Ford Focus Is A 1.0-Litre Record Breaker

The new Ford Focus has been smashing land speed records left, right and centre using little more than the new 125PS 1.-0-litre Ecoboost engine and a handful of drivers that included WRC star Jari-Matti Latvala.

Three Ford Focuses travelling at record-breaking speeds somewhere in France

Sixteen official FIA world records for average speed were broken in total, including both standing and flying starts as well as average speeds over set distances and time limits of up to 24 hours.

Sadly the Focus doesn’t pose much of a threat to the 1997 record of 763.035mph set by Andy Green in the turbo-fan powered Thrust SSC. All of these records were for the “sub 1-litre class” of FIA records, but the fact it broke so many records so easily only goes to show that Ford’s tiny Ecoboost engine is capable of performance as well as economy.

The three Focuses were completely standard and matched the specification you’d find on a dealer’s forecourt. They were plucked from the Saarlouis production line and run-in under the supervision of an official from the FFSA (Fédération Française du Sport Automobile). They were then taken to the CERAM test circuit in Mortefontaine, France for the record attempts where Latvala joined eight journalists behind the wheel.

Clearly this record attempt was an exercise by Ford to justify the 1.0-litre Ecoboost as a viable engine for the Focus, but from sales performance it would appear that customers have no qualms about downsizing to three cylinders. Since it went on sale in February the 1.0-litre engine is already accounting for 25 percent of Focus sales with customers obviously seeing the benefit performance equivalent to the 1.6-litre petrol combined with cheaper road tax and much better fuel economy.

You can find lots of ford models such as the ford focus zetec 1.6 at motors.co.uk. You can find their range of cars by visiting the website, which you can browse to see if they have what you’re looking for.