One of the reasons that U.S. pistonheads pine for Euro-Fords: the performance variants. On this side of the pond, Ford has abandoned its SVT division. In mainland Europe, Ford continues to crank-out expertly tuned economy cars for budget-minded enthusiasts. The new Focus RS continues the tradition. AutoExpress reports that Ford Austria has leaked performance details for the upcoming Focus RS, “and they’re just as shocking as its lurid green paint job!” (Forgive the hypersonic tail waggging. That’s the way AutoExpress rolls.) The Express pegs the front wheel drive RS at 296bhp. “Ford is adamant that, thanks to its revolutionary ‘RevoKnuckle’ suspension, the RS will have no problems putting power to the tarmac.” Yes, well, no knuckle dragger this. The RS will sprint from 0 – 60mph in 5.9 seconds, and on to a top speed of 164mph. The Boys from the Blue Oval Boys are pricing the RS at £33k in Austria, and an estimate £25k in The Land of Hope and Glory.
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at £33k in Austria
I assume you means euros, not pounds.
With almost 300hp, wouldn’t it be time to move to AWD instead of FWD?
“RevoKnuckle”? Really?
I am not clear on the logic of bringing this car to the US. The best hope it has is of steeling sales from the MS3. How is that good?
That is an economy car? My idea of an economy car is like the ’09 Civic Coupe five-speed (w/34 mpg) I recently bought as a new DD. The salesman tried to talk me into upgrading to a Civic Si, but I told him that would defeat the reason for buying a small car. If I were to buy something like a Focus RS with that horsepower, personally I’d want something bigger and cooler like a rear-wheel drive Challenger.
Why would Ford want to sell it the US? Someone may want to buy it.
Personally, I’d rather see the Festiva RS for cheap thrills.
As for 300hp, that sounds fine to me. It’ll be no more useless than a 100hp FWD car off the line (they all suck), but it’ll be a hoot from 50-100mph, which is where i really want power anyway. My GTI doesn’t pull very hard past 90, and if you wanna play in the hundreds, you’d better have lots and lots of clear road.
Ford RevoKnuckle slide presentation here.
Check out the difference in caster.
This design looks oddly familiar. Oh yeah, scroll down to live axle shot here:
http://forums.focaljet.com/suspension/585922-future-fwd-performance-revo-knuckle.html
SVO=SVT?
33,000 Euros (assuming you meant Euros in Austria not British Pounds, but we know it’s an old habit, eh Robert?) would translate into about $42,000…Really?!?! $42,000?!? Uh-huh.
For that kind of coin, I would keep my GTI and order a GT-40 replica from Fran Hall of Race-Car-Replicas in Fraser, MI and have a very nice high performance Ford instead of another hot-hatch. He can build you an aluminum chassis-ed GT-40 replica for around the same money. Sorry for not providing a direct link, their site needs more bandwidth.
This is the closest thing I can get for a link…a shop tour by of all mags Kit Car magazine, but Fran’s work is NO fakey Fiero-Lambo by any means. Take a look…
http://www.kitcarmag.com/featuredvehicles/0607kc_race_car_replicas_shop_tour/index.html
You can keep the $42,000 Focus.
Airhen: he did say enthusiasts, not grandmas. See you in my rearview mirror. :-)
Stu Sidoti: Don’t forget about taxes and stuff. Things generally cost a lot more in Europe than they do here in the US, particularly cars. (For a more concrete example, see how much BMW charges for similarly equipped cars on each side of the Atlantic.)
cleek :
Doh! Text amended.
If they sold a $42,000 performance-oriented car in the US, it should be a Mustang with IRS. The Focus RS is way too Euro.
Quote from B.C. : Stu Sidoti: Don’t forget about taxes and stuff. Things generally cost a lot more in Europe than they do here in the US, particularly cars. (For a more concrete example, see how much BMW charges for similarly equipped cars on each side of the Atlantic.)
Once again kids, seemingly no one can accurately tell me the ‘real price’ of any car sold in both markets…yes B.C. you are right…cars cost more in Europe-WHY?…many posts ago, we’ve gone over the price of a nearly identical VW Golf/Rabbit that sells over there and over here for a $15,000 price difference yet no one can accurately tell me why? Taxes? CO2 Charge? Okay, but does that justify a 40% price hike for the same product such as your aforementioned BMWs? You Europeans should revolt-you’re getting ripped-off…or simply buy your cars here and ship them home.
All I need to know is that Fran will sell me a bad-ass, very realistic GT-40 replica for about the same price as a….Focus and no matter what you do to it, it’s a Focus.
My two cents worth: (I was looking for the “cents” sign on my laptop keyboard, not there….sometimes I miss a selectric, but I degress…)
Not sure that selling a near-300hp rocket like this at a premium price is a bad thing. It would help ensure that whips like this are accessible only to those who understand and appreciate their potential….both to thrill and to kill. Don’t know about y’all, but being on the road near one of these piloted by a 17-year-old with raging hormones with buddies in the back seat urging him to “get to the party faster, man”, well that would tend to give me a case of the hee bee ma-jee-bees. Torque steer is a bitch when you aren’t experienced enough to handle it. And torgue steer at this level of power….?
Also, my opinion concerning horsepower and torque is a bit like my opinion about breast size….beyond a certain point, be it cup size and the third letter of the alphabet, or horsepower and a three-digit number in the low to mid 200’s, is usually wasted. Not to mention over-priced and high-maintenance. In both instances. Can’t under-endowed gear heads find more practical ways to compensate?
what I like about these little cars with all this horsepower is that you have it when you want it, and then while you’re commuting and take it easy on the gas, you can still get upwards of 30 mpg… Something you can’t do with a challenger or mustang.
Ford to Americans, *uck you!