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Ford Puma Rally1 Reportedly ‘Quite A Lot Faster’ Than Fiesta WRC

After teasing a prototype version of the all-new Ford Puma Rally1 – which will replace the Ford Fiesta WRC next year – on numerous occasions, Ford revealed its all-new rally weapon earlier this month with a Gymkhana-style romp around the Ford Craiova Assembly Plant with M-Sport Ford WRT driver Adrien Fourmau behind the wheel. Last week, fellow driver Sebastien Loeb got his chance to drive the new hybrid racer, too. And while a lot of fans are understandably worried that the heavier Ford Puma Rally1 will be slower than its predecessor, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

“It is a very exciting project, everything feels good and I think it is going to be an exciting generation of cars,” M-Sport’s Gus Greensmith told Autosport. “They have had quite a lot of negative press but I think they are going to be quite a lot faster than the cars we have now. I think it is looking good. It is just development over time, the cars we have been driving were built in 2017 and five years is a lot of time for things to develop, and it is a natural progression over time. They look exciting. I think everyone has seen the videos on YouTube with how much the Puma has been testing and its constant development, and it’s still not finished.”

The Ford Puma Rally1 utilizes a 3.9 kWh battery to provide boosts of up to three seconds from a 100 kW electric motor to supplement the Puma Rally1’s 1.6L EcoBoost gas engine, giving it as much as 500 horsepower, temporarily. The Puma Rally1 is also capable of driving on electric power alone, with full recharges taking around 25 minutes. The entire hybrid system weighs a mere 95 kilograms and is housed in a ballistic-strength casing to protect it from the many perils of rally racing.

“I’m definitely looking forward to it and I feel I’m definitely ready to go into a Puma now,” Greensmith said. “We know M-Sport can build a very strong car from the outset, and to see the support they have had from Ford and Ford Performance, which is kind of overwhelming compared to the past, I think everyone is quietly optimistic. We had the speed but it was about having the consistency and bringing home results. We only had one mistake in the entire year so it has improved a lot and we are being reliable, but for sure next year with the Puma we want to show a lot more pace.”

We’ll have more on the Puma Rally1 soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Puma news and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.

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