[Gallery] Up close with Ford’s new Puma WRC hybrid | GRR
We were lucky enough to witness the unveiling of M-Sport Ford’s all-new next generation hybrid-powered Puma Rally1 WRC on Thursday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. And what a debut it was. Suitably impressed, and with the whole team giddy like young children each time we catch a glimpse of it bounding up the Goodwood hillclimb from our office window, we demanded a closer inspection…
Thankfully, the people at M-Sport Ford are more than accommodating and allowed our photographers the access to get up close and personal. Snapping away from all four quarters one of the most exciting pieces of engineering on the entire Festival site this year.
Presented in full hybrid trim, the purposeful looking Puma replaces the heavily campaigned Fiesta. And if looks were a marker for this cat’s future success, then M-Sport Ford had better start assembling a rather large trophy cabinet. It looks absolutely mega at a standstill. And from what we’ve seen of it tearing up the hillclimb, form certainly follows function in this case. It rips.
This WRC beast is Fitted with a 1.6-litre turbocharged engine boosted by a 136PS (100kW) electric motor, and uses a 3.9kWh battery that charges with regenerative braking, capable of providing additional performance boosts. Oh, and it, along with all other 2022 competitors will run on sustainable fossil-free fuel as well.
Full information on complete specs are a little light on the ground at present. But judging from its extremely planted body language as it navigated the Goodwood Hill, and taking into consideration the extremely fast speeds it was doing so, the Puma has made a very confident showing indeed.
Interestingly, seeing it silently stalk back to the paddock under electric power is when this car really announces itself as next generation. The only evidence of it being used in anger being the particles of dust and remnants of hillclimb marbles pinging against its wheel arches and mudguards. Eerie and exciting in equal measure.
To conclude then. The Puma Rally1 WRC is sustainable, stunning and goes like something unpleasant off of a shovel. If this is the future of WRC, we can’t get enough of it.
Photography by Pete Summers, Nick Dungan, Pete Summers and Drew Gibson.