Ford of Europe today officially unveiled the all-new Ford Focus RS World Rally Car 06 at the Bologna Motor Show in Italy. The car will be Ford's challenger in the FIA World Rally Championship from 2006 onwards and was unveiled in the eye-catching livery in which it will make its full competitive debut in January's Monte Carlo Rally.

Photo: http://www.fordracing.com/includes/DBPhoto.asp?photo=7611

It is based on the high-performance Ford Focus ST road car, which is being launched across Europe this autumn. The new Focus RS WRC 06 has been designed and built in less than 11 months by an experienced and innovative engineering team led by Christian Loriaux, technical director at British-based company M-Sport which operates the Blue Oval's WRC programme. His team has worked closely in the development with Ford TeamRS, Ford of Europe's performance road car and motorsport arm.

The all-new rally car unveiled in Bologna this morning will be driven in the 2006 championship by double world champions Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen and fellow Finns Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen.

All-new design

Following in the footsteps of the 2003 Focus RS WRC, the new car incorporates the latest technology and benefits from pioneering design ideas from Loriaux and his 14-man M-Sport-based team. They had access to computer-aided design facilities and shared information and analysis with mainstream Ford engineers across Europe in their quest to design a winning car.

The transition from the outgoing rally car to the new model, which had to be designed with radical regulation changes for 2006 in mind, required a clean sheet of paper from the start. The previous model was highly successful in its own right, but the team worked to a brief that demanded improvements in key areas such as engine, transmission and suspension. A crucial priority was to achieve weight savings, an arduous task as the base model was heavier than the base for the previous Focus RS WRC and new regulations banned the widespread use of titanium.

After successful initial testing in Britain, the team moved to the second level of the car's test and development programme by taking two cars to last month's Rally Australia to evaluate it in a competitive environment for the first time. It was rewarded with victory on two speed tests and a sixth place finish.

The introduction of the Ford Focus RS WRC 06 presented M-Sport and Ford TeamRS with a string of challenges and opportunities – not only because of the new model itself, but because in 2006 rallying is introducing a series of technical changes designed to reduce cost. The design team had to keep a close eye on these rule changes throughout the 11-month development of the car.