(Photos: Ford Motor Company) We knew it was coming, we’ve been waiting for it, and now it’s official: This is the US-market Ford Focus RS. And it’s exactly what we were hoping it would be. The Focus RS has been forbidden fruit for us in the States for years, trading blows with Subaru WRX, Mitsubishi Evolutions and a myriad of European hot hatches for the last few years. We’ve had the SVT and the Focus ST, but not everybody likes the idea of a front-wheel-drive performance car, and we’ve known for years through World Rally and Rallycross that Ford has the ability to stuff a purposeful all-wheel-drive system underneath a small Ford and make it work.
The heart of the Focus RS is the 2.3L EcoBoost turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Ford engineers made sure to go over any trouble points from past experience with wicked-up motors on boost, including a cylinder head that can tolerate above-average heat and pressures, a purpose-built head gasket, a monster cooling system to keep temperatures down, and strengthened components in the six-speed manual, drive system and suspension to better cope with the power of the car. Ford’s official statement is “over 315 horsepower”, but there’s a strong rumor mill that says the power is more like 350 horsepower. Either way, in a car the size of the Focus with all-wheel-drive, the power will be plentiful enough to plaster a stupid grin all over your face.
New for the Focus RS is a torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system that works with the brake-centric stability control to keep things as controlled…or not…as you desire. There are multiple settings for the steering, suspension, all-wheel-drive system, and even the exhaust. So your RS can be your daily driver during the week, and on the weekends you can go to the track, turn off every last control, turn on the Drift mode (yes, it’s really in there!) and go absolutely ballistic. If you want any indication into how much thought Ford has put into the performance aspect of the Focus RS, there’s an integrated shift light in the dash. It lights at 5,900 RPM and flashes just before you smack the 6,800 RPM limit.
To keep some semblance of sanity, the brakes that come on the RS are stout, with available Brembo four-piston discs available up front. The brakes have cooling ducts, with the ports next to the fog lights channeling air to the front rotors and an under-car airflow system for the rears. 19″ lightweight wheels are standard, and inside, Recaro seats up front keep the driver right where they need to be. Gauges are open and easy to read and screens are kept to a minimum. Four exterior colors are available: Nitrous Blue, Stealth Grey, Shadow Black and Frozen White.
Ford’s push for performance products is deliberate. “Customers have begged for the Focus RS to come to the United States for years,” said Raj Nair, group vice president, Global Product Development, Ford Motor Company. “And now we can say that they are getting one of the most innovative, powerful and best-looking RS cars ever. That is special.”
“The RS line has a proud history of technical breakthroughs.It’s a great example of our passion for innovation through performance, and creating vehicles that make people’s hearts pound.”
Ford expects Focus RS to appear in showrooms in the spring of 2016. Subaru folks, you now have new competition.
Good for Subaru to have a playmate, with the Evo X dead. I don’t know how many WRX buyers it’ll coax over, considering Subaru buyers are diehard loyalists, but at least it’ll maybe convince Subaru to play with pricing or step up the power a little.
Because Ford will price it way out of class it will be a 2 year car and Ford will say “see we tried, nobody bought it”.
Mercury Marauder , SVO Mustang (from 80’s) come to mind. To get a foot in the door the RS needs to undercut the Subies by a few thousand dollars for a fully loaded car and build so many of them the workers cant spend the overtime money fast enough.
Even the ST is pushing the over priced wall.
You nailed it right on the head ! All bets are Subaru is laughing their @$&es off over this … just waiting for it to fail as Ford once again prices itself right out of the market [ they already priced themselves out of the market with the new GT before it even hits the production line at $400k .. so why not do the same to the RS ? ]
Hell … Ill bet dollars to donuts the RS increases Subaru sales rather than competes with them
And yeah …. everybody here in the US wants an RS … blah blah blah … just like everyone in the US wants a wagon … until that is … everyone in the US can actually buy what they want …. and suddenly …. they don\’t … want it anymore that is . As the old saying goes ;
\” Everybody loves you till the rent comes due \”
Final analysis ? Regardless of any claimed performance … the pretense of competing with Subaru or the posturing of being WRC related [ when in fact its the Fiesta that Ford competes in the WRC with ]
The Ford Focus RS is about to get another F in its moniker . This one standing for ;
FAIL !
But will it do a quarter of a million miles with nothing but routine maintenance, all the while being modified for more power, like my Subaru? Of the people I personally know with Focus ST’s they have all been to the dealer frequently for major driveability concerns. I’m the last guy to bash on Ford, I own several at the moment, but they do not appear to know how the play the fast FWD, let alone AWD, game from what I have seen.
That being said, I am excited! The new breed of fast Focus looks great (on the outside at least) and on paper seem fantastic!
That will be one bad ass little pocket rocket.