Olsbergs MSE reveals Fiesta World RX car built with Ford tie-up
Swedish team Olsbergs MSE has revealed a brand-new Ford Fiesta ST Supercar, created in a tie-up with Ford Performance Motorsports, on the eve of the World Rallycross Championship’s Spanish season-opener.
The new Fiesta, which has been built from the ground up at OMSE’s Nynashamn base in Sweden, marks a return to World RX for the Ford Performance name.
Having become involved with Andreas Eriksson’s OMSE squad in 2009, the automotive giant partnered the Swedish squad to win the first World RX Teams’ Championship in 2014, before supporting Ken Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division squad for the last two years.
While Ford and Hoonigan unexpectedly withdrew from World RX at the end of 2017, the rekindled relationship between the American firm and OMSE has given birth to a new Fiesta that features an in-board suspension system not previously used in World RX and a revised aerodynamic package that includes a front-mounted cooling system.
“Having largely sat out the 2017 campaign, for us, it was very important that if we were to return to World RX full-time, it had to be in the right circumstances and with a very real chance of achieving success on a sensible budget,” said team principal Andreas Eriksson.
“Every time we enter a series, it is with the expectation of being competitive and fighting for victory, and we are confident that in the 2018 Fiesta ST, we have the car to do just that.
"I must thank Ford Performance Motorsports Global Director Mark Rushbrook for his unstinting support and co-operation in this exciting new project, which has yielded what I firmly believe to be the best rallycross car we have ever produced.”
The new car also features a revised longitudinally-mounted two-litre engine, developed between OMSE and Mountune.
The squad announced Swedish driver pairing Robin Larsson and Kevin Eriksson last month, where Andreas Eriksson confirmed that the team’s focus was proving that it’s possible to win World RX events without the budget of the fully-manufacturer supported teams.
“We want to win races, we want to win heats and we want to win lap times,” he said.
The cars raced in Barcleona this weekend are the 26th and 27th rallycross Fiesta Supercars built by OMSE.
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