Ford's new performance Focus
Newswheel staff :: 19 February 2005 :: Filed under Hatchback, Ford, Ford Focus, Europe & UK,
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Try very hard to ignore the day-glow paint job and Volvo powerplant...
For fast Ford fans, the Blue Oval has been an infuriating tease over the past year or two. Having delivered the fabulously over-engineered last-gen Focus RS, the wenches at Ford HQ then cruelly tempted us with the Fiesta RS concept, only to suddenly play hard-to-get over the hardcore RS brand. But praise be, because the new Focus ST packs enough punch, on-paper, to eclipse the outgoing Focus RS.
The bad news, for heel-and-toe fetishists at least, is that the new ST is unlikely to deliver the same uncompromising drive as its illustrious ancestor. For starters, the powerplant has been pinched from Volvo (yes, really). Which explains the unusual in-line five cylinder layout. Sure, there’s plenty of poke (around 215bhp, marginally up on the old Focus RS), but the stately 2.5-litre turbo mill is hardly a high-revving sporting icon.
Motive force
That said, the best fast Fords have often had workman-like engines that do little more than provide enough shove to enjoy the rest of the car (think Sierra and Escort Cosworths, and arguably even the new Ford GT). More worrying, then, is the absence of a limited slip differential – probably the defining feature of the original Focus RS.
As for styling, the venerable Newswheel jury is still ruminating. If some of the detailing is a little bling, at least it injects a desperately needed dose of pizzazz into the drab second generation Focus. Interestingly, the car will also be available in five-door trim. The new Focus’s three door shell doesn’t really work and we fancy the five-door car in something other the Chernobyl Orange of these press shots could just be an everyman Integrale for the new millennium. Here’s hoping…
Oh, and the ST can be yours towards the end of '05. There’s no official word on pricing, but you can bet it’ll be more than the now-defunct Focus ST170.
