Ford Fiesta R5 in numbers
In a nod to the number-spattered Citroen DS3 driven by Sebastien Loeb in France last year, M-Sport has revealed some figures of its own to commemorate the completion of its 50th R5 specification Fiesta.
Launched midway through 2013, the Fiesta R5 has become one of M-Sport’s most successful models, with close to 70 orders placed. The Cumbrian-built cars have been shipped to customers in 21 countries and have claimed 27 class wins and ten outright victories.
M-Sport’s Fiesta was the first R5 to be homologated and, as rival models from Peugeot and Citroen have been a long time coming, it has become the weapon of choice in the World Rally Championship’s WRC2 class.
Category leader Yuriy Protasov drives one, as does the man in second, Lorenzo Bertelli. No fewer than 14 cars will line up for the start of Vodafone Rally de Portugal next month.
ESSENTIAL FIESTA R5 STATS
| Fact | Figure |
|---|---|
| Number of testing kilometres | 5,431 |
| Number of designers | 10 |
| Number of weeks in development | 36 |
| Number of development drivers | 2 |
| Number of shells completed | 50 |
| Man-hours to build one Ford Fiesta R5 | 400 |
| WRC2 victories | 4 |
| WRC2 stage wins | 92 |
| WRC2 podium clean-sweeps | 2 |
| Number of days as the only R5 on the market | 234 |