just watched this review Video: Ford Focus RS Car Review - Sky Motoring Video although the car looks and sounds good it would appear it suffers from Torque steer as expected so looks like no competition for the new scooby

 

I hope it sucks big time!!

I was going to put a deposit down on one of these until the recession hit home - couldn't justify spending that sort of money on a car at the moment

Does look and sound superb though!

 

If it drives better than the original FRS you best think again!

I have driven the original one (running around 270bhp with AST's and AP 6 Pots) a lot (last year at the Ring for 3 days and last week at Oulton Park) and they are awesome cars when set-up properly. The grip and handling is unreal for FWD. I never once thought "I need to back off because it is FWD".

Nice cars IMO and the latest version should be a right tool for what it is..... a 300bhp FWD car.

 

At the end of the day there are millions of company cars on the road and most of them are Focus's and i am one of them. But i still get that feeling of excitement when i get into the Impreza at weekend, something that will never happen with any sort of Focus. The Focus will never be iconic like the Impreza.

 

lol

I'd like to see you justify that on any level.

 

Thats like saying you drive i subaru 1.5L as a rep mobile everyday so an sti could never be iconic. Same shell but completely different car, get the bigger picture here.

Cheers
Melly

 

Yeah coz its so iconic in WRC these days, not at all bettered by the Focus

 

Must say it looked bloody fantastic last night on 5th gear, shame about the colour though.

 

is that the same 4wd focus that ford don't actually make as a production car?

use that theory we should all want rover metro's, after loving the 6r4

 

The point is Subaru is only iconic because of what it achieved in WRC and my point is whats it done recently? Nowt, its Fords bag now.

 

Yeah, but it's realtively easy to buiuld a rally car if you can start off with just a shell. What Ford, and Citroen and Peugeot did was nowt to shout about really, if ANY of the cars they used were available in fwd turbo versions in the showroom, I'd take it seriously, otherwise, not.

 

Yeah, but again lets look back in time - look at the Escort (and indeed Sierra). There were tonnes of them on the road just like the Focus but last time I looked most people class the Cosworths as iconic. We can't say yet whether or not the same will happen for the new RS, after all, back then the Cozzie re-wrote the rules, and several reviews are saying Ford have done it again this time with FWD rules.......

 

thats one of the daftest things ive ever heard! Limited edition runs of fast fords will always be iconic dating back to the late 70s (thats as far back as i can remember)

Ps my neighbour drives a bog standard impreza which he hates and jumps into a 350bhp cossy at the weekends.

 

That review is by some **** that no-one has heard of and he is confusing how the Quaife LSD works with torque steer.

Now go and visit the Autocar website to see a proper review and what is said about TS - believe me, torque steer just doesn't happen in these things.

As for comparing an RS to a std rep mobile Focus, oh dear.

There are Focus ST's in the BTCC this year as well, where are Subaru in motorsport terms?

 

And he looked a right **** in that scarf and shades.

 

I think there may be a slight flaw in that argument......



Back on topic, I'd love to try a new RS as I may be in the market for one, but for me the standard ST didn't cut it on a test drive compared to my old MY03 WRX. I don't necessarily want to remap my cars even if it transforms the ST....

 

It was ment in relation to Subaru, however that aside, Ford were still manufacturer champions in 2007 and 2006

 

What a completely stupid statement.

Wow, there are Focus ST's in BTCC!

Torque steer DOES happen, no matter what you do to disguise it/minimise it. I've driven my mates MK1 FRS with a Bluefin and full decat. Goes nicely but the diff tugs you from side to side, no matter what the road surface. As for giving it some on proper B roads well, lets just say it was handful. To get the best from it you need to perfect a bit of left foot braking to help load the diff up for maximum traction out of the corner, something which isn't easy to do.

But seeing as you're being petty, where is MK2 FRS in terms of it lap time around the 'Ring? Nowhere near that of a Spec C. I read in Autocar that at the hands of Fords test driver it did best lap of around 8 mins 18 secs. That's some 20 seconds away from that of the Spec C.

 

5th gear was good last night, it does highlight that relative bargain that the Volvo S60R is. Similar 300hp 2.5 5 pot, with the aid of AWD which makes it quicker to 60 than the RS. A 2003 example can be had for £8k. It does have a 150kg ballast over the RS, but you can’t have everything.

 

Who gives a flying **** about Ring lap times?

People need to base their ideas on normal driving that Joe public will do, most of us will never reach the limit of whichever car we have on the public roads during our everyday driving.

As for handfuls and torque steer, I can only go off my experiences of my own car which is fantastic and my ST with similar power to the new RS DOES NOT TORQUE STEER, I dont know how many times I have to say it.

 

The new RS will Torque steer. Al FWD cars Torque steer. It's just Ford have found a way of reducing it. Watching 5th Gear last night, you could see the steering wheel moving around. Get it on a British B road, and that Torque steer will be more in evidence than a smooth'ish French road.

It'll be a hell of a lot better than the Mk1. I'll wait to see review's when it hit British roads.

 

As above- it WILL torque steer! There is NOTHING the Ford engineers can do about that; all they can do it try and make it less intrusive (which apparently they have done. If you're not getting torque steer, you a) not trying hard enough b) on a very smooth and bone dry road (most of the tests I've seen so far have been done abroad, not on UK roads) c) The car isn't giving you all of the available torque in the lower gears (as with the Focus ST), or d) Some permutation of the above

The revo knuckle system isn't the kind of "cure all FWD sins" that Ford say it is - it's marketing spiel to try and make out that they didn't want AWD and don't need it, when it WOULD have been a better way of deploying the power. It will still struggle to get its power down in the wet, unless Ford are relying on traction control and/or limiting the torque in the first two/three gears.

Most people, however, probably won't drive it hard enough to notice! It'll be a cracking car, no doubt, but in terms of all weather, all road point to point speed, I'm betting a given driver will be quicker in a Scooby/Evo.

 

Every other car on the road these days is a Focus of some description, i should know i drive one myself, so to give the RS a bit of individuality they paint em in bright orange to stand out.
The Impreza compared to other cars are still quite rare on the road and forget about the WRC because the Ford and Citreon WRC's don't really exist.
I've been to Prodrive like a lot of people and the WRC version is a lot closer to the road car than a lot of people think. Thats probably why it ceased to be competetive over the last few years in WRC.

 

So what? At real speeds on real roads, I'd wager that the new RS is every bit the match for any standard spec UK Impreza. Which exactly what its priced against.

Last time I checked Subaru dealers in the UK were not listing Spec C's.

Stick any car on trick rubber and you could probably take 20 seconds off a given time. Your "comparison" is completely unrepresentative and therefore totally invalid.

What's the current UK sti's ring time on standard issue rubber? I doubt it will be anywhere near the Focus' time, even allowing for differeing weather conditions.

 

Couple of points.

I'm betting said Evo will be quicker point to point than said Scooby. Like for like, they always have been.

In terms of all weather, point to point speed, my standard, UK spec, front wheel drive DC2 Integra was as quick if not quicker point to point than my Standard UK spec Scooby it replaced irrespective of the weather, by virtue of having much better handling balance and being more forgiving at the limit. It also understeered less, especially in the wet.

So, traction aside (which is a moot point over, say, 50 mph anyway) I'd take that bet (unless the given driver was so crap it ws a lottery regardless of what he or she was driving)

 

The Focus RS will and does torque steer and I'd dread to think how active the traction control is at killing the power in damp & wet road conditions. Considering it rains most of the time in this country the Focus RS is going to be waste of time, its all very well testing the car in Monaco. They should have tested the car on some damp B road over Brecon considering it's the UK market they are aiming to sell the majority of these cars in. If I was in the market for buying a front wheel drive car I'd buy a Honda FD2 JDM civic type R over the Focus RS.

 

The Spec C did the lap on RE070 rubber, exactly what UK spec cars came with.

 

I'm pressuming that by bog standard impreza you mean an unmodified turbo, if he hates it, why would he waste his money on running costs etc.
Unless he's minted!
But if you're talking about a normally aspirated impreza, well he must be puddled because i'd rather have my Focus diesel than one of those.

 

PMSL - you WHAT?!

Every other car is a Focus - what a crock of crap. Yes there are alot, might have something to do with being a class leader since launch . But every other car is just a sweeping statement.

IMHO every other car is a 3 series, see more of these than anything else. So to give an M3 a bit of individuality they stick some aftermarket corsa style wing mirrors on it, bulge in the bonnet and 2 more exhaust pipes to make it stand out. (see how this works? its not just the Focus )

As for Impreza's being rare - I've not laughed that hard in ages, thank you!!

 

Evos have historically always had the edge over scoobies in terms of std power outputs and set ups, that's the JDM vs UK spec for ya. Things are much closer, if you compare JDM to JDM, or more recently, UK Scooby and UK Evo. Remeber that the Stig was maginally faster in the Subaru than the Evo rated at the same power, much to Jezzas bemusment (albeit that was around a track)

That said, I've always found scoobs to be quicker cars point to point on all but smooth roads. Evos often simply don't have the suspension compliance to deal with the rough stuff without making the driver wince and sweat a lot.

I've told this story before, but when my Classic Uk turbo was standard a mate with a Evo 6 came around for a look. We had a drive down a country road together, nothing silly. I did notice I was pulling away from him though. This made no sense to me whatsoever as his car was clealry more power and more hi-tech than mine. We swapped over and went dow the same stretch of road and he pulled away from me. When we got out he said: I can't keep up in the Evo as it's just too harsh over bad road surfaces, whereas although the impreza has less power and less electronic wizardary, it's a put your boot in and don't worry about the rough stuff experience!

I've since had a go at several new age imprezas and Evos and always left with the samer impression: Evos quicker if its a track or smooth A roads, but scooby is quicker if the going gets rough.

Only ever driven the new age integra, which I didn't really like to be honest!

Ns04