PUTTING all the data aside, of the eight $50K-$100K cars, if we, the judges, were forced to grab one car to do 10 laps and that was it – in a car, on a track, for the rest of our lives – we’d take the Focus RS.Īdmittedly, this breakout is somewhat redundant. but boy, do you need to be in the mood” Judges’ Picks Tim Robson - 1st: “Clinically, brutally fast. Louis Cordony - 1st: “Grip, grunt, and razor-sharp chassis mean no apex is safe” Deservedly so”ĭylan Campbell - 1st: “I could do a dozen track days in this car without getting bored” The engine and gearing, etc, just works.įor me personally, maybe the seating position is probably not quite to my liking, but it really does tick the boxes in so many aspects and it’s so much fun at Winton.”ĭavid Morley - 1st: 'A cult car from the moment it was announced. The brakes are good, but if you do multiple laps you can see some fade. It’s a car that you can have a lot of fun with you can really point the back of the car and get the nose of it into an apex. Throwing times out the window and backing the car in on the brake every corner, or practising your lift-off oversteer shenanigans? There’s another track day sorted. Hunting apexes with the horns out and the timing gear equipped, chasing down a PB? This is your car.

This is not a one-dimensional handling car it can be a different car for you at many track days if you so wish. The Focus RS even provides value in ways that we’ve not measured. And it very much passes this on to the nut holding the wheel. The Focus RS feels to be very pleased to find itself on a race circuit. It gives you what you want lots of grip, direct and fast steering, strong and resilient brakes, good power and actual cornering ability and talent. Both these things helped, but it would tell a certain story if a glance at the judges’ panel revealed a string of “8th” place votes.Īs you may have noticed, the opposite is true.

On track, you’re able to pick up the throttle earlier and earlier, the Focus RS just tightening its line as it greedily gathers speed.īut it’s important to point out that the Focus RS has not won here because it’s the cheapest car in its class. In slower corners, the computer sends grunt to the outside rear wheel to more quickly pivot the RS and “virtually eliminate understeer”, says Ford. The Focus RS owes a lot to its tricky all-wheel drive system, which can send up to 70 per cent of torque to the rear axle, and then 100 per cent of that to either left or right wheel. In perfect circumstances, this is a 12-second car.įifth is also where the Focus RS finished in the power competitions such as 0-400m and lap V-max, but with a 34.22m effort 100-0km/h it clawed back time under brakes – thanks to those huge 350mm front four-pot monoblock Brembos – and mid-corner speed.Īnd our Magnetic grey test car wasn’t even fitted with Ford’s optional Performance Wheel Pack, which comes with the Tarzan Grip-spec Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. Still, its 13.31sec quarter at 171.04km/h will hardly have you checking your watch. Stepping off the clutch close to the limiter is about as mechanically unsympathetic as we’re able to get, we’re afraid.Īnd so, in a drag race across the quarter mile of all our $50K-$100K competitors, the Focus RS would end up an unremarkable fifth. Our 0-100km/h time of 5.06 seconds was way off Ford’s 4.7sec claim, which, Ford says, requires both launch control of the manual, all-wheel drive RS, and a flat-shift from first to second. And what’s more, it could have been even faster. In the final reckoning, it was this combination of laptime talent, and being the cheapest car of the $50K-$100K crop, that hoisted the 257kW, 2.3-litre twin-scroll turbocharged four-cylinder Focus RS to the top step of the class podium. ONES AND ZEROES strung together in the right order is at least partly why the Ford Focus RS won the $50K-$100K class, the calibration of its brilliant all-wheel drive system helping it cross the line in a blistering 1:38.4sec – just 0.1sec off the Mercedes-AMG A45, itself a car almost made for the track.Īnd, it must be said, a car more than $27,000 more expensive than Ford’s all-wheel drive hero, meaning for the price of an A45, hardcore Blue Oval hot hatch fans would need a double garage for both their Focus RS and their Fiesta ST.

2017 ford focus rs