Formula ford
Formula Ford is a single seater, open wheel class in motorsport which exists in some form in lot of countries around the world. It's an entry-level series to motor racing, in which in the past many drivers aspired to 1 day reach Formula One.
The Ford Formula
Formula Ford racing exists in 2 basic forms: National Series run around the world using the 1600 Duratec engine, (which replaced the heavier but not significantly more powerful Zetec engine in 2006); and a mainly amateur, club-racing series attracting serious enthusiasts using the now elderly 1600 Kent Engine with which the formula ran from mid-sixties to mid-nineties. The car could provide drivers with their 1st insights into how a racing car feels to drive and how to properly set up a car, or it could provide a relatively inexpensive way for drivers to campaign purpose-built racecars for lot of years. Many Formula Ford 1600 series exist for drivers of the older Kent powered cars.
A Formula Ford car is one of the most distinctive-looking open-wheel race cars in that it doesn't have wings to create aerodynamic downforce, one of the reasons the series has persisted for so long in motor racing. Top speeds in the National Class are as high as in the other Junior Formulae of BMW and Renault, but the cornering speeds are lower due to the downforce-producing aerodynamic aids on the other cars. Handling is entirely down to mechanical grip, and the lack of wings ensures that cars following another aren't aerodynamically disadvantaged, allowing close racing with plenty of overtaking. Series rules might permit slick tires or treaded tires. As the rules limit modifications, all cars are relatively equal and close racing results. Still, Formula Ford allow suspension and braking bias changes, if not aerodynamic options like winged cars.
Formula Ford cars weigh 415/425 kg (1000 lb), so their engines, which typically develop about 145/116 hp, are capable of propelling them from 0–100 km/h (0-60mph) in less than 5 seconds, reaching top speeds of nearly 235/220 km/h (150/140 mph). The engine is often a stressed member of the chassis, as in larger and more advanced Formula cars.
Few famous race drivers have used the formula as a step up to international competitions. as, David Coulthard and Jenson Button were both British Formula Ford champions; Danica Patrick, the American Indy Racing League racer, finished 2nd in the British Formula Ford Festival early in her career. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Emerson Fittipaldi and Jody Scheckter were both competing in Grands Prix within a year or so of starting Formula Ford in Britain.
Lot of championships are run around the world for Formula Ford including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Asia, and South Africa. Each run instrinsically the same rules and regulations with minor variations for local conditions.
Related Formula
Formula Ford has given birth to few other categories of racing: Formula Ford 2000 evolved in the 1970s to use a Pinto engine and although it used mainly Formula Ford chassis, permitted use of slicks and wings; it was seen as a natural step up from the 1600cc formula and a stepping stone to categories such as Formula Three. Formula Ford 2000 engines and transmissions were married to sports-racing chassis to produce Sports 2000.
Older Formula Fords, with outboard shock absorbers, race in the U.S. as Club Formula Fords in SCCA and other club racing series.
Formula 100 was an unsuccessful attempt in the late 1960s to create a sportscar category related to Formula Ford but using a 1300 cc Ford engine; despite being extremely pretty, the cars were heavy and slow. The proposed Formula Turbo Ford of the mid-1980s was limited to one Reynard that ran a several demonstration laps.
Formula Ford remains immensely popular at grassroots level in it's 1600 cc form, though - the cars are widely raced, sprinted and hillclimbed. Formula Continental is also a popular choice in the United States or Canada. The class provides a venue for Formula Ford 2000 as well as the earlier Formula C and Formula Super Vee. Formula Continental cars employ aerodynamic effects.
Formula 1st was a partly successful attempt to get back to the roots of Formula Ford, with a spec FFord-like car running a transversely-mounted Ford engine in a very low state of tune; it was designed as an introductory formula and racing school chassis, and served in this capacity for some years.
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