FORD FOCUS RS

BAD BOY RETURNS

For a bad boy that doesn’t pretend to be anything but a mean performance machine at a real- world price – well, sort of real – Ford’s Focus RS can come across as surprisingly understated in terms of styling and Ford SA’S choice of colour schemes.

Still, if its look is perhaps a little muted (including an interior that’s rather too similar to that of the lesser ST’S), everything else about it carries a certain swagger. It fires up with a brisk bark, settling into an impatient burble before you ease off trying your best to appear nonchalant.

Even in comfort mode the ride is firm, though not to the point of being harsh. This is a characteristic that you will appreciate when things begin happening extremely quickly, as they are apt to do when you press down hard on the Ford’s accelerator pedal. When warm, it’s good for 0-100 km/h in 4,7 seconds and a top speed of 266 km/h thanks to a 2,3-litre Ecoboost engine that is a tuned version of the unit used in the Mustang. For the speed freaks, or perhaps the cruel, there’s a launch control setting that not only allows you to dump the clutch at full throttle, but also allows shifting without lifting off the accelerator, to the accompaniment of an appropriately snapping and snarling engine soundtrack.

To outsiders, it’s often the go-faster factor that matters most in a car like the RS. But it matches that with equally impressive dynamics when it comes to braking and handling. The blue Brembo callipers do a staggering job of hauling the RS down from unseemly speeds, time after time. And once you are set in the corner, the chassis responds to vigorous powering-on with superb balance that could persuade most of us that we really are better drivers than we think we are.

You could also say that all- wheel drive is overkill in South Africa’s often twisty but generally dry roads. That may be so; but besides its obvious advantage when traction is limited, you’ll find an eye-opening ability to respond to power-on mid-corner by simply driving faster and faster without deviating from its line. What clearly does help the RS maintain its superbly neutral balance is its rear-biased chassis set-up, with smart rear differential. If you absolutely must go sideways instead of forward, the version of all- wheel drive with torque vectoring applied here is the first in an RS to offer adjustable drive modes, including a track setting as well as a drift setting that we’re told is meant for circuit use only.

All high tech aside, you could say that owning a Ford Focus RS marks you out as being distinctly old school. Almost alone among the Extremely Hot Hatch competition, the Ford comes with only one choice of transmission, and that’s a traditional manual shift.

One thing about the Focus RS: it doesn’t leave you in any doubt about what its intentions are, and those intentions are generally somewhere north of outrageous.