Ford EcoBoost racer laps Lamborghini

A FORMULA Ford race car fitted with Ford’s tiny 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine has bettered the lap times of some of the biggest supercars in history at Germany’s Nurburgring circuit.

The street-legal Formula Ford racer recorded a blistering time of seven minutes and 22 seconds, beating the likes of the Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari Enzo and Pagani Zonda to record the 11th fastest lap time ever at Nurburgring.

Built as a one-off, Ford engineers swapped the regular 1.6-litre EcoBoost engine from the racer for a specially tuned three-cylinder 1.0-litre EcoBoost petrol engine, mated to a six-speed manual gearbox.

Ford claims that the EcoBoost-powered Formula Ford can race to 100km/h in less than four seconds before reaching a top speed of 255 km/h.

The average speed around the 20.1 kilometre Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit was 169km/h with racing driver Nick Tandy behind the wheel.

Ford’s own testing of the small-engined racer revealed fuel efficiency figures of 2.4 litres per 100km at 56km/h and 5.0L/100km at 120km/h.

The Nurburgring lap time is another feather in the cap for Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine after it took out the International Engine of the Year award in June this year.

Ford’s tiny powerplant took out two other awards in the same ceremony held at the Engine Expo trade fair in Stuttgart, Germany, including Best New Engine and Best Engine Under 1.0-litre.

The tiny triple will appear in a number of Ford models internationally this year, including the Focus small-car and C-MAX compact people mover.

As GoAuto reported today, the engine will make its first Australian appearance next year in the refreshed Fiesta light-car, and will also feature in the forthcoming 2013 EcoSport compact crossover.

Vice president of marketing and sales for Ford of Europe, Roelant de Waard said that Ford was keen to highlight the capabilities of the EcoBoost engine.

“We wanted to prove that size doesn’t matter by showing everyone what an amazingly capable engine we have developed in the 1.0-litre EcoBoost,” he said.

“What better way than by beating some of the best supercars in the world on the Nordschleife, while using a fraction of the fuel.”

The Formula Ford team ensured the wild-looking racer would be road-legal by modifying it to include front and rear lights and indicators, wheel covers, wing mirrors, road-legal tyres and even a horn.