Ford Focus RS a ‘regular’ car that goes like a blue streak
Normal engineering parameters — brake horse power, torque, etc, — can be set aside and, instead, you can measure this very special car’s abilities in terms of the Richter Scale.
That being so, I can cautiously warn you that the RS will record a 9.0 on the Richter Scale, a magnitude that will, in the official language of seismology, cause “at or near total destruction… and permanent changes in ground topography”.
Yes, indeed. That just about gets the effect of the RS, the third generation of the hot-shot Focus, which has gestated from being the poster boy for hot-hatch hooligans into somewhere just south of a super-car wannabe, but with one-sixth the cost of any Ferrari or Lambo and with 95% of the thrills and driver engagement.
It might be that the Focus RS is at the plebeian end of the motoring hierarchy, but, in terms of bang for your buck, it offers so much more than could rightly have been expected for the money, bristling as it does with the sort of advanced technologies and driver aids that, until recently, were the preserve of the super-rich.
An initial encounter with the RS might disappoint folk a tad. Not for this car the outrageously bulbous, flared wheel-arches or the take-the-eye-out-of-your-head wings, and other aero appendages, which are par for the course on many rally-bred road cars. Indeed, it looks squat, compact and, well, small. It does not beat its chest at the altar of outrageous styling.
Rather, in its baby blue clothing and with its 19”, black-forged alloys and bespoke Michelins, it does look mildly mean, but certainly not savage or even obscene; sure, it does look like a heavily smartened-up family hatch, but not so much that it will draw unwanted attention from either end of the legal spectrum — police or thieves.
And it achieves this modest civility while cloaking one of the most inspiring drives you are ever going to have in your life, and, if you, dear reader, sense a whiff of hyperbole here, rest assured I have fully activated the speed limiter on what might be termed the ‘bullshitometer.’
The naked facts of the Focus RS boil down to a neat essence of driving pleasure. It is powered by a four-cylinder, 2.3-litre, turbocharged engine (an up-tuned version of what is fitted to the ‘lesser’ of the new Mustangs), has a hugely advanced, asymmetrical, all-wheel-drive system, a massively impressive hardcore suspension, and electronics that will allow any driver to explore the mind-blowing capabilities of the car.
With 354 bhp on tap and a sub-five-second, 0-100 kph capability, not to mention a top speed of 270 kph, 440 Nm of torque (to all four wheels) between 2,000 and 4,500 rpm, there is a lot of grunt here. But quite how much cannot be ascertained from mere figures alone.
Firing this thing up and setting it rolling don’t indicate the snarling, exhaust-popping beast that lies within. At city pace in urban conditions, it is as docile as a sleeping puppy. Stoke it up, though, and with the rev limiter in second gear, you’re rapidly approaching 100 kph; at the same spot in third you’re getting on for 150 kph; and, at the same spot in fourth you’re heading for jail. You get the picture.
For all that sheer grunt, you quickly appreciate that the sophisticated suspension layout and the steering (which are sharp, fast and direct) are keeping you firmly attached to the black stuff. Trying to get those fat Michelins unstuck is largely a waste of time, so sorted is the gravity-defying handling.
Some may cavil at the stiffness of the suspension, but that harshness is part of the gig and the car will bob around on rippled surfaces. But, when you get used to the road manners, you will appreciate that everything has been engineered with the aim of, firstly, making the car razor-sharp and, secondly, as easy as possible on you and your passengers.
That you can alter the damping of the Tenneco dual-rate shocks, thanks to a button on the left-hand column stalk, means you have an independent mode of adjustment, aside from the four driving modes, which are chosen from a button beside the gear lever. In ‘normal’ setting, the car is merely mad, while in ‘sport’ it gets nuttier, as the engine management is altered to provide the necessary aural soundtrack.
Then, you have the ‘track’ mode, for those who get their kicks away from public roads and where everything goes to the stiffest settings, and, finally, you have a ‘drift’ function. This softens everything up and makes the four-wheel drive system push torque to the outside rear wheel to allow for some serious sideways action.
Personally, I thought the latter two driving modes a little superfluous, as ‘normal’ and ‘sport’ will provide you with every thrill you ever sought, but they will broaden the appeal of the car to a more uncompromising clientele, the kind who like their eggs hard-boiled. Those two extra driving modes also illustrate the technological heft of the RS.
Whatever the mode, this car has eradicated understeer and that makes it a singular thing in the hot-hatch segment, and I doubt very much if even Hard Core Harry could find a hole in the handling armour here.
Worth mentioning, too, are the stupendous brakes, with 350mm discs all round and baby blue (to match the car’s colour) calipers, which provide as much stopping power as a dum-dum bullet.
Down sides? Well, the interior is dull, dark, and uninspiring, and the car comes only with one of those appallingly useless fix-it-yourself puncture repair kits, but these are mere foibles, which cannot undermine the overall engineering masterpiece that is the RS.
Ford has shown some pretty impressive chops in the performance arena recently, with both Fiesta and Focus ST models representing outstanding driving characteristics, but the Focus RS not only leaves those models for dead, it has also written out the death cert. for such as the Golf R and the Type R Honda Civic.
It is, indeed, a seismic event; not just a car, but an event — in the same way that an exploding volcano is an event. Krakatoa anyone?
Ford Focus RS
€52,600.
Uprated version of the 2.3 EcoBoost in the Mustang — but even more virile and delightfully shouty too.
You can add a few bits, but the standard car is as much as anyone should want.
An instant classic — and one which will hold residuals well.
