A kind of Luso-Hispanic project, it is clearly the strangest and most unlikely car of this edition of the 20th anniversary of the 24 Horas de TT da Vila de Fronteira.
For the combination of bodywork, but also for a mechanical component that is simply… complex!
With a name already complex (or complete?!…), the Ford Fénix 2M Evo I features a body whose front section is that of a Ford Probe, the cabin of a Ford Escort, and a rear of authorship — that, yes — of the two mentors of the project, the Portuguese Manuel Brotas and the Spanish António Martinez.
And if the outside look is at least curious, not to say strange, underneath the casing, there's even more impressive mechanics. First, two 2.5-liter Ford V6 engines with 197 hp, one under the front bonnet, the other on the rear axle. Since, both arranged in the same transverse position, each one of them also has its own manual gearbox and ECU. Allowing the car to work either with only front, rear or all-wheel drive, with the passage being made through a complex system of bolts.
Six years of construction, more than 8,100 hours of work
"We are talking about a project that has already taken six years of construction", he recalls, in statements to Car Ledger , Manuel Brota, 64 years old, and who is also one of the pilots. “There are more than 8,100 hours of work in a car that has already completed the prologue of Baja de Portalegre and is participating, for the first time, in Fronteira. But it's to come to the end!” he adds.
Still on the car that in Fronteira has the number #27, the Spanish partner, António Martinez, recalls that the prototype “even has air conditioning”, not to mention an imaginative “double brake disc cooling system”. In this case, from a system to guide the air into the wheels, from entrances, either in the front bumper or in the sides, in a raised position.
Ford Fénix is still an evolving project
However, despite the many innovative solutions that it already has, this is a car that, defends Manuel Brotas, still has improvements to make. “From the start, take weight off the car, install two sequential gearboxes and solve the technical problem with the clutches, in order to get them to work simultaneously. A problem that, however, only arises in reverse gear and in maneuvering situations, since, once the car is in motion, everything works without problems”.
As for a possible transition to the production of such a revolutionary racing car, both mentors discard such a hypothesis, ensuring that it is just a personal project. In fact, “asking us how much we have already invested here or how much this car is valued is something we have no idea about”. “By the way, if we started to do the math, we would never have advanced with all of this”, the Spaniard vents.
It now remains to wait for the end of the 24 Hours TT Vila de Fronteira to confirm if the Ford Fénix 2M Evo I is really on the right track…
NOTE – Out of curiosity, it should be noted that the Ford Fénix 2M Evo I completed the entire 24 Hours TT Vila de Fronteira, although it did not manage to finish among the classifieds. Since it made less than 40% of the laps performed by the winner.
