We really really like hot hatches and we just got our first one, ie, the VW Polo GTI. The RS Focuses that we’ve observed over the years have always fascinated us, and even though we had the Fiesta, we never got any of that goodness on these shores. Still, we love talking about it, and so it’s hard not to talk about the new Focus RS (don’t know why we haven’t yet).
It’s a four-door hatchback, built to do blisteringly fast laps with the right set of sticky tyres, and therefore has suspension that is far from comfortable on public roads. But it still can be used practically, as a hot hatch can be when you haven’t got your foot planted on the accelerator pedal. Great, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the fun stuff.
The Focus RS comes with a turbocharged 2.3-litre four cylinder engine that puts out 345bhp of power and 474Nm of torque. To make the most of all this power, it gets sent to all four wheels, and the RS comes with a 6-speed manual gearbox and a unique torque-vectoring system. It also gets adaptive dampers, launch control and an impressive rear wing.
The driving reviews have people raving about the handling too, that it’s fun to throw around corners and execute drifts with relative ease, what with the four-wheel drive system sending up to 70% of the immense power to the rear axle.
Even if you won’t get to take it around the track that often, the Focus RS would definitely make the daily commute a lot more fun. You reckon we can drift our way down a flyover exit ramp without getting into trouble? I hope we get to try it out.
The Auto Loons 