![]() ![]() As a compact car, its design for urban environment translates well into off-road courses with tight turns and endless obstacles.ĭue to the size of the Focus, the car has a tight turning radius that is responsive to the steering wheel. Its natural potential starts with the size of the chassis and length of the wheelbase. The Ford Focus is easily one of the best commercial production vehicles you can choose to transform into a rally racing superstar. A good option requires a combination of natural performance and the potential for modification. This does not mean, however, that a rally team can make any car into the perfect rally warrior. This means very few rally cars are made to the same specifications as street legal, factory versions. Most rally teams and drivers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars modifying their vehicles for the harsh conditions and speeds of a typical rally race. When a rally team has the choice between the 2018 Ford Focus versus 2018 Nissan Sentra, you can be sure most will take the Focus. ![]() In addition to other small cars like Subarus, the Ford Focus is a familiar sight for a variety of reasons. Combined with different options for tuning and modifying the vehicle in a way that only rally drivers know how the Focus rolls off the assembly line as a canvas for rally teams to turn in to the perfect racing machine. It is small and maneuverable with a high level of durability thrown into the mix. This is where the Ford Focus shines for some rally drivers. Cruising around at high speeds, weaving in and out of tight curves, jumping over bumps and dips, all of it can put a strain on a typical rally car. In some ways, there is nothing harsher than the challenging terrain and weather conditions of a traditional rally track. Try to pick visual markers to hit on each and every lap for your braking point, your turn-in point, your apex point and your exit point, where you should already be on full throttle.What does it take to be one of the top cars used in rally racing? There’s something about the Ford Focus that has made it wildly popular on rally circuits, especially with drivers looking for a combination of speed, maneuverability, and reliability in harsh conditions. So turn into corners with authority, but be calm and be gentle with your inputs. Use the brakes and throttle smoothly but aggressively smoothness is the holy grail on a track, and applies to every single aspect of your driving. When you’re back out on track, get on the power as early as you can towards the exit of each corner, but not so early that you have to back off because you’re running out of room at the exit. So rather than staying out for a 15-lap stint, do five or six laps and think about where you’re getting it right and wrong while you have a cup of coffee. Your brakes will probably start to pass their best after just a few flying laps, though they’ll come back again if you let them cool down properly between stints. Pick nice, early braking points into all the corners to begin with, then trim a couple of metres off those points each lap as the fear subsides and your confidence grows – up to a point where you’ve still got a safety buffer of several metres into each corner. Relax, and enjoy yourself without getting too carried away you’ll get much more out of your time on track if you leave with a smile on your face rather than a befuddled frown. Take your time to work out the nuances of the track, having ideally watched an on-board video of the circuit on YouTube. Start slowly and gradually get quicker throughout the day. Don’t try and break the lap record on either your first or last lap, or any of the other laps in between. The key things to remember when driving on a track are: stick rigidly to the rules of the day, especially the ones about overtaking. In which case, fair enough, at least you tried. It’s then that the purest form of driving enjoyment will either reveal itself in all its glory and you’ll be hooked, or you’ll leave the track grinning, but feeling like you’ve scared yourself half to death. Whichever way you approach it, driving on a track can be terrifying until you gain a bit of confidence, and become more familiar with the circuit and the way a car behaves on it. It’ll be fun if you’re a genuine first-timer, but you won’t get the same thrill as you would if taking your own car. The former is the most expensive way to go, whereas with the latter you’ll never be fully let loose in the car, so you won’t experience the full joy of driving round a track all by yourself without having to follow an instructor. Alternatively, you can hire a track-day car, or just go to a circuit day where the organisers provide the vehicles for you, in which case most of the hard work on the cars will be done on your behalf. ![]()
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