Full Ford Focus RS tech spec

Ford RS boss Jost Capito did his first lap at the Nurburgring when he was just six years old. That was back in January of 1965, in snow and in a motorcycle sidecar. He likes the place a lot and that’s evident in the car he’s been busy working on for the past five years – the Focus RS.

Ford isn’t saying what time its new 300bhp über hatch is capable of setting around the famously tortuous and undulating ribbon of tarmac, but it’ll be quick. No doubt record-breaking quick when a run is attempted this year.

Finished in white, the RS looks like a World Rally Car awaiting a visit to the paint and sticker shop. It’s one of three colours Ford offers the RS in, the others being Performance Blue and Ultimate Green. White’s the one we go for, as it sets off all the RS’s body addenda perfectly, particularly the numerous black air intakes, outlets and wings. The almost comically extended wheel arches and spoilers and gasping meshed intakes are a not so subtle hint at the performance that the RS offers.

The most powerful front-wheel drive on sale

The numbers back up the viscous visuals, the RS sprinting to 62mph in a faintly ridiculous 5.9 seconds and onto a 163mph top speed. The greatest talking point about the RS is that despite its massive 300bhp output – and perhaps more significantly the  325lb/ft of torque that its turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder unit produces – the Focus RS is front-wheel drive.

Click below to view images from the launch

Ford did build a four-wheel drive prototype, but the additional weight, inertia and consumption and emissions were considered to be too much of a penalty.

A combination of front-wheel drive layout and 300bhp might sound like a recipe for spitting drivers and the car off the road at every possible opportunity but Ford’s transmission and chassis people have managed to allow the RS’s prodigious grunt to be used very effectively indeed.

Key to this is suspension technology that Ford calls 'RevoKnuckle'. This separates the traditional suspension strut into two parts, an idea that comes thanks to the recent development of high-torque turbodiesels. Explaining the technology is difficult, but the effect speaks for itself.

Press the throttle on the RS and it accelerates with sensational ferocity. There’s virtually no tug from the steering wheel as you do so, just a mighty shove in the back as the 2.5-litre turbocharged lump transmits its thumping turbodiesel-like thrust to the front tyres and the RS lunges down the road.

That pulling power sustains the RS’s comical pace across its 2,300-4,500rpm torque plateau, after which the RS continues its relentless surge as its 300bhp takes over in the upper rev reaches. The result is an engine that never feels lacking; there is massive mid-range muscle yet the sort of high rev zest right up to its 7,050rpm rev-line that'll have you dropping gears for the hell of it.

It’s disappointing then that the shorter, quicker gearshift doesn’t really deliver. There’s little mechanical feel to its action, the shift quality lacking the sort of precision of Honda’s Civic Type-R – even if the Japanese car wouldn’t see which way the Ford went. Like much of the RS’s make up the gearbox is lifted from Ford’s range, allowing the Blue Oval to keep the costs of its most potent hatchback sensible.

Ford has learned some lessons from the previous, near hand-built Focus RS, so this new car can be built on the standard Focus production line.

Ford Focus RS versus its hot hatch rivals

Awesome Recaro seats

Not that it feels anything other than special. Except perhaps from the inside where, apart from a smattering of RS badges, three additional dials and some figure-hugging Recaro seats – which feel a touch high – is pretty much standard Focus. Forget the interior and instead revel in the performance and poise on offer. The RS really does recalibrate what’s possible with a front-wheel drive car, the way it goes about using its power is nothing short of remarkable.

A wider track, lower roll centre and a limited-slip differential combine with that trick RevoKnuckle suspension strut to give the Focus RS other-worldly front end grip. There’s simply no understeer; turn the nicely weighted steering wheel at any speed and the result is always the same.

The RS just turns, grips and goes, the steering letting you feel your way around the corner with lots of information at its rim. There’s no understeer, no interruption from the stability systems, just raw speed and the sort of grip you’d only think possible if the roads were fluffy and the tyres shod with Velcro hooks.

On the twisting, undulating roads on the hills surrounding Nice the RS is utterly mesmerising. Nothing, except perhaps its WRC relative, could keep up with a well-driven RS here, the Ford exploiting its unbelievable grip, sensational poise and prodigious performance.

Even with its lowered suspension - and roll stiffness front and rear that’s the same as Ford’s 2006 World Rally Car in tarmac set up - the RS never feels like it’s struggling to cope with the broken rough, surface. Sure, it’s firm, but not compromisingly so, the RS delivering remarkable composure despite its hardcore remit.    

Ford Focus RS versus its hot hatch rivals

The World’s ultimate hot hatch?

That is something that’s true of the complete package, the RS exhibiting all the attributes of its more sober-suited relatives. It’s practical, comfortable and quiet – at least as long as you’re not reaching for the upper reaches of the 2.5-litre’s rev range. Do so and the combined deep-chested burble, turbine-like intake and high rev screaming makes for a captivating soundtrack. What it’s not is raw, unwieldy or hugely compromised. Which isn’t something that you could say about its predecessor.

What Ford has managed to achieve with the RS is nothing short of miraculous. It has re-established what’s possible with a front-wheel drive car, this £24,995 hot hatch humbling almost everything on the road for cross-country pace. That it’s able to do so and still return a combined economy figure of 30.5mpg and CO2 emissions of 225g/km – avoiding the top-rate road tax – makes its even more amazing.

A lot of that is no doubt thanks to Jost Capito’s input and countless laps at the Nurburgring. It seems that Jost’s commitment by starting to recce the place when he was just a nipper has paid off. And some.