We have reviewed the Ford Focus RS already on the road, but now it's time to let it lose on the track, arguably its home-from-home. With 350bhp on tap, the RS is designed to be able to cut it with the best of them - and live up to a rich vein of fast Fords that includes the likes of the original RS versions of the Escort Mark II and a host of Cosworths.
On the road the Focus RS is stiff, even in normal driving mode. Select Sport or Track mode on the road at your peril, as the adjustable dampers stiffen even further which adversely affects the ride for all on board.
Yet the RS has one of the best electronic power steering systems I have experienced. On track the car encourages you to turn in to a corner harder each lap, delivering accurate feedback through the steering wheel.
The acceleration from a standstill is fierce, 100km/h comes up in just 4.7 seconds, the RS can decelerate just as quickly too thanks to its Brembo four-piston monoblock callipers. The six-speed manual transmission offers a short slick gear change.
You can safely experience the Focus RS’s handling traits on track. In track mode you can accelerate earlier and harder mid-corner as power is transferred to the rear wheels eliminating understeer, transferring it to slight oversteer which ultimately reduces the laptime. If you select drift mode the RS will power slide with ease, although this isn’t something you’re going to try on the open road. In the real world the advantage of this clever all-wheel-drive system is its all-weather traction and control.
The Focus RS is certainly faster on track than a Volkswagen Golf R, we’ve yet to put a time to the Civic Type R, which we will do shortly. Around Mondello Park’s national circuit the Focus RS recorded a laptime of 1:05.49 which is slightly over one second slower than the more expensive Audi RS3. It’s fair to say the fast Ford is back, and in Nitrous Blue it truly looks the part.
