FORD ALREADY CONTEMPLATING NEXT FOCUS RS

Ford’s performance division is apparently not wasting any time following up on the liquid Focus RS. At 224kW and 440Nm of torque, the RS is no child’s toy. Yes, it’s not as fast to 100km/h as you’d expect, tipping over 6 seconds quite comfortably. Yet, the way it does it is close to poetry. With the new Focus now launched, next is the ST. After that of course, is the RS.

With every new generation, customers demand more. More space, more comfort, more performance, more power. And so Ford will answer with a 184kW ST, sporting the new 2.0-litre EcoBoost turbo engine. So where does one go after 224kW? Up to 270kW of course! Say what? Oh yeah. Rumours suggest the next RS could go up to that level. It may be a tad higher than the 250kW we expect, so call it between 250kW and 270kW.

Whether it keeps its underpinnings’ philosophy of front-wheel-drive (FWD) with RevoKnuckle, or it graduates to all-wheel-drive (AWD) hasn’t been mentioned. Neither has the gearbox, which conceivably could remain 6-speed manual or move into double-clutch territory. In any case we only expect the next Focus RS in 2015 at the very earliest. Watch this space.