Road Test
Ford Focus RS
Test date 19 May 2009
Price as tested £27,895
For Usable perfromance, excellent traction, engaging handling, value for money
AgainstHigh-set driving position, brake pedal position, unexciting interior
Controversial car, the original Focus RS. We liked it rather a lot, but others weren’t so sure. What it unquestionably did was reaffirm the RS badge as a mark of something special.
Good cars though they were, the Escort RS2000 and Fiesta RS1800 of the 1990s were little more than warmed-up versions of existing models. But with the 2002 Focus RS we were presented with something very different: a limited-run, thoroughly re-engineered, driver-focused machine.
On first inspection, this new-generation Focus RS appears to follow in much the same vein; whether physically with its wider tracks and bespoke bodywork, or on paper with 300bhp and a 163mph top speed, right now the new Focus RS is the hottest of hatches.
However, by its own admission Ford’s Team RS wanted to create something different this time: a car just as special and thrilling as the original Focus RS, but more useable day to day.
Has it achieved such an ambitious target, and can 300bhp really be made to work in a front-wheel drive chassis?
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