2009 Ford Focus RS official details
July 4, 2008 by George Skentzos
The world’s most anticipated hot-hatch of the year has finally made its official debut, with Ford today releasing the official details of its new Focus RS.
The all-important performance figures stand at 220kW – compared to 166kW for the XR5 – and peak torque of 410Nm from its 5-cylinder turbocharged engine.
Early performance testing conducted by Ford place the acceleration to 100km/h at less than 6.0 seconds.
Unfortunately, previous reports were accurate with the RS model featuring front-wheel drive rather than the popularly speculated all-paw configuration – albeit with the addition of a Quaife Automatic Torque Biasing limited-slip differential.
In addition to this, Ford has also developed a unique front suspension setup, an innovative ‘RevoKnuckle’ system is designed to reduce unwanted steering disturbance and torque steer – apparently eliminating the need for AWD according to Jost Capito, Ford Europe’s Director for Performance Vehicles.
“Our work has shown clearly that our approach in combining a tuned RevoKnuckle with the Quaife differential is an ideal solution for a high performance front-wheel-drive road car like Focus RS”, said Jost Capito.
“As you would expect, we gave all-wheel-drive careful consideration, but by combining and tuning these elements and learning from Ford’s expertise in industry-leading handling, we have managed to eliminate the weight of AWD from the car and still have been able to target a class-leading balance of traction, handling and performance. The result is a lightweight set-up, that will deliver the right blend of traction and razor sharp controllability” Capito concluded.
The Focus RS also features a host of handling and suspension upgrades including a 40mm wider track, lengthened driveshaft, revised springs and dampers, a thicker, longer rear anti-roll bar, retuned steering system and Ford’s ESP system featuring a custom calibration designed specifically for the RS.
The exterior treatment truly speaks for itself – hardly what you would call a subtle sports hatch, making its debut in a flamboyant hyper green finish with contrasting gloss black highlights to the front bumper, grille, side inserts and high-mount rear spoiler.
The cabin of the RS also receives a sports makeover with two tone Recaro race bucket seats, carbon-look centre console and brushed aluminium accents.
The new Focus RS will go on sale in Europe in early 2009, with Australian sales likely to come shortly after – possibly under the FPV nameplate.
Source: CarScoop
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looks really good, shame no 4wd though, … would the weight of a 4wd sytem really be a concern to a small car like this with 220kw/410nm? doesnt seem to bother the wrx!
well booter the size of the car is what makes adding 4WD an issue, if the car was larger the added weight wouldn’t be significant. Having said that hope that front diff is good, coz 220kw through the front wheels will be ‘interesting’ on rough and/or wet surfaces.
Does look the shit though, I’d probably rather the orange rather than green.
Apart from the green colour, that looks bloody cool!
Bad choice not going AWD – doesn’t matter what marketing mumbo jumbo words go on the suspension/diff components! I am very interested in real world reviews on claims that they’ve got 410Nm thru the front wheels under some sort of control…
Maybe development costs hindered what could be done
Wow! What a looker!!
I agree with J, the real testament of success will come from independent reviewers… like CarAdvice!
Any word on this green machine making it to Oz?
I have to agree with J in that they should have gone AWD. Otherwise the car looks great & if the Recaro seats are anything like the ones they currently use in the current Focus XR5 they should be great.
Cheers !
WOW! Looks hot! Could do without the rear spoiler, but damn that looks good. Hope FWD doesn’t make it a dog to drive tho
This car has, in its appearance, attitude. I would be interested to read on this new type of front suspension(?) which helps them put 220kw/440Nm to the ground.
If this new FWD setup is as good as Ford say it is, it will start a revolution in performance hot hatches. That much controlled power with the weight of AWD will be pretty special if it works.
*Should be WITHOUT the weight of AWD
Looks great too!
Hot! Although the interior is still nasty.
I’m willing give them the benefit of the doubt as far as FWD goes; although hope it is not like the old RS Top Gear tested way back in 2002 or so, that had some issues. The FWD was fine and it was an excellent handler, but on rough roads it absolutely went to shit. Hopefully they fixed that.
220 kW is an impressive number, why isn’t it faster to 100? Should be able to pull a low five/high four with that. I fear traction problems already.
PHHWWWOOOAARRRRRRR!!!
This is a real head turner! SEE….Subaru?…..it’s not that hard to make a good looking car!!!!
Bright solid colours are back in big time it cycles like fashion mmmm guess im showin my age with that call eh !!! But im with most looks fat lets hope the front end can cope with the grunt
Man, that’s a load of torque at the front wheels…. I s’pose they’ve got torque steer under control. The car does look hot stuff and until proven either way, I’ll go with the belief that they got the front end sorted. It has some attitude and terrific looking seats. I like the overall symetry. It’s amazing, it’s a hatch, but way less of a daggy grandpa pig dog hatch as the WRX. Wonder if Subie will take a closer look at this RS and redesign their current dogs breakfast of a hatch.
I would envisage that this (hot looking beast) would have a similar system to the MPS3.
By having the power and torque electronically reduced in first and second gear, it should allow for some semblance of sanity when launching hard.
Nice but AWD should of been part of the package. Although I’m sure Ford would of gone through all the scenarios and this was probably the most efficient.
4th picture makes the Ford XR5 RS look like its sad and crying! :) Ha!
The seats look good, because they are not Ford’s.
Nice engine too, but that’s not Ford either.
The rest of it looks really crap to me. Scirocco any day, thanks.
^So…………..seats and engine is from Volvo?
Imagine this in RWD. It would be fun to drive, though probably tail happy.
It looks good but how will it look in real life?
Knowing it’s Ford, the board discussion would have been “AWD is not cost effective for us, let’s just make it FWD and put some fancy words about the suspension and diff for the media”.
410Nm with 220kW on the front wheel is just too much. How do you expect the front wheel to steer and fully apply 410Nm onto the road without understeering? You’ll also have to change your front tyres every 100kms, and waste all the fuel to non-stimulating front wheel spin.
Although I have to say that it does look good, and color can be changed so that doesn’t bother me.
Unlike Subaru’s STI, which I’ve tried to grow to like it but I still can’t…it’s like trying to like a chick with a bald patch and a beard.
This is a truly astonishing machine. Looks unbelievable and the power output is rather staggering! Caveats about the delivery of said power efficiently via the front wheels, it surely must rank as one of the top hot hatches of all time if the potential is realised. With the good track record that Ford UK have, should be a winner. And as for all this mumbo re; AWD, well let’s give the benefit of doubt. Possibly Marketing Man had a say but I understand that Capito is not the kind of guy to kowtow and dump a perfectly good solution as AWD just for cost reasons. Look fwd (pardon the pun) to the test drive!
Ivan,
i think you are perhaps regurgitating the toyota board room minutes.
toyota are the ones that try hard to use multiple platforms and use the FWD setup because it is cost effective.
i like many will wait for the review to make my final word.
dont forget this car has been built off of what is already the best handler in its class.
they have had a great handler to start with.
and being ford (unlike toyota) they would have actually concentrated on good handling attributes and other things that make a car great to drive, rather than just trying to please the masses
so far it looks great, and cant wait for the review
definately should be an FPV in Aus!
Oouch it looks HHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Ford always said the RS will be a no compromise driver’s car. They already have the ST (XR5) for those who want a sporty hatch but that is more civilised. Why in the world would they build the RS in FWD if they weren’t certain they could make it work. Remember this car has been engineered up by the motorsport side of the business. They tested AWD and found not much benefit but only that weight would slow the car down. Look at what has happened to the likes of STi and EVO X (now approaching 1600Kg and over). For hot hatches/sedans they are becoming porkers. For a car to be exciting to drive it must be light, helps with change of direction and all other things. This thing will work. For those who are bagging the previous RS based on TopGear reviews (what are you smoking?). TopGear found the RS one of the best handling and steering cars of the day, much faster than what subby could offer from their stable during that time. Also on fast sections of tarmac rally’s FWD are a lot faster than their Group N counterparts. I for one would rather than a lighter sorted FWD hatch, than some heavyweight AWD trying to be pushed along by some 2.0 – 2.5L turbo 4.
This car looks amazing, I’m glad I held off from buying an XR5. I’ll be one of the first to place on order for one when they are confirmed for Oz. I can see FPV adding these to their line-up next year.
I will wait for the drive reviews to see how two front wheels handle this much grunt….but….damn it looks tha goods :)
But maybe Ford is thinkin S2000 WRC format for this one…??
Yea FPV’s First performance 4cyl,Looks Awesome
OOOCHY !!!!! SO HOT, IT HAS MADE ME ALL WET..
LOOKS FANTASTIC SO BEAUTIFUL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spam word Toyota !!! hahahahhaha makes me laugh comparing a beautiful hot Ford to any vehicle toyo has ever built in its bland boring refrigerating history..
Looks great, a truly awesome looking car both inside and out. Finaly FPV have something to give Subaru and Mazda a run for their money. Although it is FWD, I am pretty certain they have it sorted, I read about this technology earlier last year and it does seem pretty impressive, going on stats, but I think it will also perform well in the flesh.
Cheers
Prim
It’s amazing how people make judgements on a car based on some pictures and specs
ie “The seats look good, because they are not Ford’s.
Nice engine too, but that’s not Ford either.The rest of it looks really crap to me. Scirocco any day, thanks”)
Most sports seats on most good sports sedans/coupes/hatches are made by an aftermarket supplier! Amazing! 5cyl Turbo by Volvo (owned by Ford). Anything else?
Just remember the best hot hatches in the world are FWD…
Get lost Axe, chop down your tree somewhere else pal…
Spam word ford, now thats what Im talking about !!!
Reckless1 you are a tool !! Ford OWN Volvo so therefore the engine and seats are Fords seats. The basic platform of the Focus, Volvo s40 and Mazda 6 are the same…….funnily Ford own all of them. That is how it works these days.
ooppsss………take the second word seats out of above !!!!!! lol
My bet is those spoilers are going to sell like hotcakes to existing and future xr5 owners. And maybe a few regular focus owners too :D
OH YES, OH YEAH, IT LOOKS SENSATIONAL!!!!!
John:
Top Gear reviewed the RS Focus in 2002. They compared it to a bug-eyed WRX and found it faster round a track. But on A roads in Britain the RS goes to shit. The front suspension setup can’t cope with rapid direction changes like an AWD can.
So I’m willing to give the new RS the benefit of the doubt, but I’m still hesitant that on the tricky stuff, like a loose surface or a very twisty road the RS won’t be able to cut it like the “porker” evo and STi.
Also when you say “Why in the world would they build the RS in FWD if they weren’t certain they could make it work. Remember this car has been engineered up by the motorsport side of the business.” are you perhaps forgetting our friend the TRD Aurion? A FWD “performance” car designed by the motorsport division of Toyota.
Personally I wouldn’t pre-order this car, I’d wait for a test drive.
GTRmon,
but you are forgetting TRD started with something that wasnt any good in the handling stakes to start with.
at least the focus is possibly the best handler in its class. thats got to give them something to start with.
AU XR6 gas ute guy, Ford owns 51% of shares of Mazda they don’t “own them” completely.
Andrew M, by the way I remember that you said something about “State Of Origin” a while a go in an article.
Who do you go for the “Blues” or the “Moorons”?
Yes I did mean “Moorons” it’s not a typo! :)
Sure, the RS is starting from a good car. And I no doubt it will be a superb car overall.
But question is, will it be on par with an evo X? Because that’s where the RS competes.
Duck 51% means they have a controlling stake in Mazda. They don’t “own them completely”, but they have control over what goes on. And I’m guessing you were on the losing end for Origin? That’s 3 in a row now!
^Blues had three in a row in 2003, 2004, 2005.
So that may be a good sign for the Blues next year.
^They won the three series in a row, not every game in the one series.
Jbot, do you go on to the CarAdvice Forum or have you? I need some help.
If you do, I like to ask why every time I try to log in, it says I’m still inactive and i can’r go into the forum and post. But I have already registered. So I don’t know why I can’t enter the forum.
Duck,
check your spelling.
even if you are trying to spell the insult i think you are, it is still a typo……
Im a QLD’r so ill let you guess who i support in the Origin.
you seem a bit bitter Duck……..
first the Blues go down 3series in a row, and now this weekend is front Row for Ford. not a good week for you at all.
perhaps you best go and hide back behind the fridge with the rest of your c-o-c-k-roach friends