Let’s call him John, because that’s his name. He’s Australian and he defines himself as an ‘auto expert’.
That’s enough to know about him, except that he also has a bee in his bonnet. A massive bee, pretty grumpy, causing considerable consternation within his primly brimmed hat.
His beef is with Ford. Ford has fitted the Focus RS with a Drift mode and he doesn’t like that. All it does is make it a bit more rear-driven, but he says it’s dangerous. In fact, he says, Ford is positively encouraging hooning, and somebody will probably use Drift mode on the road, they’ll be rubbish at drifting and they’ll crash. Somebody will get hurt and Ford, as well as the numpty driving, will be culpable, for encouraging dangerous behaviour.
Ford says – although not in response to John’s rant, directly – that Drift mode is for use only on a circuit. In a video explaining the RS’s various drive modes – there are four – it explicitly shows the most extreme two, Track and Drift (forgive me if I’m indulging in Unnecessary Capitals), enabled only on circuit. When you select the drive modes, the car tells you a track is the only place those should be used.
That’s not good enough for John, although his argument falls short here: he has looked at the Focus RS handbook and it turns out that, on p16, it says the warranty will be invalidated if the car is used for motorsport. If you take it on a track at all, then, he says, the warranty is voided.
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avidreader
history repeats
Romsey Quints
Harold Scruby is the guy
Ryan Bane
John Cadogen, looks remarkedly like a circumcised appendage
Agree with a lot of what he says (e.g, most entry level European cars are sh#t boxes), but not in this case. In Australia can still buy V8 Falcons and Commodores that are insanely easy to drift even when traction control is on...
jt0503
seriously?
androo
There is a way
Peter Cavellini
In Japan.......?
Bob888
Doesnt make sense
And far less dangerous than my old R32 Skyline which had neither ABS nor stability control, was rear wheel drive and had 350 hp.....
Citytiger
And woe betide
dougflump
Vin ?
Capt Sensible
Responsible Journalism
I own a powerful car and enjoy the opportunity to use the performance where I consider it safe,so don't wish to see a nanny state impose ever more restrictions on the ability to fully deploy a vehicle's performance characteristics. The media have an important role to play in reinforcing the appropriate use of high performance cars,so for the sake of our future driving enjoyment I hope this is borne in mind by them. I largely agree with Matt Prior's sentiments in his article,but sadly my driving experience has shown that he is wrong to assume that performance cars will be driven responsibly - most are,but there will always be a small minority of inexperienced and irresponsible drivers for whom safety and common sense are distinctly lacking.
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