This is the latest chapter in the continuing story of the electrification of motorsport, and potentially quite an important one. While Formula E and, latterly, Extreme E have been making all the headlines in their pursuit of bigging-up battery power on the circuits and in the stages, they have done so in an exclusively EV environment.
Not only that, their use of emerging tech and far-flung locations makes them expensive, limiting participation to well-backed factory squads or publicity-savvy grand prix world champs looking to offset their fossil fuel-burning F1 pasts. The STARD Ford Fiesta ERX takes a different approach.
Designed and developed by long-time WRC stalwart Manfred Stohl’s Austrian-based STARD operation (it stands for Stohl Advanced Research and Development, don’t you know), this all-electric rallycross car (there’s also a rally version, if you fancy bringing along a pace note-wielding passenger) is designed to be bought and run by privateer racers. It will also – and this is the interesting bit – be allowed to race head-to-head with ICE cars, giving fans the chance to experience just how much or little they’re likely to be missing if and when the petrol and diesel engines finally fall silent.
In fact, what’s really neat about the STARD’s powertrain (we’ll get to the technical niceties shortly) is that it is almost literally a plug-and-play solution. What you see here is a Fiesta, and Ford Performance has had a helping hand in the engineering, but it could just as easily be a Citroën or a Skoda. The compact motors and battery are able to fit in virtually any rally or rallycross machine - although for the purposes of keeping costs down, STARD currently favours R5 machinery, which is one rung below full-fat WRC cars.
So what have we got? Well, in the case of the Fiesta you see here, it’s full Supercar rallycross specification, which means a heady 603bhp and 739lb ft of instant torque supplied by three motors (one at the front and two at the back) that have been developed by STARD and Swiss company Brusa. These slot transversely onto either side of a modestly sized two-speed transmission (one at the front and one at the back, each of which is interchangeable for ease of manufacturing and servicing) that features a mechanical limited-slip diff. Excitingly, the modular layout means there’s room for another motor at the front, to give a mirror image to the set-up at the rear, meaning that, gulp, up to 1000bhp and 186mph is possible.
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This seems like a really inspired idea to have a series where electric cars compete directly with combustion models. Hopefully they will have a very similar performance level to make the racing interesting, but it will be fascinating to see how the heavier, nore powerful EVs stack up against the less powerful but lighter more nimble traditional cars.