The long awaited, much rumoured and utterly demented Ford Focus RS has finally broken cover. The new Focus RS finally goes on sale in early 2009 and was created by a small team of dedicated engineers who wanted to ensure their latest creation was worthy of the legendary RS badge. Styling-wise, the RS is easy to spot thanks its wildly blistered wheelarches which are necessary to house standard 19-inch alloys and the car's 40mm wider track. The front bumper with a huge air intake to feed the turbo and intercooler while the rear bumper has an integrated rear diffuser which, when combined with the WRC-style rear spoiler, offers improved high-speed stability. Functional cooling vents are dotted about the car also, with louvres in the bonnet, front wings, rear bumper and even underneath the headlamps all there to help keep the hard-working engine and brakes cool. The piano-black detailing finishes off the RS' mean and purposeful appearance neatly while inside the RS there are bespoke Recaro bucket seats (colour-matched to the exterior) and more deeply bolstered rear seats. The rest of the cabin is pretty much the same as the Focus ST, bar the rather tasteless detailing.What's important here, of course, is the hardware and the new Foc
us RS is a mixed bag in this respect. Under the bonnet we find a revised version of the Focus ST's 2.5-litre, five-cylinder, turbocharged engine with new camshafts, a revised cylinder head and new intake and exhaust manifolds. Power is boosted to 300hp and torque jumps to over 410Nm but Focus remains front-wheel drive despite Ford having already developed a four-wheel drive system for this platform. According to Jost Capito, the man in charge of high performance Fords, the RS doesn't need all-wheel drive because it has a revised front suspension geometry arrangement called ‘RevoKnuckle’ which is designed to reduce unwanted torque steer. It works in conjunction with the fancy Quaife limited-slip differential to ensure the RS remains driveable even under hard acceleration. “As you would expect, we gave all-wheel-drive careful consideration," says Capito, "but by combining and tuning these [RevoKnuckle] elements... we have managed to eliminate the weight of AWD from the car and still deliver the right blend of traction and razor sharp controllability – in a way no one would have expected from front-wheel-drive!” In addition to the revised suspension and wider track, Ford has also sharpened the steering, uprated the brakes and re-tuned the ESP system, but the car isn't relying on ESP to help control the power as many other hot hatches do: “We are refining all the handling characteristics of Focus RS without ESP, to hone its natural responses, rather than use ESP to help its handling. In the Focus RS, ESP is a pure safety device”, explained Capito.
us RS is a mixed bag in this respect. Under the bonnet we find a revised version of the Focus ST's 2.5-litre, five-cylinder, turbocharged engine with new camshafts, a revised cylinder head and new intake and exhaust manifolds. Power is boosted to 300hp and torque jumps to over 410Nm but Focus remains front-wheel drive despite Ford having already developed a four-wheel drive system for this platform. According to Jost Capito, the man in charge of high performance Fords, the RS doesn't need all-wheel drive because it has a revised front suspension geometry arrangement called ‘RevoKnuckle’ which is designed to reduce unwanted torque steer. It works in conjunction with the fancy Quaife limited-slip differential to ensure the RS remains driveable even under hard acceleration. “As you would expect, we gave all-wheel-drive careful consideration," says Capito, "but by combining and tuning these [RevoKnuckle] elements... we have managed to eliminate the weight of AWD from the car and still deliver the right blend of traction and razor sharp controllability – in a way no one would have expected from front-wheel-drive!” In addition to the revised suspension and wider track, Ford has also sharpened the steering, uprated the brakes and re-tuned the ESP system, but the car isn't relying on ESP to help control the power as many other hot hatches do: “We are refining all the handling characteristics of Focus RS without ESP, to hone its natural responses, rather than use ESP to help its handling. In the Focus RS, ESP is a pure safety device”, explained Capito. 
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