Wednesday, 10 December 2008

FOCUS RS IN BLUE: PERFORMANCE FIGURES SHOWN



Ford Focus RS. Bam! That’s as quick as this car gets from 0 – 100km/h, a stated 5.9 seconds according to Ford. Finally revealed in production form after its 2008 British Motor Show appearance, the Focus RS is powered by a 2.5-litre five cylinder turbo engine, same one as found in the Focus ST/ Volvo S40 T5 but instead of 166kW, it makes a hefty 221kW and 440Nm of torque. That compares with Subaru STI’s own 221kW. Thus the RS is Ford’s most powerful hatch ever! Its top whack is limited to 250km/h.

But the Focus RS is front-wheel driven, which means as you pull off you might find a lot of wheel-spin on the front wheels, something commonly known as torque-steer. Ford insists this is not the case, that the Focus RS pulls off quite smoothly.


The car comes with a rear wind diffuser (seen under the rear bumper), 19-inch wheels, a large rear spoiler to keep it on the ground, Recaro sports seats inside, carbon fibre trim and an aluminium gear lever as well as other alumimium fittings.

Ford has not yet decided if the RS is coming to Mzansi or not but in the UK the car is priced at the equivalent of R377 000 in today’s money. Even if it came in at R477 000 it would still undercut the R499 000 the Impreza STI.

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