HOTSHOT HATCH
With an extensive raft of high-performance upgrades, Ford transforms its sedate Focus into a rapid, road-hugging hooligan — the RS
Southern California is home to some of the automobile industry’s most creative car customizers. It’s not unusual to see tuners, hooligan cars or even Hoonigan copies, like the ones custom built by YouTube star Ken Block, carving up the LA concrete.
The Focus RS, the performance version of Ford’s successful line of Focus hatchbacks, is a great car for this category.
Fitted with a manual transmission and a 2.3-liter Ecoboost engine that makes a shuddering 350 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque, it’s a shameless bad boy of an automobile, good for absolutely nothing except having fun.
The entry-level Focus is a sedate sedan, a four-door, five-passenger family car. It could be a dictionary definition for basic, boring transportation.
But it makes a marvelous platform for the performance upgrades that turn the boring Focus into a hot hatch.
The RS version presents a very engaged driving experience. Riding on low-profile Michelin Super Sport summer tires, the car sits squat and square and close to the ground. It weighs a very manageable 3,459 pounds, Ford says.
The combination of a tight, six-speed gearbox, stiff clutch pedal and firm suspension, paired with the roaring turbocharged engine and Brembo front disc brakes, can make a run to the supermarket feel like a real adventure.
And for the track, the RS comes with adjustable suspension settings, launch control and driving modes that include Normal, Track and Drift settings and adjustable traction control.
The precision of the electronic steering and the stickiness of the all-wheel-drive system become really apparent on a winding road, where the RS carves like a far-moreexpensive car.
Around city streets, the RS can behave like a gentleman. The basic car comes standard with tilt steering wheel, leatherwrapped steering wheel, dual power point plug-ins and 60-40 split rear seats, and wears comfortable Recaro buckets. It’s also fitted with fog lamps, rearview camera and push-button start.
The model I borrowed also had a wild Nitrous Blue Quad-Coat paint job (a $695 option), 19-inch alloy wheels (18-inch are standard), and heated front seats and steering wheel — all of which pushed the retail price to $40,255.