Photo: Arena

Arena complete shakedown with 1.6 turbo WTCC Focus

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Arena International Motorsport shook down their Super 2000 specification Ford Focus, equipped with a Ford 1.6 litre turbocharged engine before Christmas in preparation for their entry in the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season.

The team entered three cars, based on the Global Ford Focus platform in the 2011 British Touring Car Championship season, taking two victories and a pole position in its first development year.

The team has now built a new car, to the exacting specification of the FIA’s Super 2000 regulations and recently shook down the car at Ford’s technical centre in Dunton, Essex – running with a 1.6 litre turbocharged engine (as opposed to the Next Generation Touring Car-specification BTCC 2.0 litre turbo) and on Yokohama tyres.

The car will undergo an inspection by the FIA later this month, and the team confirms negotiations with drivers are ongoing, with Tom Chilton certain to compete with the team in his first WTCC season, and drivers including Gabriele Tarquini linked with the other seats at the team.

“It has been very exciting to see the development of this new car”, said Tom Chilton. “Of course we’re already very familiar with the new Focus, having won races with it in 2011, but there are certain elements which make the WTCC version a different challenge from a driver’s perspective.”

“We had our first proper shakedown with the car just before Christmas and hearing the new 1.6 engine fire up was pretty exciting in itself! The engine was incredibly impressive even on its first run and I can’t wait to see what else it can do when we get our full test programme underway. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but it’s great to have such a new challenge.”

The team will conduct further tests in the UK later this month, before testing in Spain in February.

“The team have been working very hard to get the new WTCC car together in time for testing,” said Arena Team Principal Mike Earle. “There are more restrictions on the WTCC car than there are on the BTCC version so we’ve had to change a few elements, and of course the tyres and engine are completely different. The shakedown before Christmas went well, and we’re going to be using the majority of January to work on the car in the factory before getting our test programme fully underway on track.”