By: Denis Droppa
Valencia, Spain - What makes a good hot hatch? Distilled to the essentials it’s a car with whopping power and a chassis that can lay it down on the road in a safe but still entertaining manner. Add some aggro wings and spoilers for the right look, spice it with a rorty engine sound, and you’re A for away.
It’s the same basic recipe whether you’re driving a Golf R, an Audi RS3, a Mercedes-AMG A45, or Ford’s new Focus RS, all of which employ the turbo engines and all-wheel-drive systems that are de rigeur in hot hatchery these days.
The new fast Focus, which was launched to the world’s media in Valencia, Spain last week, takes one notable departure from the script in being available only with a manual gearbox, where its rivals all have autos either as standard or optional. On the surface it makes the Focus RS more pitched towards ‘purists’ who believe that you don’t drive an automatic car, you point it.
Good point, but it means that the Ford – even with a launch-control system that allows you to shift up without taking your foot off the throttle – isn’t able to keep up with the fastest of its two-pedalled German rivals in a 0-100km/h sprint. Its claimed 4.7 second time trails the 4.3 secs quoted for the 270kW Audi RS3 and the 4.2 of the newly-upgraded 280kW Mercedes A45 AMG. Ford isn’t saying whether there will be an auto version of the RS.
NO SLOUCH THOUGH!
Whatever the stopwatch says, the RS feels immensely quick when you drop the clutch and doesn’t leave you with unsatisfied power cravings, further underlined by its top speed of 266km/h. The hustle in the new Focus RS is provided by a slightly upgraded version of the 2.3 four-cylinder EcoBoost turbo found in the new Mustang.
With peaks of 258kW and 440Nm (470Nm with overboost) it outguns rivals like the Golf R (206kW), new Honda Civic Type R (228kW), and Opel Astra OPC (206kW).
The six-speeder shifts smoothly, and during my drive through twisty mountain passes with a flurry of gearchanging to rival a Fast and Furious movie, I didn’t miss a cog. If you want to be a purist, it’s a great gearbox.
Acoustically the RS delivers the right stuff with a howl that’s prominent but doesn’t become annoyingly intrusive over a long journey, but you can make the exhaust crackle and pop by selecting one of the car’s sportier drive modes.
DRIVING PERSONALITY
This is the first Ford RS to come with such modes, and there are four of them (normal, sport, track and drift) that affect the car’s driving personality by adjusting the responses of the all-wheel-drive system, dampers, steering, engine, stability control and exhaust valve. In normal mode it’s a very hospitable commuting car with refined road manners and a not-too-firm ride. Press the ‘evil’ button and the car changes character, burping and crackling through the exhaust as the dampers stiffen and the throttle and steering go into ‘attack’ mode.
I’ve driven some high-performance cars that don’t transfer their impressive road skills well to the more intense environment of a racetrack. Their handling becomes sloppy and they fall foul to things like brake fade and an overheating drivetrain. Not the RS, which handled some hard-charging laps around the Valencia Grand Prix circuit with no hint of such issues, and felt as fresh on the last lap as it did on the first.
TRACK-READY
It’s a track-ready car out of the box, with a stiffened body and chassis compared to a regular Focus to give it a more direct and ‘connected’ feel, with uprated brakes and cooling. The none-too-subtle styling of the RS is all driven by aerodynamic function; the large spoilers, air scoops and wing all help the car achieve zero lift front and rear, which Ford tell us is not an easy thing to achieve.
The track ability is the real selling point of this blue-hearted beast, and it’s a car you can really grab by the scruff of the neck. It actually wants to be abused, just like the Eurythmics sang.
Sweet dreams are made of the way its specially-developed Michelin Pilots (available in two grades: one for the road and one for the track) grip the tar like limpets. There’s none of the dreaded understeer that once used to afflict all-wheel-drive cars. The Ford’s intelligent AWD system is assisted by torque vectoring to redirect the power to whichever wheels need it most, maintaining maximum traction with rear-wheel-drive-style handling.
In drift mode, which minimises (but doesn’t entirely switch off) the stability control system, the tail washes out gradually and controllably, without snap-oversteer that’ll send you unexpectedly backwards into the kitty litter. The RS really can drift, as you can see on the video we’ve posted below.
It’s a very forgiving track machine that’ll flatter less experienced drivers but still engage intimately with Lewis Hamilton-wannabes.
The new Focus RS will arrive in South Africa around May. The price is still uncertain but expect it to be around the 600 to 700 grand mark.