KZN#22

Automotive Health
Ford Focus RS
Gives big bang for big bucks
Let’s cut to the chase. The
Ford Focus RS is, for most of
us, simply bonkers. It’s too
hard, too fast, too loud, too
brash and, at R700,000, too
expensive to be a practical
street car.
On the other hand, if
you have the money for an
expensive toy and you judge
cars on raw edgy performance
above all else you’ll
rate it as superb - an instant
classic.
If I had to equate it to any
other car that’s come my way
over the last two or three
years it would find itself
paired, surprisingly, with not
the Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG
or Audi RS3 that it normally
runs up against in comparisons,
but with the delicious
but impractical Alfa-Romeo
4C that costs twice as much
as any of them.
Both the Ford and the
Alfa are bad to the bone
racetrack cars making no
concessions to political correctness,
practicality or
family responsibility.
On-paper performance
is similar, with top speeds
of 265km/h or so and
0-100km/h taking around
4.6 seconds, but the Ford is
essentially a bit of a bastard
- a family hatch on whoonga
- while the less powerful
but lighter Alfa is a stunningly
gorgeous Italian thoroughbred
two-seater dripping
carbon fibre from every
pore.
What they have in common,
though, is that they
both give you more bang for
your buck than a big box of
boobs at a bachelor party.
On styling the Alfa wins
hands-down in my book.
I find the Ford rather
brash with all the bolt on
bits and bobs - here we go
with the “b” thing again
- but the Alfa would have
me walking through to the
garage at 3am just to take a
look.
The Focus RS is a race car
on the road, which means it
feels very rough around the
edges.
It shares its 2.3-litre turbo
Ecotec engine with the current
four-cylinder Mustang
that is itself a lively performer,
but the RS hatch
benefits further in that the
version it uses is blessed
with 257kW of power and
440Nm of torque, compared
with the 233/430 of the bigger,
heavier pony car.
It’s interesting to note
that the Focus RS is pretty
evenly matched with the
more powerful 5.0-litre
Mustang V8 in a drag race
and on top speed, and
I’ll wager that it’ll also be
quicker around a race track,
with its all-wheel-drive and
dynamic torque vectoring
giving it the feel of a wellset-up
rear-wheel-drive car
around corners.
Ford was rather stingy
with the RS, allocating it for
just two days to each journalist,
and over such a short
period on the streets of
Queensburgh and Pinetown
it’s not easy to come close to
exploring a fast car’s limits.
I played with it enough,
though, to appreciate just
how hard it pulls, how precisely
it turns, how it sticks
to the road when flung into
a corner, and how quickly it
stops.
Just as with the Alfa and
other cars that have taken
a step too close to the line
separating great real-world
everyday cars and uncomfortable
track-focused exotics,
the Ford would be fun to
drive once or twice a week
when you need cheering up.
For me, though, I reckon
a Focus or, better still, Fiesta
ST would be a much more
appealing package in every
way, without breaking the
bank.
Kzn Lifestyle Magazine • Issue 22 35