It’s fair to say that there’s been a fair few car launches that we in the Lookers Marketing Team have been keeping a very close eye on and the new Ford Focus RS is one of them.
And now that it’s Geneva Motor Show week, the car porn just keeps on coming. Just take The Aston Martin DB11, the replacement for the DB9, for example, it’s definitely up there, as is the new back to basics rear-wheel-drive Porsche 911 R.
Then again there’s the new £1.9m Bugatti Chiron, our new favourite car and one that has 1,479 bhp, 1179lb ft of torque and can go from 0-62mh in 2.5 seconds. All of this means that I would probably kill myself reversing out of the drive.
In the here and now though there’s one car that has had us as excited as an eight year old at Disneyland and that’s the Ford Focus RS.
Ever since it was previewed at Geneva last year we’ve been salivating at the thought of bombing around the Nürburgring (or anywhere in fact, a council estate in Huddersfield will do), in a hatchback that goes from 0-62 in 4.7 seconds and has a power output of 345bhp.
But it’s not really those numbers, impressive as they are, that have had us panting for more. No, it’s the fact that the new RS is a four wheel drive beast that lets you thrash it around as though you’re in an arcade with your mates trying to beat each other’s lap times. My pockets would definitely be rattling with change.
Did I mention drift mode? For many people, Ford’s announcement last year that the car would feature such a setting immediately conjured up images of a 23 year old lad called Jordan attempting to shoot his own Ken Block Gymkhana video in an Ipswich car park. Well it turns out that it’s far more sophisticated than that.
The RS’ twin clutch 4 wheel drive system channels a whopping 70% of the car’s torque to the rear wheels and then up to 100% of the output to either side to produce what is known as ‘torque vectoring’. No, me neither. What I do know though is that the Ford Focus RS loves to oversteer.
While this may fill some of you with horror and have you reaching for a neck brace, Ford have been quite clever in tying it all in with the car’s Electronic Stability Control system, which recognises when your steering inputs are not quite keeping up with the drift and steps in just in time to stop you killing yourself.
We think the Ford Focus RS could well be the hottest hatchback ever built and, guess what, it’s here! In fact, it recently paid a visit to our Lookers Ford dealership in Sunderland ahead of its official release. And, after months of hype including Top Gear crowning it the World’s Greatest Hot Hatch, it created a little bit of a buzz amongst customers.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take it out for a test drive as it was only a preview event. I did try. Honest. I was all set to rock up with my aviator shades and Top Gun soundtrack CD but I don’t think security were quite ready for me.
So, for now, I’ll just have to go back to ogling at photos of the RS at my desk and dribbling over my keyboard like a rabid St Bernard.
Of course I’ll be back with a full test drive review of the Ford Focus RS as soon as they trust me. Maybe I should stop doing doughnuts in the head office car park first thing in the morning.
