Ford debuts its stall recovery system on the new Ford Focus RS MK3, designed to speed up the process and make recovering from a stall as smooth as possible. Releasing the clutch pedal and throttle too slowly can make the engine stall, especially on the RS which features all-wheel drive and manual only transmission, so Ford have tried to eliminate this with the innovative feature.
The stall recovery system pushes the clutch back into place so that the vehicle doesn’t need to be in neutral to restart.
When the RS stalls, drivers just need to engage the clutch to trigger the engine to restart. In one simple action, you can restart and get back to driving. The system doesn’t prevent stalling and only assists with helping the driver to restart the engine much quicker.
Engineering and Vehicle Manager for Ford Performance Europe, Tyrone Johnson said: “We knew we wanted to put start-stop technology on the RS. So we said, what if we went one step further, and controlled for engine stall at launch using the same technology?’ Well, that’s exactly what we did and it’s just as fast as our start-stop technology.”
The RS stall recovery system has many of the same features and technologies as the standard start-stop that comes on many of Ford’s other models, but it’s slightly more advanced.
Engine Start-Stop
Most start-stop systems work by utilising an oversized starter motor that lets your engine disengage at traffic lights or pauses in the road. When the vehicle is slowing to a halt, the driver should begin to release the clutch and brake until the car has stopped, then neutral gear is selected and the clutch fully released before the engine stops. To restart, drivers press the clutch down, change to first gear and accelerate.
Stall Recovery System
The stall recovery system featured on the Focus RS is very similar to the start-stop system, but with a few extra lines of code to improve on the original. The feature takes a few steps out of the driving action associated with start-stop, making it faster and easier to correct a stall with minimal input. The system allows drivers to stay in gear whilst the engine is reset, meaning all there is to do is depress the clutch to trigger the overweight starter motor and resume driving.
In essence, the stall recovery system will save drivers a few seconds of time and require slightly less manual input (no changing gears). The time-saving feature will be useful if the driver is using the RS for track or racing purposes, not so much for everyday driving.
Ford are not the only or the first brand to use clever stall recovery features on their vehicles, with Mini and Porsche both featuring the systems on some of their newer models.
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