We Thought This 800HP VR38 Was Cool, We Were Wrong | Pikes Peak [TECH NUGGET]

We thought the 1000kg Ford Focus with its 800HP twin turbo VR38 GTR engine was cool, but it turns out we were wrong...(in-car footage included!)We thought the 1000kg Ford Focus with its 800HP twin turbo VR38 GTR engine was cool, but it turns out we were wrong...(in-car footage included!)

Despite all of the time, money and prep work that goes into getting a race car to an event, sometimes there are unexpected issues or overlooked aspects that need to be dealt with on site and the 2018 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb was no exception with Highlands Motorsport Park’s ‘Ford Focus’, a custom-built 800hp twin-turbo VR38 having some cooling issues.

Thanks to modern technology instead of only having the option of pulling out some cable ties and electrical tape when something isn’t right, we can now pull out our laptop/s and let the ECU handle the job for us. In this instance, Andre set the MoTeC M150 ECU to the task reducing boost and also setting a richer AFR to help with cooling once the engine temperature went over 105°C (221°F).

Of course this reduction in power comes at the cost of performance, but at some point the call to sacrifice some time for the sake of actually having a finishing time at all comes into play, and at the end of the event the car still managed to finish 3rd in class, 7th overall and also broke the 10 minute mark with a time of 09:52.720 which was part of the teams goal.

Want to learn how to tune a car like this? Start here with a free live EFI tuning lesson.