It’s nearly time for the biggest Blue Oval show of the year. Let’s look at five of the best feature cars you will find at Ford Fair 2022.
Fast Ford magazine – the UK’s biggest and best-selling Ford tuning magazine – is back at Ford Fair 2022 this weekend. And you can’t miss their massive paddock full of awesome feature cars – sponsored by HP Tuners – found in the pit garages (Garages 2-through-6).
For this year’s event, the magazine team is bringing along some of the very best cars to have appeared in the mag in recent years, plus a couple that will be gracing those hallowed magazine pages soon. With a selection of ex-cover cars, fantastic feature cars, and even the odd wildcard thrown in the mix, this is going to be one of the most popular displays at the whole show.
The Fast Ford stand is always buzzing with activity, with many familiar faces from the magazine floating around throughout the day. Plus, there’s a cool selection of magazines, collector’s edition bookazines, T-shirts, commemorative plaques, and branded goodies available to purchase too. New for 2022, the Fast Ford paddock will be home to the Rep to Race Car Mondeo project, a giant Scalextric set, and a retro Sega Rally arcade game too.
Also new in the Fast Ford paddock is the ‘Fords in Motorsport’ display. This racy display is reserved purely for pukka motorsport machines and will include historic touring cars with bags of pedigree and provenance, right through to the very latest fast Fords competing in motorsport today.
Expect to see a line-up including some very special Group A Sierra RS500 Cosworth touring cars, Super Touring-era Mondeos, Group B RS200s, Time Attack contenders, modern NGTC Focus ST BTCC cars, and even the Academy Motorsport team and their brace of current Mustang racers from the British GT4 championship.
There will be some serious motorsport machinery on show, and most of the cars will joining the guys and gals from the Modified Fords series out on track for some live demos too.
But with so many top-quality fast Fords on show, which ones should you be looking out for? Well, all of them. But to get you started, here’s just five of our favourite Ford Fair feature cars attending the 2022 event. For more information on the show, visit the event page.
Ford Fair Feature Car: Sean O’Connell and Sam Harrington: Mk2 Focus ST 4×4
When Ford announced the launch of the mighty Mk2 Focus RS, Blue Oval fans were up in arms about it lacking four-wheel-drive. Ford argued that with its fancy new RevoKnuckle suspension, the Mk2 RS didn’t need four-wheel-drive. They were right, of course. And they did give us all-wheel-drive with the Mk3 Focus RS. But that did mean the world was denied the chance to see what that fabled five-cylinder motor was capable of when hooked up to a 4×4 system (other than when toned-down in a rare version of the Kuga SUV).
Thankfully, the modified car scene has blokes like Sean and Sam to count on. Built on their driveways, this pair of dedicated Ford fans have artfully grafted a full 4×4 conversion (using various Ford and Volvo parts-bin upgrades) to each of their Mk2 Focus STs. Sean has even given his purple machine an RS facelift, while Sam has gone for the function-follows-form track approach. Oh, and both have big-turbo engine builds pumping out well over 500bhp!
See these cars on the Fast Ford stand at Ford Fair 2022 or read the full feature here.
Sam Morgan: Puma Turbo
The Ford Racing Puma is widely revered as one of the best handling cars of an entire generation. The razor-sharp chassis was fine-tuned by Ford’s Motorsport gurus at Boreham, and it shows. But if there’s one criticism, it’s always been that the 150bhp 1.7-litre Zetec SE felt a little too underpowered for a car with such a sublime chassis. And that fantastic base is capable of supporting so much more.
As Sam Morgan shows with his stunning example. Starting as a regular 1.7-litre Puma, Sam added all the genuine FRP bits to it over a few years; the result was effectively a Racing Puma, but in black. Then came the game-changer: Sam decided to bolt a Garrett GT28R turbo to his FRP-spec motor! The result is an impressive 313bhp and 281lb.ft. Now that’s a Puma with the power to match the poise.
See the cars on the Fast Ford stand at Ford Fair 2022 or read the full feature here.
Ford Fair Feature Car: Mat Grafton: Escort RS Turbo
The Series Two Escort RS Turbo was, for many years, the cornerstone of fast Ford tuning in the UK. The king of cruise, the seafront queen. If you were into fast Fords in the Nineties and Noughties you either owned an RS Turbo, or you wished you did.
Today, with values rapidly on the rise, many of those fantastic feature cars that appeared in all the glossy magazines have been returned to stock and cashed-in for a quick pay-day. But not Mat Grafton. His Escort RS Turbo means so much more to him than any amount of get-rich-quick scheme could offer. His car is a rolling memorial to a lost friend. And a friend who knew a thing about fast Fords too. That’s why the RS Turbo combines the best of both worlds; original retro styling, coupled with modern electronics for added reliability, and an authentic 1.6-litre CVH motor. One that packs an enormous 300bhp punch!
See the cars on the Fast Ford stand at Ford Fair 2022 or read the full feature here.
Paul Linfoot: Spa-24-hour-winning Sierra RS500 Cosworth
Every now and then Fast Ford magazine gets the opportunity to feature a genuine piece of motorsport history. And that’s the case with this one. This icon is one of the famous Ford-backed, Eggenberger-built Sierra RS500 Cosworths that dominated touring car racing through the late 1980s. This car was first race in the European Touring Car Championship in 1988, where it was driven by legends Steve Soper and Pierre Dieudonné for most of the season. In 1989 it entered the German DTM series and was then hand-picked by team boss Rudi Eggenberger to compete in the 1989 Spa 24-hours event… where it won! Not only was it the first Sierra RS500 it win that prestigious event, but the first turbocharged car ever to do so.
After that, this car spent a long time in Rudi Eggenberger’s personal collection, but after a sympathetic restoration a few years ago it’s now back to its former Spa-winning glory. And you can see it in the metal on the Fast Ford stand at Ford Fair 2022, and it’s even going on track during the Fords in Motorsport demo track session too.
Read the full feature here.
Costas Costi & Bruce Saunders: Sierra RS500 Cosworth & Escort Cosworth Monte
Ford fans love a special edition Blue Oval. And they don’t come much more special than the Sierra RS500 Cosworth and the Escort Cosworth Monte. Both are limited, high-value editions of already very sought-after fast Fords, and both have entrenched links with motorsport success. But both are seen as classic investments these days, seldom braving it out from the climate-controlled bubbles in which they live.
That’s no way for a homologation special and motorsport commemorative model to live! They should be bouncing off the limiter with their wastegates fluttering and tortured tyres screeching for mercy. Thankfully, that’s exactly how Costas and Bruce see things too. Don’t get us wrong, both of these cars are eat-your-dinner-off-them clean, but both have been blessed with the magic touch from fast Ford fettling legend Ahmed Bayjoo. And both are still doing exactly what Ahmed would want them to be!
See the cars on the Fast Ford stand at Ford Fair 2022 or read the full feature here.
Fast Ford magazine
Fast Ford is the UK’s biggest and best-selling Ford performance tuning and styling magazine. The magazine inspires enthusiasts to own, modify, maintain, and enjoy their Fords. Brimming with awesome performance-tuned road and race cars, the latest product news, and reviews, buying guides, in-depth technical advice, engine/performance tuning guides, informative historical/nostalgic features, and full reports on the ever-growing and incredibly popular Ford show scene, Fast Ford magazine provides a complete guide to the modified Ford scene for first-time Ford-owners right through to full-on Blue Oval fanatics!
Fast Ford is available in print, as well as digital editions available for download.
If you want to buy a copy of the magazine the Fast Ford stand is the place to be. In addition to single copies, you will also be able to take advantage of some of the fantastic offers exclusive to the show. Grab the latest issue or pick up a back issue of any copies you might have missed. Better still, take advantage of the show-exclusive subscription offer and get the next 13 issues at a discounted price.
