“I can’t imagine many drivers pitch a car harder into Turn 1 than Ken Block”

There’s no doubt the Golf R has tremendous traction, but how strong is its grip? Not on the road, but on its title. Because if there’s one car that could prise its fngers of the trophy, it’s the new Ford Focus RS.

It doesn’t go on sale until next year, but here I am sitting in it, the engine is revving and over in the driver’s seat Ken Block is telling me about some of the development work he’s done on it. I was pretty sure the value of his name outweighed the value of his feedback, but then I learn that alongside a Sport mode, the new Focus RS has a Drift mode, and now I’m not so sure.

A chap in white overalls beckons us forward, up to the start line at the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb. There’s a fair amount of gratuitous popping and banging from the 2.3litre turbocharged four-cylinder as Ken builds the revs for a rapid departure, but the noise isn’t as gruf and purposeful as that churned out by the old fve-cylinder RS. Still, it gets itself of the line with proper forcefulness, Ken is suitably brutal with the six-speed manual, and a jify later we’re at Turn 1.

I can’t imagine many drivers pitch a car harder into Turn 1 than Ken Block. He sends it in with a big bung and a stab on the brakes, and then, when the rear tyres give up and smear sideways, nails the throttle. And yep, we’re power oversteering.

It feels odd in a hot hatch – not quite right somehow. It’s not the proper showboating, smoky stuf, but it’s more than just a handful of lift-of, too. Quite 4WD-y, quite 70-per-cent-of-torque-to-the-backaxle-y. A trick you know the Golf R would have no interest in performing. And be honest – after you’ve scared yourself with Drift mode a couple of times on roundabouts, you’ll probably leave it alone, especially when you’re paying for your own tyres and insurance and you’re on your home patch, where everyone knows exactly which muppet in his new Focus RS you are. No one actually drives like Ken Block all the time. Not even Ken Block.

Molecomb is Goodwood’s bogey corner and has already claimed one well-known victim today when Andy Green piloted Bloodhound’s Jaguar XJ straight into a hay bale. I bet he hit it very accurately. Ken is neat and quick through there. Neat and quick up past the fint wall. Neat and quick seems to suit the Focus well, too – at least as well as sliding and hooning.

There are no defnitive judgements to take from this exercise (other than that Ken’s car control is efortlessly confdent and relaxed), but there are a few useful early impressions. It doesn’t feel especially hardcore – certainly not as single-minded as the Civic, more a midway point between that and the Golf. Ken says it’s agile and responsive, and I don’t doubt that. It felt slightly perkier from where I was sitting than the Golf, a bit more up on its toes, but I’m not sure it looks, sounds or feels as tough as the old one. Like I said, there are no conclusions to draw here, just further piquing of interest.

What we do now know is that the Focus RS will develop 345bhp and 324lb ft from its EcoBoost engine, the latter fgure capable of overboosting to 347lb ft for up to 15 seconds. Which is more acceleration than you’ll ever be able to use legally in one hit. The 2.3 is shared with the Mustang but has a twin-scroll turbo with a larger compressor, plus a bigger intercooler. It redlines at 6,800rpm, which is about par for the course, and, like the Civic, a six-speed manual gearbox is the only choice.

Acceleration fgures have yet to be announced, but I’m willing to bet that Ford will claim a 4.7or 4.8-second 0-62mph time. It won’t be faster simply because it’s a manual, and that’s worth a few tenths compared with a double-clutcher. But day to day? It’ll be as quick as the Golf R and Civic – certainly the Ford’s engine felt responsive, punchy and picked up quickly despite the extra swept volume. Expect it’ll be good for a 165mph top end too, if Ford chooses to let it have its own head. Nürburgring lap time? Doubtless one will be published, and it will be under eight minutes, as that’s now the hot-hatch benchmark in the same way that hypercars have to go around in under seven. Faster than the Civic’s 7:50.63? I’d be surprised, but it’s all a matter of how you ‘measure’, isn’t it?

Of course this is just the standard Focus RS we’re talking about. With the Fiesta, you can have a £599 Mountune pack that gives you an extra 30bhp. Why not an extra 50bhp for the Focus RS? It might well need it in light of the newly updated 381bhp Merc A45 AMG and recent confrmation that VW will get the Golf R400 into production, complete with a 3.9second sprint time and a 174mph top end.

This is all speculation, of course. And we speculate because we’re excited about it. We want it to be good. Like the Type R, we want the RS to have a personality all of its own, a slightly diferent skillset to the Golf, but with comparable abilities. But above all, above speed or grip or anything else, we want it to be immensely good fun. That’s what really matters, and that’s what Ford has proved, over the years, it knows how to deliver. And for that reason alone, not for Ken Block’s involvement or the car’s technical make-up or the fact it’ll cost less than £30,000, we have faith that the RS will reward our expectations. Roll on, 2016.