Amazing 1.6-litre Titanium kicks out ST-beating power!
You don’t have to sing to the established ST/RS hymn sheet if you want to build a properly fast Mk3 Focus. Turns out the Titanium can be a bit of a headbanger…
“Idon’t have any recorded quarter-mile or top speed times, because I don’t need to prove anything to anybody about how fast this car is.” Strong sentiment from Mo McLeod there about his Mk3 Focus, but thankfully we’ve managed to sweet-talk him by wheeling out the good biscuits to go with a bottomless cuppa, and ascertained that the headline numbers for this aggressively rouged motor are a robust 316.4bhp and 314.4lb.ft. Respectable figures for a Mk3 ST, you might think… but this isn’t an ST. No, this is a far more offbeat choice. What you’re looking at, in fact, is a Focus Titanium, complete with 1.6-litre EcoBoost engine. Yep, those digits are looking pretty devastating now, aren’t they?
Darling of company fleet deals and commuters across the land, the Titanium trim level isn’t the sort of thing you’d traditionally associate with sportiness; it’s more about sensibleness with a healthy ticking of the options-boxes thrown in. It’s the top-of-the-range variant aside from the obviously sporting ST and RS, giving you toys like auto headlights and multimedia infotainment while also being essentially a sensible-trousers everyday Focus. It’s safe to say that quite a lot of that grown-upness has flown out of the window now, though…
“The car’s a 2012 model, and I bought it from a Ford dealership just outside Glasgow in late 2015,” Mo explains. “Back then
it was totally standard, just a well looked after one-owner Titanium. The original plan was… well there wasn’t a plan, really. I was just going to keep it totally standard, I wasn’t intending to do anything to it.”
Sure, we’ve heard that one a few times. It’s an age-old tale, the if-this-then-that school of thought, the relentless eyecatching ideas at shows and on Instagram and wherever else – although for Mo, this whole deeply-involved endeavour started with the solution of a very clear need: “The engine was so quiet, I kept finding myself getting out of the car and accidentally leaving it running,” he laughs. “I’d chosen the 1.6 EcoBoost as it’s an economical unit, and as I say I wasn’t planning on doing anything to it, but I couldn’t leave it so silent – so I fitted a backbox to it to give the motor a bit of a voice.” And we all know what happened next. Every single one of us has been there. Once you change something, it makes sense to change something else further along the line, and the whole process just snowballs. It’s a tale as old as the motor-car itself. So with the throatier exhaust fitted, the Focus was soon treated to a dump valve too, and then a set of wheels and the Zetec S bumper upgrade just to help the Titanium stand out from every commuter-spec Focus out there. And once you dive down this rabbit-hole, there’s no telling how deep it’ll go...
What’s most notable about this car is what Mo’s done to the engine. The 1.6 EcoBoost isn’t the obvious choice within the Focus range for power-chasing, which is exactly why it’s of such interest to us here. With the modifications to the car coming thick and fast, he was keen to up the underbonnet ante, and there were no half-measures: in fact, Mo’s running a Pumaspeed X-47R hybrid turbo, thought to be the only 1.6 EcoBoost-powered Focus in the country to boast such a setup, and naturally that’s not where the upgrades stopped. Along with the aforementioned Forge atmospheric dump valve, the powerplant now also enjoys an Airtec intercooler, Autospecialists Fiesta ST Stage 3 crossover pipe and filter, a custom 3in turbo-back exhaust with modified Fiesta ST decat, a set of R-Sport boost pipes and, the cherry on the cake, a remap courtesy of Pumaspeed and MAXD-OUT.
The nature of being a trailblazer is that it’s sometimes tricky to hack your path through the wilderness, and the fact that he was tuning a little-tuned variant meant that this wasn’t all easy-peasy for Mo. A variety
“To get this sort of power out of a Titanium, it’s a wilful effort to create something genuinely different among an ever-expanding sea of modified Focuses”
of hurdles presented themselves along the way before he finally arrived at that mighty power figure. “The biggest challenge was getting the turbo crossover pipe,” he recalls, “as nobody does an off-the-shelf one for the 1.6 Ecoboost Focus.” But it wouldn’t be any fun if it was easy, would it?
Impressively, these engine mods – which have massively increased power, percentage-wise – haven’t resulted in a motor that’s flaky or unreliable; in fact, the car’s still in daily use for commuting and run-of-the-mill tasks as well as the inevitable spirited B-road blasts. Mo’s approach to upgrades has been methodical and holistic, improving elements as and when he feels such things are required. The gearbox is a 6-speed Fiesta ST unit, and he’s added a mountune billet quick-shift. He’s still running the stock brake calipers, packed out with MTEC grooved discs all round with Brembo pads, although he cites an RS brake swap as one of the next things on the list. Similarly, the suspension is stock save for the addition of Eibach Pro-Kit 25mm springs, but coilovers are on the cards in the near future. Piece by piece this fella’s transforming the Titanium into something entirely extraordinary.
The exterior is perhaps the most noticeable thing about the car, and it’s what first drew us in as it’s at once recognisable and yet somehow removed from the mainstream; familiar stylistic
touchpoints exist, but it quickly becomes clear that this isn’t an ST or RS. Mo’s put a lot of thought into the makeover, all of which stems from the early addition of those Zetec S bumper extensions and inserts. The Titanium has been treated to ST sideskirts and an RS rear spoiler, so it’s a real greatesthits of Mk3 cues, and he’s added a Maxton Design rear spoiler extension and the full set of front, rear and side splitters from TRC, customised with neat red pinstripes. TRC also supplied the light brows, while the keen red-and-black theme has been accentuated via the means of some smart colour-coding – the roof’s been wrapped in gloss black, as have the window trims, mirror caps, the front grille and the centre of the front bumper. It’s all stuff that’d fly over the heads of the average passer-by, but for the fast Ford aficionado this is exquisitely nerdy detail. Naturally the custom graphics all serve to demonstrate that you’re beholding something special. This Focus has truly transcended its relatively humble roots.
“The best thing about the car is the way it goes with the turbo fitted,” Mo grins. “Most people think it’s just a Zetec S with a loud exhaust and graphics added, so it’s nice to offer up a little surprise.”
And don’t go thinking that this build is a poor relation to the hopped-up STs you see on the scene; including the initial purchase price, Mo’s got about thirty grand in this car – it’s not a bargain-basement budget option to get this sort of power out of a Titanium, it’s a wilful effort to create something genuinely different among an ever-expanding sea of modified Focuses. By stepping away from the established path and starting with an unassuming base, he’s built one of the most unusual new-wave Fords on the scene… and those numbers don’t lie. With a bit of lateral thinking, the sensible Titanium is more than capable of playing with the big kids.