Rubbery logic
FORD’S Focus RS appears to have slid under the nanny police’s radar. Ford has confirmed the RS’s Drift mode program will be intact when it arrives in Australian dealerships. That’s sadly not the case with the Mustang’s Burnout mode, which is disabled here.
Both features involve using software to heat (or shred — it’s a matter of intensity) the rear rubber on the performance cars.
The Mustang’s deleted-for-Australia burnout function essentially locks the front brakes once the button is activated.
The car then holds front brake pressure when the driver moves the foot from the brake to the accelerator, avoiding the two-pedal manoeuvre that many can’t master.
The Focus RS performs a potentially more dangerous feat in smoking the rear tyres while the car is going sideways.
Here the stability control and the car’s electronic brain measure yaw angles, throttle pressure and wheel spin and keep the rubber frying while avoiding a spin.
In the hands of Ken Block, that’s a recipe for another viral internet video. In the hands of the kid around the block, it’s more likely to end in tears (but at $51,000 he’s likely to have boosted or borrowed it in the first place).
Ford cites this difference to justify dropping one software program and keeping the other, noting the potential for abuse in the respective vehicles.
The company line is essentially the Mustang’s burnout function is too easily activated at traffic lights when the car is stopped, while drifting by definition involves powering sideways at speed and as such is generally confined to tracks (or industrial estates).
There’s also the fact antihoon laws specifically target burnouts with penalties of up to 30 days’ confiscation of the vehicle. And no one wants to see a new Ford departing on a flat-bed.