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Motorbase rivals question boost levels of new Ford engine

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Motorbase Performance boss David Bartrum has refuted suggestions that the new Ford EcoBoost engine in the team’s Ford Focus ST has an unfairly high level of boost.

The speed of the Fords was a paddock talking point throughout the Rockingham weekend, with several drivers remarking on its performance in a straight line.

But Bartrum argued that TOCA had got the boost levels right, and that Ford engines had always had good top end performance.

One of the drivers who spoke out about the EcoBoost was Rob Austin, who runs the stock TOCA engine in his soon-to-be-retired Audi A4.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Austin said: “You can see from his [Mat Jackson’s] onboard from quali, it’s about three-and-a-bit Ks up at the start-finish line, and on me over six Ks up by the time he gets to turn two.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a lot of respect for Mat Jackson, he’s a damn good driver and Motorbase and Barty are good guys. But I don’t think it’s right.

“I don’t know why they allow it – I get the feeling that if we were that fast in a straight line with our engine, we wouldn’t be allowed to run it.

“I do say that with the utmost respect as they are a good team, and I don’t want to be taking anything away from them.”

Although the Focus enjoyed plenty of success around Rockingham, Bartrum pointed to its performance relative to its closest rivals when arguing his point.

“It’s not got too much boost. If you look at the speed traps from qualifying, we were half a mile an hour faster,” said Bartrum to TouringCarTimes.

“I think the championship have got the boost right. I don’t think we’ve got a power advantage. Gordon Shedden was chasing us down in race one with a car with 66kg on it. There’s two sides to it.

“I believe TOCA have got it right. It’s a good engine, it’s a strong engine but our Duratec was a strong engine. At the top end, the Ford engine is always strong.

“Is it that much faster than everybody else? No, I don’t think so. You’d have seen it today [Sunday] on the banking. We didn’t drive away from anybody.”