Very hot hatches
The hot hatch is diverging: purist and front-driven, or all-wheel-drive and ferocious…
The lowdown on Mini’s back-to-basics GP and Ford’s new (and hybrid) Focus RS
If we thought 2018 was the year of the hot hatch (new Megane RS, Up GTI, new Ford Fiesta ST), 2020 looks set to run it a close second. The two heaviest hitters are Mini’s new hardcore GP and the next-generation Ford Focus RS. And they couldn’t be more different.
Mini’s GP continues to be the most hardcore hot hatch from Oxford (okay, sort of from Oxford), though it’ll be considerably less limited-edition than the two previous GPs. Some 3000 third-generation Mini GP models have been promised worldwide, with the UK getting the lion’s share: 575. Just 500 first-gen GPs were made in 2006, followed by 2000 secondgeneration cars.
And under the skin? A 302bhp turbo four already seen in the new allwheel-drive BMW M135i and lardier JCW Clubman and Countryman Minis, an eight-speed auto (no manual option this time around), a mechanical limited-slip differential and a wild bodykit. An in-house GP exhaust and far more aggressive suspension geometry let you know this is the most potent Mini hatch on sale. That and the sub-eight-minute Nürburgring lap time and – true to GP tradition – no rear seats.
Along with that blistering lap time, Mini has confirmed that the GP is capable of 0-62mph in just 5.2 seconds, and has a 164mph top speed. Each GP has a number, which will be writ large on one of the touring car-like wheelarches as a graphic and 3D-printed as a dashboard insert. Each also gets metal-printed gearshift paddles complete with a solid thunk with each pull (trust us, we’ve pulled them) and a digital instrument display like the Mini Electric.
Those unmissable wheelarches are made from carbonfibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP), material recycled from the production process that creates BMW’s i3 and i8. The arches allow the GP to have a widened track compared with a Mini JCW; the GP is also 10mm lower. If you’re quick enough, you can order a GP for £33,895.
Details on Ford’s next Focus RS are thinner on the ground. The latest ST is already an excellent car, and a CAR Giant Test winner, having seen off Hyundai’s i30N and VW’s Golf GTI TCR. But the next step for the Focus is the all-out, tech-overload RS.
The new RS will remain all-wheel drive but with, quite literally, a twist:
GKN’s e-Twinster electric four-wheel drive means the Ford will drive its rear wheels via e-power alone while the potent combustion engine – expected to be good for some 400bhp with mild-hybrid assistance – drives the fronts.
Naturally, the next RS will look as extreme as a Focus can, inevitably ride harder than a faulty dodgem car and accelerate faster than most sports cars. That electrically-assisted all-wheel-drive system might even allow a continuation of Ford’s drift mode, to compete with the sideways-inclined Mercedes-AMG A45. Ford has form with its 2.3-litre EcoBoost engine, so we expect that unit to remain the basis of its next hardcore all-wheel-drive hot hatch.
Two hyper hatches, two very different approaches. While Mini maintains its purist approach with a limited-run model, Ford is on the warpath. As it unveils its first battery-electric car, the Mach-E (see Insider in this issue) and introduces a raft of mild hybrids, the next Focus RS will stand proud as evidence that electrification doesn’t have to mean the end of silliness.