God bless the mean streets of Essex I say. Growing up in Chipping Ongar and completing secondary school at Brentwood County High gives you an insight into the mindset enjoyed by fast Ford fans worldwide. And now, out in the car park of MotorMartin Towers, is our own #MotorMartinClassics 1999 Ford Cougar 2.5 Automatic, a clear sign as to where some of our loyalties lean towards.
News then that owners of Ford’s high-performance diesel, the Focus ST diesel, can now unlock even more performance with the launch of mountune’s m460D power upgrade kit has been greeted with a fair degree of interest. The m460D kit, Mountune say, includes an OBDII flashing cable (of course), dongle, performance calibration and a mountune badge. More importantly, with a focus on real-world performance, mountune’s calibration will reduce the 0-60mph time by 0.7 seconds and cut the 31-62mph time by 0.5 seconds.
“mountune has been producing market-leading power upgrades for over a decade and this is the first time we’ve been able to unlock the potential in a ST diesel product”, shared David Moore, Global Brand Manager with MotorMartin. “The standard Focus ST diesel is a great base car, but with the m460D kit installed we’ve been able to make it smoother, quicker and generally even more fun to drive.”
It’s been explained to MotorMartin that power output is increased by a healthy 20bhp while torque is improved by 50Nm resulting in a significant performance improvement while retaining the correct DPF regen strategy meaning safe, reliable performance is assured. The kit can be installed at home, but mountune would encourage customers to have it fitted at the team HQ, where the company builds its BTCC and Rallycross engines, and customers can make use of a free Xbox, snacks and drinks while mountune specialists set to work on their car.
Priced at a bargain £429 for DIY installation or £350 for installation at mountune HQ in Brentwood (due to the fact that a DIY fit requires an individual dongle and cable) m460D, which is only available for cars with a manual transmission, is one of the most affordable ways to add both performance figures and real-world ability to a Focus ST diesel.
Now then Ford, when’s the Focus arriving at MotorMartin Towers?
Where will you go?