Getting just the right Focus
Sporty versions of the Ford Focus have often been either too soft or too hardcore. Paul Owen reckons they’ve finally got it right this time.
WHEN I was handed the keys to the new Ford Focus ST, I was told to ‘‘enjoy the drive, this car will really talk to you’’. Perhaps she should have said ‘‘torque’’ instead of ‘‘ talk’’. For with 360 newton metres available at 2000rpm, the turbocharged ST doesn’t want for grunt.
But would the front wheels be able to handle it? Visions of vicious torque-steering front-drive turbos from the frozen steppes of Sweden ran through my mind as I pulled away from the dealership. Those analogue Scandinavian cars from the late 20th Century would change direction instantly if you gave the throttle a good stomp in a low gear.
How things have changed. The Focus ST comes with a vast armoury of digital aids to help the hardworking front tyres both steer and drive the car at the same time.
Equipped with electric power steering, where an electric motor provides assistance to the driver of the compact Ford, a software programme called Torque Steer Compensation detects when the engine is tugging at the direction of the car and the electric motor automatically applies a steering angle correction to compensate. Equally tricky is the Cornering Understeer Control, which tames the usual reaction of front- drive performance cars to sledge straight ahead when you power out of a corner.
The CUC does this by braking individual front wheels to keep the front end obeying the driver’s wishes. There’s more acronyms that describe other digitally-driven talents of the Ford, but to mention them all would risk turning this review into alphabet soup.
Besides, these aren’t the finest achievements of the new ST. That crown goes to the fact that Ford has finally got the focus of the sportiest front- drive Ford right. The first Focus ST170 was too soft, like one of those voyeuristic smeared-lens images that French photographer David Hamilton used to take of scantily-clad young women in the 1970s.
The following Focus RS was too hard- core, and I still wince at memories of its track-tuned suspension and flighty steering over bumpy roads. Hamilton’s work skirted the boundaries of pornography, but driving the RS was like stumbling unintentionally across one of those websites that you know exist and having that particular perversion starkly confirmed. I usually felt in need of a calming cuppa and a lie-down after a session at the wheel of the hottest Focus ever.
What makes the latest ST such a great car is that it can change its mood to suit yours. If feeling a little precious and worse for wear and tear, it will mooch quietly through the traffic with little to give its performance aspirations away other than a slightly firmer ride than a cooking Focus model.
In other words, it can pose as the old ST170 if that’s what you desire. The ‘170’ stood for the amount of horsepower developed by the ancestral sporty Focus. That quota is now 250bhp, an output that allows the ST to reproduce the athletic acceleration of the lightningquick RS.
In the hot hatch sub-segment, only Renault’s mental Megane RS265 can keep pace with Ford’s
What makes the latest ST such a great car is that it can change its mood to suit yours.
latest front-drive sportster.
Engine noise is beautifully managed by all manner of acoustic tricks in the ST, and you get one of the most appealing four-cylinder soundtracks on the market – but only when you want to hear it.
Up the pace, and an endearing bellow fills the cabin and that firmish suspension tune really finds its mojo. It’s an absolutely enthralling car to drive for one so compact, fuel-friendly, and relatively inexpensive.
At $52,490, the ST occupies the top of the Focus range, but is worth every cent. As an alpha-model it delivers all the performance expected of it, and caps it off with a nicely-finished cabin that includes figure- hugging Recaro seats, a reversing camera, and just about every other conceivable extra.
There’s just the one drawback – you can have any transmission you want so long as it’s a six-speed manual.