2016 Ford Focus RS: Coming to America
[MUSIC]
This is the only new Ford Focus RS.
A car that many people have been waiting rather impatiently for.
It's got a pretty much standard body apart from the very obvious bits, power in access of 320 horses, and most crucially, all-wheel drive.
It's got a smart system.
It can send 70% of the car's power to the rear wheels and one.
100 percent of that to whichever one needs it most.
It's also got quite jazzy torque vectoring system.
Which doesn't actually break any wheels to get you around a corner quicker.
Instead it adds more power.
And because a chap called Ken Block was a consultant on this car, it also has a drift mode, which sounds often.
I love the look of this thing.
It's angry and shouting, it makes the likes of the Merc A 45 AMG, Audi S3, and the VW Golf R look a little bit pedestrian.
I bet when the price tag's revealed, it'll make them look quite expensive as well.
The [UNKNOWN] details are sketchy at the moment because Ford has some more time to get more power out of it.
But you know what.
This is shaping up to be an incredible car.
But to understand why, you need to know where it came from.
[MUSIC]
But where did it come from indeed?
After all, there's so much excitement around the new Focus RS, it's predecessors must've been pretty fantastic.
[MUSIC]
Big.
Now I know there are loads of cars dubbed Ford RS, but today, we're going to be looking at the two previous Focus RSs.
This is the first Focus RS.
The one that started it all.
It entered production in October, 2002.
Is very blue, In fact, it was only available in this hue.
[MUSIC]
Quite subtle and very mad.
As far as vital statistics go, the Mark I Focus RS appears rather modest.
212 brake horsepower.
But you need to look a little deeper to appreciate it fully.
This isn't just an up-rated ST170 either.
It's said this engine is so heavily modified.
As close as the WRC then standard equation differential, 70% of the parts of this have been modified or changed from a standard car and those changes apparently meant that Ford lost about four grand on each of the four and a half thousand.
The, the salt.
As a point of pride, over 2100 were sold in the UK, making XCAR's home island its biggest market.
That said, we have small, rubbish roads, so something that's like a city car, but mental, kind of works here.
The fact that it looks pretty standard is cool as well, though to the trained eye.
It's something pretty special.
Here's the basic statistics, naught to 62 takes 6.7 seconds, its top speed is 144 miles an hour and today we have a little bit of the poorly RS so we're not getting the full shebang.
However.
[NOISE] It feels like it's sort of easy to drive, the response is stellar, the turbo noise in the cabin is just lovely, it gives it a wish.
A lovely little wish from it.
Steering is like the gear shift is brilliant, I can see why people love it, I can see why so many people in the UK bought it, because it seems quite soft, quite nimble, quite light, and it reminds me.
Weirdly the Sierra RS Cosworth cuz that thing was light, it was nimble, it felt really good.
You got amazing feedback from it, just as you get from here.
But it can get a little bit torque steery if you poke the angry bear too hard.
Still a cracking motor, a sold basis.
So the brand new one.
So there's mark one.
Genesis if you will.
Here's mark two.
Where the old one was subtle this one is less so.
If its massive wheels aren't a bit of a giveaway then how about the massive air intake or.
That spoiler.
In 2009, this bad boy appeared.
It lost the subtle finesse of the Mark 1. It also gained a cylinder and about 85 horsepower.
This time round, you got a 2.5 liter five cylinder turbocharged engine with 301 brake horsepower, and 325 pound foot.
All of a sudden, the Focus RS turned into the car your mother did not want you to have.
This shopping car has a top speed of over 160 miles an hour and a nought to 62 time in under five seconds.
That is pretty mad, especially considering where the power's transferred.
Through to the road.
Once again through the front wheels, though this time Ford saw fit to fit something called the Reaver Knuckle Differential.
Designed to, you know, deal with any torque steering issues that may occur when you turn 301 brake horsepower and 325 pound foot through the front wheels.
Does it work?
Does it?
Okay, that might be a little bit harsh.
Okay, it's very harsh.
It doesn't completely eradicate torque steer as some may have hoped.
There is still a bit of a torque steering machine, but then again, there's so much torque going through the front wheels.
It is kinda scary, but this is a shopping car.
It's a family hatchback.
But it's so fast.
You leave in third on a straight and by the end of said straight, this one, you could be 120 quite happily.
It won't break a sweat.
It does feel a lot heavier.
Than the Mark One though.
The steering is a lot heavier, there's a lot more [UNKNOWN] around.
The gear box, though, is remarkably light.
The clutch is lovely.
The ["softer/g"] response again, mega quick.
But as I said, the Mark One focus felt a bit like the Sierra [UNKNOWN], this feels more like the Escort [UNKNOWN] a lot more power.
a lot more weight and it just feels a little less responsive.
The Mark I is more nimble whereas this is just a brute.
It's a massive brute.
It's impressive stats come from a heavily modified engine though the mods weren't all Ford could do because in 2010 Ford brought out the RS500.
A 345 brake horsepower, 339 pound foot, matte black only monster.
It's not a 62.
It was 5.6 seconds.
Its top speed was 165 miles an hour.
A truly mad thing.
I know now in, in 2016 we're in an age where things don't.
The Mercedes AMGA 45.
The new Audi RS3.
They'll breach 345 horsepower without any problem.
But this was like 2009, 2010.
[MUSIC]
And their 500 had around that power, a couple of years later.
It was quite mental, then.
It's incredibly mental now.
And I kind of like its hairy chested madness.
I like the way it makes you feel.
I like the fact that if you just pop it in third, we're doing 60 miles an hour, now.
Now we're doing 70, 80.
90.
That's 100, it's run out.
There we go into fourth.
There we go.
110, 120 on the.
Priceless.
This is a Ford Focus, and it just did 120 miles an hour.
It's magic.
How fast is the new one gonna be?
[MUSIC]
That is the most posit of potted histories of the Focus RS.
Now, we know that it's part of a much bigger picture, one we're going to touch on when the 2016 Focus Rs comes out in 2016.
But, if the old cars are anything to go by, the new one.
On.
It's gonna be fantastic.
[MUSIC]
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