dave cos4x4

What are you all going to moan about when the new shape focus comes out and it will probly have 4wd,which in my opinion it should have had in the first place, just to try and compete with the likes of the scooby's and evo's.

nellie

Dont know if anyones interested but,earlier on today was in cardiff,some bloke in a RSF pulled up alongside at some lights,i know i know light merchant,so i thought why not he seemed up for it,new car and all that,LEFT IT QUITE A WAY BEHIND!!!and he was really trying!! Hit just over 100 then slowed he was quite a way behind and i mean quite a way! Oh i was in my STI7PPP

co55ie

There are some cool mods coming out for the Rs allready.
20" rims
Two piece discs
260 bhp upgrade
Various exhausts
Induction kits
A different carbon fibre bonnet ( this will look cool with the blue paint.
I am looking forward to getting mine in March but do have some reservations about the FWD. But the RS certainly appears to be a very capable performance vehicle.

dave cos4x4

What power is your sti ppp. I think it's a little bit more than 220 which the focus is.
I think ik the focus had the same power as your car them i think the focus would be a bit closer to you.

Oh yeh, i forgot, thats only if is on a nice sunny day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pslewis

In all the tests the Focus wins hands down I am afraid

The Impreza is up against some big competition and if they get the styling wrong again they are a dead duck!

Pete

PPPscooby

The Audi A4 4wd wernt penalised with a weight penalty to make them look worse then they are (paul m), the reason for the weight penalty was because the year before the Audi A4 4wd blitzed the competition.

Focus RS is a good fast car, but we live in the UK, and it p!sses it down with rain all the time (ish) so 4wd is a better option.

nellie

mine is about 340,me old mans got a brand new M5,i can out accelerate that even before the twisties,even though hes got more power,gonna get M3 next,MY03 to much like a Honda and all the others!

Gooner

All this is a load of BO**OCKS, the best car is surely the one YOU as an individual wants to drive / own. I have an 01 WRX with PPP and 18" Speedlines, I think it's bloody fantastic, but, I purchased it, I drive it, and I love it! so do my kids.

Carlos The Jackel

I don't think the next Focus RS will have 4WD. The cossie version will but the only reason the Focus RS has so much power is to compensate for the lack of cossie. Ford would have never put themselfs through all the hastle to give it 220bhp/FWD if they had a cossie one to fill the gap. They could have released it with 190bhp and let the buyers up the boost

dave cos4x4

If you don't mind me asking but why are you selling.
If you like you car,sti+ ppp=340.Why get a 2wd bmw m3.Sure it' a v.good car but compare it with a scooby(modified one) i think i would keep the scooby.

I have had my cossie 330-350 for 5 years and i will be keeping it for another 5 hopefully.

SCOSaltire

agree with gooner

i love my car too...

but this a fun debate...

i do miss not being able to pull the hand brake sometimes..
u can do that in the focus

focus is a nice car... looks the part too...

suspension may be better...?

i am not sure that there would be much difference between a rs and a std new wrx

i think buyers of the rs will be well pleased... supposidly hard work to drive coz of the diff... but also more involving i reckon...

dave cos4x4

I agree too!

I think one of the reasons the focus handles well is the fact that it 18 wheels.
The difference in mine when i fitted 215 40 17 compared to the 16 that were fitted.Different car alltogether!

nellie

Dave,M3 probaly nowhere near as much fun or as fast but the M3 is a quick car but does it all with a lot of refinment,looks gr8,4 pipes and all that,plus had a 3.0csl years ago never let me down,mind u nor has the scooby!!!! oh dear now u said that dont know now!! hehe

Crush

I find it interesting how people are quick to judge the car (particularly the diff) without driving it . This is by no means a dig at any one person, seeing as so many have based an opinion on the car because of it. I can tell you first hand that when pushed hard in the dry, the Focus does not feel like a school/shopping run car

What would be the same peoples opinion of the Impreza if they had never driven it? TBH, I don't care either way, it's just something to think about

Andy Mid.

Nice to see an Impreza/RS thread staying sensible for once

I sold a MY99 Impreza that I'd owned for over three years to buy a Focus RS and although both are great cars I'm already convinced that I'd do any A to B trip faster in the Focus (road or track). The grunt is pretty similar really and although the Impreza would get off the line better, the RS definitely feels faster once moving (especially 3rd gear and above). The biggest difference is in the brakes and handling.

The standard Brembo's on the RS are fantastic and because I didn't upgrade the brakes on the Impreza I've never experienced really strong stopping power but I have now

The turn in, steering feel and general handling is certainly better in the Focus. My scooby used to understeer pretty easily and the Focus will carry more speed before this happens. When the Quaife diff on the Focus does it's stuff it is a strange sensation to get used to but it just nails the front of the car to the road and it's almost scary how fast you can corner before it starts to "push". The 4WD of the Impreza is only really an advantage for traction out of slow speed corners, it won't increase cornering speed when compared to 2WD. How many people can honestly say that they are regularly using the 4WD to help them after they have lost traction to all four wheels when cornering ?

This is just a comparison between the RS and a standard MY99 Impreza and I'm sure the Sti's would be a different story but please don't knock the RS until you've tried it as I think you'd be surprised by just how competent a lowly FWD Ford can be.

Andy.
RS #320

PPPscooby

Just out of curiousity, do you get more looks in the scooby or the focus ??

dave cos4x4

Well what can you say to that!

Not mant people have had the pleasure to drive both cars nevermind owned them.
How long have you had the focus,1-2 months, and considering you had a 4wd before this 2wd you seem to have got to the limits of the focus rather fast,or is it that good.
I think i would be a bit weary about trying to take a fwd to the same limits or further as taking a 4wd.

You must have a lot of confidence in the focus then.

Andy Mid.

More people look at the Focus but I'm an ugly b*stard so they don't look for too long

Actually, I never got stopped once in the Impreza but I've already had three occasions where someone has come over to chat to me about the RS. I don't consider this to be a particularly good thing although I do like the fact that for every Focus RS on the road there are dozens and dozens of scoobies

I'm not actually driving the Focus at "maximum attack" much at all really - lol, but it's an addictive drive so I'm clocking up the miles and that post above is just my first impressions. I think everyone can get a fairly good feel for a car within just a few hours of driving it. Even a test drive from a dealer can give you fairly accurate feedback don't you think ?

[Edited by Andy Mid. - 1/29/2003 12:59:19 AM]

dave cos4x4

Well you are an RS owner now!

I think because it's only just come onto the market and theres been so much talk about it.

As for looks, i think it's not too over the top i.e whale tail,escort cos, i like them though.
It's not to noticable so it could suit some people especially in todays society where people are selling their cars due to fear or being targeted by car theives etc.......

PPPscooby

does the focus really stick to the road that well, reason i got a 4x4 sports car was cos i felt safer pushin it to the limits in the cr@py UK weather, without gettin caught out.

co55ie

PPP Scooby if you push any car to the limit you are eventually going to come unstuck regardless of the drive system be it either FWD/RWD or AWD.

I dont think a WRX is any competion for the RS the RS ia far more raw and performance orientated car and as proved repeatedly the RS out handles and is able to out gun an sti on a circuit. Surely this says something for the chassis

Andy Mid.

I'm sure someone is going to come on here and explain things much better than I can but my understanding is that 4WD is safer than FWD in that if you loose traction mid-corner (hit a patch of mud for example) then 4WD is likely to help you regain control much quicker. The system will be feeding the power to all four wheels and you have twice as much traction as FWD.

Subaru's marketing department have a go at explaning things here http://www.subaru.co.uk/awd/awd_page.htm

chrisp

New WRX or old WRX or both . Yep its set up more as a track car than a road car, but you can set up a scoob like that if you want. Its just that its setup to handle bumpy UK roads rather than billard table smooth trcks. I can also think of a dozen cheaper track cars if that what you really want. Looking forward to playing with some FRS at Santa Pod this year as well , 16.5 last weekend they were running ?, should be interesting .

Nigeyboy

I did a fair bit of research before buying my MY02 fugly with Morettes for the measly sum of £18k. Unfortunately not any deals on RS or a test drive.

The reviews of its "harder" setup and feeling that its needs to be pushed all the time swayed me away from the RS.

I must admit I love my Scoob for its ability to be a relaxing drive when I want, accomodate the kids with 4 drs, and be fun when I want.

Also, I'm not a racing driver so the Scoob is probably better suited to my driving ability -

Nigeyboy

co55ie

Chrisp yes undoubtedly your scoob will waste the RS down the drag strip due to being 4WD but throw in a few corners and once on the move the story could well be different due to lower transmission loses and what appears to be better handling.
I would imagine that an RS with the 260bhp upgade that is soon to become available will have more power at the wheels than a 300bhp Sti or P1. I believe this upgrade will also remove the torque limiter in 1st and 2nd gear.

Tracey

This was a subaru open day at bristol,These two belong to members of this board.

These got more looks than the STI8 we where all raging.


Tracey &Paul

jonmorris

The looks you get in the Focus RS is one thing but the attention you get when parked is bordering on annoying at times.

On Christmas day, a guy in a ST170 turned round in a petrol station to come and chat. This was fine as the car was 2 days old and he was the first member of my "fan club".

Now, a month on I'm getting people pulling in to petrol stations to chat/comment, hanging around the car in car parks (not good) and flashing their lights at me with thumbs up. My girlfriend now hates this as she has realised it's the car they're looking at and not her.

Last night a kid in a RS Turbo pulls up and says "Nice motor". Not a lot you can say to that really, other than "Erm, thanks"... but they then hang around and want you to start chatting to them, showing them around and probably giving them a test drive! Hey, why not just let THEM have a go!

So, I think you can safely say the Focus RS attracts attention from people who know about cars. For everyone else, it just looks like a standard "shopping trolley" with nice paint. To be honest, that suits me just fine.

At Santa Pod, I heard the Focus RS guy was a bit of an arrogant git, so serves him right for losing so badly. I'm surprised he managed to get it to wheelspin so much though (it must have been VERY slippery and wet) as I have the opposite problem.

With the power limited in 1st gear, I find pulling away is very sluggish until the turbo kicks in. Now my car has over 1200 miles, it's loosened up loads and now drives quite well without the turbo - so I think the driver wasn't really very good.

I'm not saying the car would have beaten everything else but I suspect it could have been better.


[Edited by jonmorris - 1/29/2003 4:17:27 PM]

steve G MAN

image doctor
do you own a scoob i thought you were a mr2 turdo owner if so why you always on here looking for the chance to slag a scoob of are you all bitter and twisted or somethin.

chrisp

The transmission losses thing is a good point but TBH I would rather have my 195bhp@wheels going through 4 wheels rather than through 2 wheels. I am sure Ford put the reduced torque in first and second in there for a reason otherwise why bother as it must have cost them money to develop it. It would interesting to see the affect of a 260bhp upgrade would have when coming on turbo and taking a corner and how the diff sorts that one out.

TBH if I had a FRS I dont think I would bother with the 260bhp upgrade as it has the potential of spoiling it and making it undrivable, like a lot of over tuned cars, they can introduce massive turbo lag and very peaky or spin wheels when the chassis cant take it. Thats exactly why I got out of the high performance FWD market. Ford spent a very long time developing this car if the car could handle 260bhp it may have been released with it. Obviously they felt the current output reflects what they designed and built it to its maximum.

I would think seriously before going down this 260 bhp route otherwise find a mate who owns a local tyre fitting place .



[Edited by chrisp - 1/29/2003 7:37:40 PM]

jonmorris

You are absolutely right. A few technical bods from Ford have already started to warn people against doing too much to the car, especially at the low end (i.e. first and second gears).

It may of course turn out that any decent upgrades just improve the performance in higher gears to improve the top end, or in gear responsiveness - which is already pretty amazing in 3rd and 4th anyway.

Ford did want more power, so there must be a reason why it turned out slightly down from the original development cars. Perhaps there ARE issues with putting too much power through the standard gearbox. Who knows? I'm sure "rival" car owners can come up with their own theories and rumours, whether true or not.

Of course this is nothing that can't be fixed with some extra time and money of course, but any modifications I do to my car will be minimal.

Only today another FRS owner has fitted a new exhaust which sounds wonderful, but whether it improves the performance is another issue. The standard exhaust is apparently a very well designed system with minimal power loss.

The air filter is also a special, unique, design so changing that could actually reduce air intake. I bet that wont stop people messing around with it, just as someone has already fitted a dump valve which is stupid on a car that uses a recirculating valve!!


[Edited by jonmorris - 1/29/2003 9:01:52 PM]