four-walling
Kerry, San Diego
Dan Neil is my favorite auto journalist.
SPEED FREAK | It’s no beauty, but, for Generation Y, this Ford Focus is what fast looks like. Photo: Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
By
Dan Neil
March 17, 2016 11:09 a.m. ET
They live among you. They seem normal, at first. Then they start talking about cars and then—oh no!—you realize you’ve been captured by a sport-compact fan. And all he wants to talk about is the 2016 Ford Focus RS ($41,550 as tested), out of the box with 350 hp, 350 pound-feet of torque and an all-wheel-drive system with automatic “Drift” function. And he has one of those earrings that make a big hole in the earlobe you can see through. It’s sort of distracting.
As a matter of fact, I have driven the new Focus. I found my test specimen waiting for me in Salzburg, Austria, the four-door hatch painted a blue so vibrant it shook the very columns of the parking structure. French racing blue? Bugatti blue? Sacre bleu?
My 700-kilometer route would take me from Salzburg to Stuttgart, by way of Berchtesgaden, where German-language guidebooks note the food and skiing are very good. The skies over the mountains were leaden with snow. I got down on one knee and prayed to the specially compounded Michelins (235/35YR19s) that would have been ideal for Monza in mid-June. Let’s not have any unplanned drifting action, boys.
From Ford’s sin factory in Saarlouis, Germany, the Focus RS sold in the U.S. is nearly the same car, with the same tires and calibrations, as the ones sold in Europe. Parity has been a sore point between Ford Performance and its American fans, who loathed the way Ford dumbed down, dialed back or delayed U.S.-spec cars.
As performance cars go, the Focus RS has narrow generational appeal—you could hardly call it an immortal beauty—but for Gen Y, this is what fast looks like: Squat, more hunchback than hatchback, draped on four big wheels brazen with Brembos, blacked-out glass, a face full of intercooler, with mad wing and splitter.
The RS’s interior is awesomely turned out, too, with Recaro sport bucket front seats—way better than those ottoman couches in the Focus ST—and sport steering wheel, all with contrasting blue stitching. As for telematics, all Focuses for the U.S. will feature an upgraded Sync system, which is good. I hate the original Sync with the fire of a thousand suns.
Hissing under the hood is a lustily turbocharged, direct-injection 2.3-liter four cylinder, producing nothing but torque from 2,000-4,500 rpm. This is the heat pump from the Mustang 2.3L EcoBoost, turned up another notch. Mechanics should use fireplace tongs.
The Focus RS is relatively short-geared so that the 0-60 mph time of 4.7 seconds includes two upshifts with a manual transmission.
The flywheel is buttoned to a six-speed manual transmission and, aft of that, the RS’s elaborate AWD hardware imbued with what Ford calls Dynamic Torque Vectoring. By way of two fast-acting, fully articulating clutches on either side of the rear differential, the Focus RS vectors 70-100% of engine torque to the rear axle and even 100% to a single rear wheel.
2016 Ford Focus RS
ENLARGE
Photo: Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
Price, as tested: $41,550
Powertrain: Turbocharged and intercooled, direct-injection 2.3-liter inline-four with variable valve timing; six-speed manual transmission; full-time all-wheel drive with rear torque vectoring.
Horsepower/torque: 350 hp at 6,000 rpm/350 pound-feet at 2,000-4,500 rpm
Lgth/wght: 172.8 inches/3,500 lbs (est)
0-60 mph: 4.7 seconds
Wheelbase: 104.3 inches
EPA fuel economy: 19/25/22 mpg, city/hghwy/cmb
Cargo capacity: 23.8 cubic feet
Now, why would it want to do that? To drift, of course.
The Focus RS is the first car to offer a “Drift” algorithm in its suite of dynamic modes, which also include Sport and Track. With the Drift switch thrown, the car’s AWD system helps the driver maintain control in a nicely composed, wheel-spinning drift by pitching torque to the outside rear wheel and swiftly modulating distribution at all four corners. It’s the Drift-o-matic 3000.
On my trip, I was rather more interested in directional stability than instability. I did not want to be just another tourist in Austria, eaten by bears.
What’s the Focus RS like from behind the wheel? First, the structure feels stout, rock solid. Against that, everything else is surprisingly limber, even springy. The clutch pedal travel is long and the takeup is high. The throttle pedal is likewise way long, but the brakes are tight and short; the combination makes heel-and-toe footwork difficult.
The suspension spring rates are what I would consider soft for a performance car and suspension travel too. But the RS also has tremendous stick (lateral acceleration in excess of 1 g), thanks to the miracle Michelins. And in Sport or Track mode, the two-stage dampers stiffen up significantly.
These factors combine to make a car that dances around a lot in corners but ultimately goes where you point it, really fast.
So point it at someplace fun.
SPEED FREAK | It’s no beauty, but, for Generation Y, this Ford Focus is what fast looks like. Photo: Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
By
Dan Neil
March 17, 2016 11:09 a.m. ET
They live among you. They seem normal, at first. Then they start talking about cars and then—oh no!—you realize you’ve been captured by a sport-compact fan. And all he wants to talk about is the 2016 Ford Focus RS ($41,550 as tested), out of the box with 350 hp, 350 pound-feet of torque and an all-wheel-drive system with automatic “Drift” function. And he has one of those earrings that make a big hole in the earlobe you can see through. It’s sort of distracting.
As a matter of fact, I have driven the new Focus. I found my test specimen waiting for me in Salzburg, Austria, the four-door hatch painted a blue so vibrant it shook the very columns of the parking structure. French racing blue? Bugatti blue? Sacre bleu?
My 700-kilometer route would take me from Salzburg to Stuttgart, by way of Berchtesgaden, where German-language guidebooks note the food and skiing are very good. The skies over the mountains were leaden with snow. I got down on one knee and prayed to the specially compounded Michelins (235/35YR19s) that would have been ideal for Monza in mid-June. Let’s not have any unplanned drifting action, boys.
From Ford’s sin factory in Saarlouis, Germany, the Focus RS sold in the U.S. is nearly the same car, with the same tires and calibrations, as the ones sold in Europe. Parity has been a sore point between Ford Performance and its American fans, who loathed the way Ford dumbed down, dialed back or delayed U.S.-spec cars.
As performance cars go, the Focus RS has narrow generational appeal—you could hardly call it an immortal beauty—but for Gen Y, this is what fast looks like: Squat, more hunchback than hatchback, draped on four big wheels brazen with Brembos, blacked-out glass, a face full of intercooler, with mad wing and splitter.
The RS’s interior is awesomely turned out, too, with Recaro sport bucket front seats—way better than those ottoman couches in the Focus ST—and sport steering wheel, all with contrasting blue stitching. As for telematics, all Focuses for the U.S. will feature an upgraded Sync system, which is good. I hate the original Sync with the fire of a thousand suns.
Hissing under the hood is a lustily turbocharged, direct-injection 2.3-liter four cylinder, producing nothing but torque from 2,000-4,500 rpm. This is the heat pump from the Mustang 2.3L EcoBoost, turned up another notch. Mechanics should use fireplace tongs.
The Focus RS is relatively short-geared so that the 0-60 mph time of 4.7 seconds includes two upshifts with a manual transmission.
The flywheel is buttoned to a six-speed manual transmission and, aft of that, the RS’s elaborate AWD hardware imbued with what Ford calls Dynamic Torque Vectoring. By way of two fast-acting, fully articulating clutches on either side of the rear differential, the Focus RS vectors 70-100% of engine torque to the rear axle and even 100% to a single rear wheel.
2016 Ford Focus RS
ENLARGE
Photo: Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
Price, as tested: $41,550
Powertrain: Turbocharged and intercooled, direct-injection 2.3-liter inline-four with variable valve timing; six-speed manual transmission; full-time all-wheel drive with rear torque vectoring.
Horsepower/torque: 350 hp at 6,000 rpm/350 pound-feet at 2,000-4,500 rpm
Lgth/wght: 172.8 inches/3,500 lbs (est)
0-60 mph: 4.7 seconds
Wheelbase: 104.3 inches
EPA fuel economy: 19/25/22 mpg, city/hghwy/cmb
Cargo capacity: 23.8 cubic feet
Now, why would it want to do that? To drift, of course.
The Focus RS is the first car to offer a “Drift” algorithm in its suite of dynamic modes, which also include Sport and Track. With the Drift switch thrown, the car’s AWD system helps the driver maintain control in a nicely composed, wheel-spinning drift by pitching torque to the outside rear wheel and swiftly modulating distribution at all four corners. It’s the Drift-o-matic 3000.
On my trip, I was rather more interested in directional stability than instability. I did not want to be just another tourist in Austria, eaten by bears.
What’s the Focus RS like from behind the wheel? First, the structure feels stout, rock solid. Against that, everything else is surprisingly limber, even springy. The clutch pedal travel is long and the takeup is high. The throttle pedal is likewise way long, but the brakes are tight and short; the combination makes heel-and-toe footwork difficult.
The suspension spring rates are what I would consider soft for a performance car and suspension travel too. But the RS also has tremendous stick (lateral acceleration in excess of 1 g), thanks to the miracle Michelins. And in Sport or Track mode, the two-stage dampers stiffen up significantly.
These factors combine to make a car that dances around a lot in corners but ultimately goes where you point it, really fast.
So point it at someplace fun.
