Ford Focus Climbs the Mountains

American manufacturer Ford is trying to make the most out of the new Focus model, so it thought of letting us know the hard, tough, incredibly challenging tests the car has to endure before hitting the market. One of the harshest ones the car has to operate in before receiving the green light for production is altitude testing.

For this test, the car has been taken to the Austrian Alps, on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. The road, which is 48 km long, has 36 bends and reaches a maximum altitude of 2,504 metres. The car is currently doing 200 km a day up and down the road.

“We’re here testing next generation Focus with a variety of powertrains, both petrol and diesel," Ford vehicle integration engineer Bernd Herweling said. "We’re evaluating driveability on steep mountain roads from a customer perspective. The bottom line is we’re here to find out how the car performs driving up and down seriously steep hills.”

The new Focus, which will be launched at the same time in Europe and North America in late 2010, was presented at the 2010 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). It will be available with Ford's new line of EcoBoost engines, starting with the 1.6l unit for Europe. Also offered will be a choice of Duratorq TDCi common-rail diesel engines.

At NAIAS, the car was presented with a 2.0l gasoline engine, an engine which will be launched in the US. The DI Ti-VCT engine is up to 20 horsepower more powerful than the current 2.0 Duratec I-4 unit, providing at the same time 10 percent better fuel economy.