Now that Ford has managed to drop a number of jaws with its unveiling of the 2016 Focus RS, a lot of people were dying to know how and why the sports model comes with all-wheel drive and a manual transmission only. Speaking with Autocar, Ford’s VP and Chief Technical Officer Raj Nair shed some light on the matter, while dropping a minor bombshell about the company’s future strategy as well.
As it happens, manual transmissions will not be entirely replaced by hyper-efficient automatics and dual-clutch gearboxes any time soon when it comes to future Ford sports models - the only exception obviously being the 2017 Ford GT, whose twin-turbocharged V-6 will be paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. "All our current research says that customers really like these kinds of cars to have a manual gearbox,” Nair told Autocar. “We’ll keep looking at market trends, and of course we’ll give customers what they want, but for now the manual stays."
This is not the only good news from Ford for performance-car purists though, as the innovative all-wheel-drive system sported by the new Focus RS may end up installed in other future models as well. "We’ve done the hard part in developing it to production,” Tyrone Johnson, RS engineering manager told Autocar. “It would be fair to suggest that we’ll be looking to use the technology in other ways in the future, having done that."
Click past the jump to read more about the new Focus RS AWD system and manual transmissions for Ford.
Focus RS' AWD System And Manual Trans To Be Installed In Other Ford Models originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 5 February 2015 06:00 EST.
from Top Speed http://ift.tt/1LPDxOa
via IFTTT
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire