Ford Focus ST
Takes on the Honda NSX – and wins
WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT
Is it good enough to be considered a credible flagship fast Ford hatchback?
An interesting, if impromptu test. I had an appointment with the newly revised Honda NSX and it occurred to me that within the broad confines of what may loosely be described as ‘driver’s cars’, you could get further apart than these, but not much. One is a mid-engined supercar costing £170,000 and has four-wheel drive, three electric motors to supplement its V-formation engine and a paddle-shift gearbox. The other is a front-engine, front-drive hatch with manual transmission and under half the power and costs less than a fifth of the money. Just how humiliated would my poor old Focus ST feel by comparison on a really great road?
The NSX was flashingly fast in a straight line, had a very pleasant engine yowl and, when it came to the corners, it gripped and gripped and gripped. Its damping control is genuinely outstanding and, by the time I’d flung it across the mountain road and returned, I was full of admiration for it. It is a genuinely impressive, massively competent and very thoroughly engineered car.
But here’s the thing: this £30k Ford is simply more fun to drive. Surprised? You should have seen my face. But I got into it straight after the NSX and drove it at the same effort level on the same route in the same conditions, and this is what I found.
I didn’t covet the NSX’S performance as much as I enjoyed the Ford’s eagerness for the open road.
When a truck came the other way, I’d lift in the Honda just to give me a little more time to judge the gap. In the Focus, my foot stayed down. In the NSX – and in this respect, I could be describing any modern supercar – I felt I was always using only a fraction of the available ability. You can’t hold the throttle open for long before unspeakable numbers start to appear on the dial – nor can you sensibly get anywhere near the limit in almost every corner. You feel you’re sampling about 30% of what the car has to offer. In the Ford, it’s nearer 80%. In the corners, you play with the car’s attitude with the throttle pedal, while in a straight line you are entrusted with the task of changing gears all by yourself. Imagine that…
I’m not saying the Focus ST is a more capable car than an NSX: it’s not and it’d be ludicrous to suggest it were. But it is more involving, and I think for those who love to drive, that is a more important consideration.
Back in the more real world, the ST is getting on with daily driving reasonably well. I like that I can fling my telephone into the central cubbyhole and it just starts charging, but the cheapness of the interior is starting to irk slightly. It’s just a bit too rough around the edges inside.