Australia is scared of the Ford Focus RS
Because nothing is scarier than a car with a built-in drift mode, right?
Oh god, it's drifting, everybody RUN!
Australia has some of the strongest anti-"hooning" rules in the world. Modified cars are at risk of being impounded, and anyone caught doing a burnout or other on-road antics can be at risk of losing both their car and driving license. Now, the law has turned its attention to Ford's latest hot hatch, the Focus RS.
The Focus RS contains a Drift mode, which makes it easy for owners to engage in controlled drifts with nothing more than egregious throttle input and counter-steering. This clearly does not jibe with Australia's anti-hooning laws, which caused Ford to disable its Mustang's burnout-friendly Line Lock setting before selling the car in the Land Down Under.
Safety experts are "furious," according to News.com.au, because heaven forbid the general public exercise self control. No, let's just ban the thing outright. Some helmet-wearing boffins are calling for the car to be recalled so that Drift mode can be disabled permanently. "Ford cannot absolve itself from its duty of care to road users and its customers with a disclaimer in the dashboard," News.com.au quotes one terrifying Luddite as saying.
One local Australian outlet created a video as part of its news program, just to show how dangerous this mode is. If the beginning and end of the video look familiar to you, that's because it's footage plucked from Carfection's mum-drifting video. They sure as hell didn't ask us to use this footage. There's a sort of delicious irony in a news station bending the law in the process of trying to "educate" the public on the potential for a different kind of crime.
If you end up within 100 yards of a Ford Focus RS, exercise caution. Back away slowly, do not attempt to enter or start the vehicle. It might turn you into Ken Block, but an evil kind of Ken Block who will terrorize the neighborhood with tire smoke and lurid amounts of yaw. Please, somebody, think of the children!
