The Ford Fiesta R5 is a specially built rally car that is based upon the Ford Fiesta ST road car. The construction of this car was carried out by M-Sport, a UK motorsport engineering company and this type of car has gone on to compete at the World Rally Championships, European Rally Championships and various national competitions around the world.

According to John, “It was just time for a change. I had never driven a 4wd rally car competitively and along with Ruthann’s eagerness to try out the level of one of the most successful cars in the motorsport world, the idea became reality. We did a quick test in the car in the middle of last week and felt straight away like I was comfortable. It’s a different style of driving compared to laying on it in the Corolla, but it just felt good from the word go!”

Ruthann was also quick to add “R5 cars really are as good as everybody says they are! That Fiesta was just sensational. OK, it’s not the latest, most up-to-date model, but it was pretty unreal to be honest.”

First Outing

Discussing the Birr Stages Rally, John said “Throughout the event I could feel the confidence coming with the car, obviously it was hard to know the limits straight away and the last thing we wanted to do was to make a mistake, looking back there were times when I felt we could have gone quicker, but, like I said, it wasn’t about that, but the experience of the car and the conditions is the much bigger take-away from today. We had an absolute blast and I want to say a big thanks to Niall McGonigle from IN Sport for the hire of the car and our sponsor McHale for supporting for their continued support.”

For the first day out, it was a strong finish for the pair in 15th place overall from over 165 cars that started the event. Although the original “Green Machine” is not for sale just yet, the public and numerous fans on McHale Rallying TikTok were intrigued to see the pair in the new R5 so who knows what lies ahead for the McHale Rally Team.

Special thanks to Seamus Counihan – CRSpics for the impressive photos.