Ford Racing's FR200

When we first saw Ford Racing's FR200 show car at last year's SEMA show, we thought we had another carpet queen on our hands. Ford's push to gain aftermarket acceptance of the Focus has led to some very effective go-fast parts reaching production, but more often than not, the push to build show cars has resulted in, surprise, show cars.

The FR200's massive airfoil already made us suspicious, towering, as it did, above the already outlandish festival of florescent self-expression that is the SEMA show. But when we got up close and saw how every single panel had been stretched, bulged, flared and vented like a cross between a sheet-steel origami project and a giant bag of microwave popcorn, the FR200 had our poseur alarms blaring at full blast. Then we saw the stereo.

A big, thumping, 200-lb. audio system is a dead giveaway of a carpet queen. The FR200, at first glance, appears to qualify. It has a JBL Traffic pro head unit, which is an integrated stereo, CD player and navigation system, two amps, four 5x7-inch door speakers, two A-pillar mounted tweeters, a center channelintegrated into the top of the dash and two 6-inch subs hidden in the rear door pockets.

It has the acoustic horsepower to qualify as a blue-blood of the shag, but there is one audio spec that you'll never see on a show car. The entire system weighs only 18 lbs. The amps weigh only 2 lbs. each. The 6-inch subs weigh 1.8 lbs. a piece and are in carbon fiber enclosures. Making a good, lightweight stereo is no simple task and the fact that Ford Racing went to the expense and effort to trim weight so completely shows what the real purpose was. Going fast.

Ford Racing proved that intent recently by inviting us to drive that very same car at Willow Springs. While the FR200 was built as a show car, it was also built as a research project. It is a testbed for Ford Racing to determine how to make the Focus fast and what parts can be offered in its catalog. Every part on it has production potential, but few decisions have been made about which parts will actually make the catalog.

Ford Racing has actually built three FR200s, one for show and another two for development and driving. At the track, however, one of the test cars developed an oil leak that lubricated the clutch and prevented it from transforming torque into forward motion. This left us in the driver's seat of the show car, which, to our surprise, was the most well-sorted car of the bunch.

Under the hood is a highly boosted, but surprisingly reliable turbocharged version of the Focus' normally underwhelming Zetec engine. The stock block, crank and dainty, powdered metal rods are still there, and remarkably, seem to be able to handle the engine's 300 hp output, thanks to careful re-calibration of the factory EEC-V ECU. Compression has been lowered to 8.0:1 to make way for 18 psi of boost (boost was set at 15 psi at the track). Almost every part of the head and turbo system was optimized for maximum flow. A new, cast aluminum intake manifold (which will be available in the catalog) was developed after careful testing of various lengths and plenum volumes. A modified throttle body from Ford's 4.6-liter single-cam V8 replaces the restrictive Focus throttle body, though either will fit the manifold.

The cylinder head is a unique casting with the intake ports entering higher in the head for a straighter, more direct path to the valves. This head is also supposed to be available someday, though it has already been substantially delayed by meaningless corporate nonsense. The head was developed so that it could use the same manifolds as the stock head, allowing you to get the head and manifold separately on the I-can't-afford-that-now payment plan.

The turbocharger is an IHI hybrid pieced together specifically for this project. The match is an impressive one, offering boost early in the powerband and making 304 hp all day. Top-end power does seem to fall off, but that could be the stock cams and cam timing coming into play.A giant hood scoop feeds cool intake air to the engine and cooling air to the top-mounted intercooler. The intercooler, a Spearco tube-and-fin core with custom-fabricated end tanks, is said to be surprisingly effective, despite the hot, underhood location.

Some interesting plumbing ended up under the FR200's hood. In an uncharacteristic attempt to maximize simplicity, there is no compressor bypass valve. This caused problems with the airflow meter, however, as backflow across the turbo started causing erratic readings. The solution is a reservoir between the airflow meter and the turbo that damps out these surges. Effective, yes, but it doesn't sound nearly as good as having a bypass valve in the first place.

In fact, the FR200's engine doesn't sound particularly turbocharged at all. The exhaust note has a deep hollowness to it that carries relatively little intensity. Even at maximum effort, as its scoops, vents and wings fight their way through the air at 120 mph, the engine just lets free a relaxed, indifferent blaat.

Putting 300 hp to the ground in a front-wheel-drive car is no small challenge, and the most extensive modifications to the car were made for exactly this reason. The power delivery in the FR200 is in stark contrast to the similarly powerful Roush-built Mercury Cougar Eliminator we tested exactly one year ago. Hitting the gas in that car was a fun way to re-blacken faded asphalt, but if you wanted anything more productive than wheelspin, you were out of luck. The FR200, while perfectly capable of adding its 225/40-ZR18 front tires to the local weather forecast, is also willing, with a modicum of first-gear restraint, to simply accelerate the car with a minimum of fuss.

Getting power from engine to ground first requires a reinforced version of the Focus' MTX75 gearbox. While the stock Focus gear ratios are too tall for the stock power levels, nearly tripling power output has a way of making the gearing work out. The gears were strengthened, but the ratios remain stock. Extensive development went into the Torsen differential, with careful attention paid to the ramp angles responsible for controlling lock-up and distributing torque left and right.

Once that torque reaches the front wheels, however, it tends to try to steer the car. Balancing power delivery side-to-side with the limited-slip differential helps tremendously, but with this much torque, the suspension geometry quickly becomes an issue.

The problem lies in the location of the steering axis (or more specifically, the Dave point, if you are a loyal and longtime "Technobabble" reader) relative to the middle of the tire. Having the steering axis pass right through the middle of the contact patch minimizes torque steer, but putting wide 225 section width tires on the car makes it nearly impossible to achieve this geometric balancing act. Keeping everything centered, you see, would mean adding about half of the tire's extra width to the inside of the wheel, where it would have to occupy the same space as the strut. Darn physics.

The solution is extreme and surprisingly repeatable--for a price. The struts were simply tossed in favor of a double wishbone set-up. To achieve this feat of re-engineering, the stock lower control arm was extended 2 inches, a Mercury Cougar hub, after some chopping, welding and machining, was used and a custom-fabricated upper control arm was installed. In place of the strut, there is now a coil-over spring and a Ford Racing, external-reservoir shock mounted about halfway in on the upper control arm, making a lot more room for big tires and happy geometry. The resulting track width is a whopping 4-inches wider than stock.

But wait, there's more. With the new suspension, the stock anti-roll bar no longer worked, so it was replaced with a three-piece tubular anti-roll bar. The steering rack was also changed, replaced with a rack from a European Focus, which, strangely, is not directly interchangeable.

Sound complicated? It is. But surprisingly, the whole suspension conversion was designed to be bolted in with minimal fabrication. Two holes need to be drilled on each side and two sleeves welded into those holes to provide mounting points for the upper control arms. A special drilling jig ensures these mounting points go exactly where they belong, however.

All the suspension work results in an extremely stable car. Power is converted to speed quite effortlessly and the car tracks through turns exactly where you point it. But at the limit, the FR200's stability can be an annoyance. Push it too hard and it will understeer. Drop off the throttle and it will understeer. Jab the brakes and it will understeer. All the normal front-wheel-drive tricks to rotate the car don't work. Perhaps, considering the power and the cost of the car, idiot-proof handling is the wise course. Tossable or not, the FR200 lapped with impressive speed and poise.

With sufficient sales volume, the double-wishbone conversion could sell for about $2,500, which, although expensive, really isn't all that much considering what you get. The problem lies in the cascade effect. Spend $2,500 on this suspension and you'll have a nice new conversation piece for your living room. Before putting it on your car, however, you'll have to buy the fenders to cover the newly widened front track. Then you'll have to buy the wheels and tires to fill those fenders. Then you'll have to buy the brakes to fit those Cougar hubs. Oh, and then there are the rear wheels and fenders to match the fronts. Get the picture?

The whole FR200 package is so well integrated that it leaves little room for personalization, let alone the simple build-it-as-you-go aftermarket routine that meshes best with most Focus enthusiasts' financial realities. It is there, not in performance, that the FR200 falls apart. As a development tool, it is so far over the top that relatively little is viable for production. The intake manifold, cylinder head and a milder, street-tuned version of the turbo kit are all in the works, but the wild suspension seems something of a misstep. Not surprisingly, a production decision has yet to be made on the suspension.

Production viable or not, the FR200 is certainly impressive, especially when you consider that the car we spend the most track time in was not one of the track mules, but the very show car we first spied on the carpet of the SEMA show. Let's see your queen do that!