same year for examples. Besides these, Ford should join forces with Peugeot's parent company Stellantis (where former World Rally Championship participants Lancia, Fiat, Citroen etc are also there) so that if that were to happen - obvious because Ford and Stellantis are transatlantic car manufacturers with transatlantic businesspeople and engineers - therefore as a result would mean Stellantis will have the most successes in the WRC series...

@fairrodthecapacitor 9 ай бұрын

Guenther Steiner, old M-Sport, Ford Focus livery alt 1 and 2, McRae, Jean-Josef, Rådström and Solberg and the old days of WRC. But the car was illegal on Monte Carlo due to water pump illegality. I miss the world rally car regulations

@caspervadmand5905 9 ай бұрын

What was illegal about the water pump?

@luvanotafighta 9 ай бұрын

@@caspervadmand5905 It was driven by an electric motor, and in a different location from the standard production engine.

@fairrodthecapacitor 9 ай бұрын

@@caspervadmand5905 They used a non homologated Ford Focus road car water pump.

@patrick87100 7 ай бұрын

Awesome

@LRSNRCNG309 9 ай бұрын

The last good looking car of that era

@stewartgrindlay9760 9 ай бұрын

6:56 “Gene we look a bunch of blankers”

@Chr.Monika6469 18 күн бұрын

The Focus WRC was interesting... it was a good rally car, but never quite the best, that's why it never won the driver's title even with legends like McRae, Sainz and Gronholm at the wheel

@rolandbiro1606 7 ай бұрын

I love ford focus wrc rs

@TufteMotorsport 9 ай бұрын

I have such an ambivalent relationship to Ford Focus. It is a good car, good design and would have been the 2001 champion of not for the misheard pacenote. But what an downgrade from the Escort. I really want to like the Focus, but I just get reminded they axed the Escort design language for it. But man.. The front end on the Focus WRC 1999 is GEORGIOUS!

@niallhogan6513 9 ай бұрын

You need your eyesight tested! 😂 when the focus arrived it was like nothing else on the road. It completely changed what was acceptable from a design point of view for normal cars for normal people.

@TufteMotorsport 9 ай бұрын

@@niallhogan6513 To me it has always been too flat. The Puma is a much better design, and has many of the same lines as the Focus. It may be revolutionary, but that doesn't mean better. The Cortina mk2 was more modern, but who gonna pick that over the Mk1? The Focus has many things going for it, but the roofline gives it a weird shape that they improved with the Fiesta Mk7. Look at the dashboard in the Focus. It is sleek, hard egdes that fits the car. And then you have the airvents wich are a flat and round and reminds me of blisters.

@johnjames01 9 ай бұрын

It's very unfortunate that the reliability wasn't there in the first two years. Should have achieved a lot more but the same could be said for Subaru in 1999 & 2000. The french came along and blitzed them all.

@test-tl8dt 9 ай бұрын

the focus is so much better design and an overall car than any escort built since august 1980. awesome design that looks modern to this day. the cosworth was the only thing the last 4 generations of the escort lineage had going for them.

@noskills9577 9 ай бұрын

lol luckily looks are subjective, the last escort models were horrendously ugly - love the Mk 1 Focus and its design. Sadly ruined with the Mk2

@chiefrocka8604 9 ай бұрын

My mate built Colin’s focus shells If you know you know

@nealyoung2002 9 ай бұрын

Your mate was never out of business those few years I guess

@carosuk6718 4 ай бұрын

Who built them ?

@ЮраБеспредел 9 ай бұрын

Ау переводчики, переведите на русский пожалуйста, такой материал по легенде пропадает(

@nikkiy9 9 ай бұрын

When you spot Colin McRae's No1 mechanic looking fresh faced before Colin gave him grey hairs and wrinkles

@bear1245 9 ай бұрын

Please create some Short videos. This will also help the the channel gain more subs ❤

@VHSRallies 9 ай бұрын

As it stands, channel will be dormant from January next year anyway. Andif I was worried about subs, I'd have changed things a long time before now. Thank you, though. :)

@eduardoReichert388 7 ай бұрын

@@VHSRallies the videos will come back?