M-Sport’s R5 Fiesta close to first test run

This is a glimpse of the future. The R5 future.

M-Sport, which ran Ford’s factory team in the FIA World Rally Championship for 16 years, will unleash the new machine next season when it will be eligible for the inaugural FIA WRC-2 Championship, the new feeder series to the main WRC.

British firm M-Sport plans to officially unveil the car in January 2013 with the first customer cars due for delivery from April onwards.

“Our engineering department is working flat out developing the Fiesta R5 and the first car is due to be tested in the coming weeks,” said M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson. “We have had a lot of interest in this model and it is set to be one of the most popular rally cars in the Fiesta family.”

M-Sport’s Fiesta R5 is a scaled-down version of the Ford Fiesta RS WRC. It is designed to be long lasting and easy to prepare and maintain in order to control costs, while its performance is set to exceed current Super 2000 levels.

Peugeot has also developed an R5 challenger for 2013 based on its 208 model. It was launched at the Paris Motor Show last month.