MK2 FOCUS RS
Ross Parkin just can’t leave cars alone – he’s always looking for new ways to make them faster and cooler. And with a massive power upgrade from Devil Developments, he’s firmly ticked both of those boxes here…
Superbly finished RS, complete with the best part of 600bhp!
There are many reasons for modifying a car: perhaps you want to have a show-winning finish to scoop trophies that you can proudly display on your mantelpiece, maybe you want to shove in more power mods than anyone else so that you can leave similar cars standing at Santa Pod, or obsessively tweak the chassis to give you the best lap times at Brands Hatch. It can be a combination of all of these and more, or indeed entirely different motivations, but there’s one perennial constant that always keeps
modding projects evolving and improving: we just get bored. Talk to any modified car fan, they’ll be happy to enthuse about the latest changes they’ve made to their car but the conversation will invariably turn to what they’ve got planned next. It’s never a case of calling a car ‘finished’, there’s always something else to do.
Now, to begin the story of this relentlessly improving Mk2 Focus RS, we’re going to have to start by talking about Vauxhalls. We know, we know, but stick with it – it’ll all make sense. You see, the man behind the
wheel, Ross Parkin, cut his automotive teeth on tuning griffins, as so many people did, before seeing the light and swapping his affections from Luton to Dagenham.
“I got my first car at 17 and I was immediately hooked onto modifying it,” he recalls. “It was a 1996 Corsa B 1.0, and on my way home from purchasing it my stepdad and I ended up in Halfords buying a set of 15in Ripspeed alloys! I started off by lowering it and adding the wheels, exhaust, lights and K&N air filter. After a year I moved onto a newer model Corsa and started modifying that with the same methods all over again; then I upgraded to a brand new Corsa, and it wasn’t long before I modified that… and after a year or two that got traded in for the ultimate Corsa – the VXR!”
Unsurprisingly, despite telling himself that he wouldn’t be modding this one, that’s precisely what Ross ended up doing. Although after a few years the modifier’s curse again reared its head: quite frankly, he got a bit bored. He needed more power, and this time he had his eye on a seismic change.
Naturally the step up from a Corsa VXR to a Focus RS is a pretty massive one, but the enthusiasm for Fords wasn’t entirely without precedent. “The Mk2 RS was always in the spotlight for me as a dream car, and fast Fords were always a thing in my family,” Ross assures us. “My Grandad had a Sapphire
“Lee Charnick at Devil Developments returned the car to me at 600bhp on pump fuel, which is the sweetest sweet spot for the Mk2 RS...”
“The RS is absolutely ballistic, and amazing fun to drive. Many people think this car is crazy, and a lot of people seem to like it…”
RS Cosworth, my uncle had a Sierra RS Cosworth, and my mam also owned a Fiesta RS Turbo. So I decided the Focus RS was going to be the VXR’s replacement, and the search started…”
The hunt turned out to be not quite as easy as, say, walking into a dealership and slapping down a deposit on a Corsa, as Ross wasn’t just after any old RS – he had a very specific set of spec criteria in mind. It had to be fully-loaded, with the black Dynamica seats, but searching the country high and low for the right car wasn’t yielding any results. But then, by chance, the local performance car dealer – Snippersgate – had a factory-standard Frozen White RS on the forecourt when Ross was driving home from work one night. He popped in, took it for a test drive, and ended up taking it home the following day!
“After modifying all my previous cars, there was no way the RS was going to be left alone,” Ross laughs. “I started off with the usual lowering springs, wheel spacers and exhaust; after a couple of years it was eventually at 400bhp with all the supporting modifications and Revo 4 software. I was happy with this it was a good all-round car, although after seeing videos of big-powered RS cars running Syvecs I decided that 400bhp wasn’t enough…”
Well, would you look at that – even with junior-supercar power he managed to get bored! Such is the nature of modding, we’re always chasing after bigger and better things. And fate and serendipity decided to intervene at this point, as Ross just happened to know someone who was selling a top-spec engine built by Devil Developments. This thing was running Syvecs and, in its previous home, had been putting out a mighty 830bhp. He chewed the idea over with his stepdad and they both concluded that its was too awesome a concept not to follow through with, so the engine was snapped up and the RS shipped off to Devil Developments for installation.
“The engine was running with a Precision 6266 turbo, but it really had too much lag so it was swapped out for a Garrett
GTX3076R and a screamer pipe setup,” says Ross. “Lee Charnick at Devil Developments returned the car to me at 600bhp on pump fuel, which is the sweetest sweet spot for the Mk2 RS!” The spec of the motor really is impressive, with Wiseco pistons, K1 rods, and of course the block mod; this is joined by a ported and polished big-valve head, Stage 1 Newman cams, Cosworth Group A induction, uprated fuelling with 1,000cc injectors, and a meaty Airtec Gobstopper intercooler. Naturally you’ll hear Ross coming thanks to his amusingly aggressive KMS Section 18 exhaust system, and the Toucan display inside the car allows him to swap between a variety of engine map options – including, just for fun, a pop-andbang map to really wake up the neighbours.
We just love the way this thing sits too; Ross has it hunkered down on BR-Series BC coilovers, and the wheel choice is inspired – XXR may be best known to many for their extreme-offset multispokes, but their 559 design is a bang-on-trend lightweight split-five that suits the RS’s lines down to the ground. They’re great for showcasing those colossal Revo/Alcon 6-pot brakes too!
It can be hard to make a Mk2 RS stand out on the scene, with it being such a popular platform for tuning, but Ross has really played to the cars strengths here by accentuating the contrast between the Frozen White paint and the details that break it up. There are myriad carbon fibre additions, including the bonnet vents and wing vents, lower headlight brows, bonnet lip, and foglight surrounds. This is all artfully complemented by in-your-face aero courtesy of Maxton Design side and rear splitters and a Triple R front splitter, and the cherry on the cake is the custom headlights and foglights from the artisans at Monkey Wrench. We dig how the sequential indicators have one-bar or two-bar flash options, that’s real attention to detail!
“The RS is absolutely ballistic, and amazing fun to drive,” Ross beams, and we don’t doubt it for a second. “Many people think this car is crazy, and a lot of people seem to like it… it’s even been described as a posh hooker, well dressed and pure filth.” That’s quite a description, and if that’s the look Ross was going for then he’s achieved it with gusto. That voice in his head which keeps pushing him forward and spurring him on has led to the creation of something quite remarkable here. So how long will it take before he’s bored with the power and craving more? Is it even possible to get bored with 600bhp? We’ll just have to wait and see…