Ice-Ice Baby: "Coolest" Ford Focus Coupe-Cabriolet

Roelant de Waard, chairman and managing director of Ford of Britain, revealed a life-size six-and-a-half-ton sculpture of the new Ford Focus Coupé-Cabriolet – made entirely of ice at the British International Motor Show.

The ice sculpture, already dubbed the coolest car at the show, has been crafted for the last two weeks by a team of sculptors in a giant freezer – set at a minus 10 deg C. The work took a total of 160 hours, but each shift was limited to just 40 minutes because of the severe cold.

Specialist carving tools from Japan and North America, including a highly advanced, computer-driven cutting machine, have been used to create the sculpture. The Focus Coupe-Cabriolet sculpture, which is made from 120 separate pieces of crafted ice, was dismantled and then reconstructed on the Ford stand – which was specially reinforced to bear the weight – by a team of 12 specialists.

Although it weighs more than five real Focus models – it will gradually melt and the 6,500 litres of recycled water will drain away naturally.