Girardo & Co’s Merry Rally Christmas

British race, rally and classic car specialist Girardo & Co. has been delivering early gifts to car fans for some years now in the form of festive videos featuring iconic cars driven with plenty of Christmas spirit.

With Christmas past films featuring vehicles as diverse as a Group B Audi quattro, a Pagani Huayra, an assortment of Subarus, and fleets of Ferraris, this year Girardo’s cameras focus on… a Focus.

To be precise its a 2001 Ford Focus RS WRC as driven by Carlos Sainz Sr to second place on the Monte Carlo Rally. Essentially it’s the same car in which Colin McRae just missed out on that year’s World Championship and is powered–as per WRC rules–by a two-liter turbo Zetec motor making in the region of 300 horsepower with its anti-lag system and driving all four-wheels via an XTrac sequential transmission and active hydro-electronic differentials.

After pulling it out of the showroom for a few spins around the yard, boss Max Girardo heads out to a deserted rally stage to put the car through its paces. Judging from Girardo’s grin Christmas really has come early.