think the focus would have been a tad quicker if the M2 had the manual box for that lap. I wouldn't bother about a few 10ths, just enjoy your car lads, the green eyed monster will respond soon LOL
It's all pub ammo anyway. As if the average driver would or could exploit any of these to their full potential. His lordship excluded.
I forgot to ask R26 you never gave us a review of your car? From what I've seen of dynographs it looks very similar to how the power was delivered in the megane
Power delivery is very smooth, picks up a little around the 4500k mark but no real drama and no real feeling you're driving a turbocharged car. The turbo gives off a very addictive whistle. It gets to silly speeds very easily, no real need to wring it's neck. One thing about the R26 is I always have to drive it hard. Cornering is just fantastic, you feel the rear wheels pushing you round corners at the same time the front wheels keeping everything pointing the right way. Driving in normal mode as quite civil, no unruly noises from the exhaust and the suspension does a good job at soaking up the crappy uk roads. Switching to Sport you instantly feel the engine pick up, steering stiffens and you get treated to some popsnbangs from the exhaust. Track mode stiffens the suspension up by 40% and partially switches of the traction control. Things get quite lively in this mode, I don't find the ride as uncomfortable as some of the reviews have said. Drift mode - haven't tried it, yet. This car fills you with confidence both in cornering and braking. I'm unsure yet how it will react when pushed very hard, the R26 for example gets to the edge and gradually gives up, you can feel it coming and there's no real surprises when it happens, in the focus I'm unsure whether it will do the same or very quickly snap when pushed too far. Time will tell.
The interior is okay, some soft touch plastic, some hard stuff here and there, nothing like a German car but it's well fitted. Sync 2 is pretty easy to use, the stereo upgrade isn't great, on par with a Bose system I've had in the past. The CS seats are a must in my opinion, they lift the interior compared to the ST seats. The lack of heated seats and steering wheel, even as an option still boggles the mind. Boot is pathetic. There's a polystyrene tidy that holds the subwoofer and tyre foam which takes quite a lot of space. Feel free to throw questions my way.
Posting frenzy from R26 noted..... Just a bit of balance and reminder for the benefit of the readers, the 345 bhp Focus isn't running any dry advantage on circuit compared to much lowered powered FWD rivals. This torque vectoring only seems to be achieving a nice 'feel'. FWD, light, sharp and balanced still does the business. Much of the hype surrounding the Focus RS reminds me of all the jurnos creaming themselves over the now acknowledged bland and underpowered GT86 when it first came out. A bit of the new kid on the block syndrome.
Don't know what you've been reading, the Focus is a cracking car in everything i've read, perhaps you need to have a drive in one if you have a licence. I remember Evo raving about the GT86, its hardly bland, and only under powered if you run it against something faster, plenty fun enough on its own. Your going to need to find another member or topic to troll, sounding a bit strange now.
The Focus RS won't end up bland or boring like the GT86, but it is subject to jurno hype. It will drop back to reality in due course. My opinion of course. Remember the forum is for a variety of opinions and correspondingly, your constant popping up on threads with off topic inputs is become very stalker like.
So many opinions on something you've never driven, and probably won't. Your level of butthurt is off the scale. Commenting on a drivetrain you know nothing about. Google warrior! It's also amazing how we've gone from not being able to compete with FWD hot hatches, to being on par and better in the dry, and much better in the wet! The way you change your tune is truly mind boggling. Again, take your google expertise somewhere else as you've got very very boring.
Stalker, you wish, just a friend would be nice wouldn't it lol. Pot kettle springs to mind, anyway, I'm off to have a drive in my Renault, I own one lol.
Its actually really quite simple why it has done so well in reviews, its nearest rivals are the RS3 and A45 both of which end up costing another 50% on top of the Ford. A mate of mine recently collected his RS3, he loves the thing but it ended up optioned to 50 grand. Crazy money for a hatch. The trick with the Mustang is exactly the same, V8s or similar out of Germany or Japan are in another price league all together.
Don't know about the Ford but the technology really does work. Several years back SAAB put it into the limited run 9-3 Aero X. That car was benchmarked against lots of sports cars and at the time SAAB were proudly showing stats of it running through a slalom course quicker than the vastly more powerful Porsche 911 turbo. Personally I think big power is no choice but to go 4wd or RWD, the last gen of cars pretty much hit the limit of what is possible with FWD, the Honda for example in some reviews gets slated for being unruly in the wet.
Just to put it out there, i know a guy who did the release day. He said its handling isn't all that Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm aware of the 4WD advantages and also their disadvantages. It's more about what this much reviewed extreme torque vectoring can do. The Focus is 1600 kg with driver, and as a racer you know you still have to brake, accel it and carry the best turn-in to apex speed. All that mass doesn't help. It's why the Civic type R blitzed it on the same circuit. The torque vectoring doesn't seem to be a big advantage. In the wet the AMG 45 nailed it and the Golf R was similar to the Focus on track. Both beat it in a drag race. The lighter FWDs are a simple and more dynamic solution and they only need 300 bhp to do it. Ford have gone down the sledgehammer to crack a nut route. I will be interested to see what can be achieved with 4 wheel steering, less power, less weight and a more dynamic drivers car. Next Megane RS? It's not all win-win with 4WD.
The gap between the the wet Golf R lap and Wet focus Lap is seen as "similar". Lol The gap between the AMG and Focus wet lap is viewed as the AMG nailing it, although the gap is smaller. Lol The dry lap gap between the Focus and Type R again is smaller but described as "Blitzed" More bullshit from the resident bullshitter. Again stop bragging about cars you don't own! You have NO bragging rights. I'm starting to think someone you know was run over by a Focus. #butthurtinducedhate
3 second gap wasn't it in the Autotrader mega test? I can't grumble to much on that though as I have a RWD race car which is utterly pants in the wet.
Nope dude. Blitzed it only applies to the Civic Type R beating the Focus, because it was such a short lap.
Keep changing your mind as your arguments are destroyed. And do your homework next time, you'd think for someone who whines so much about lap times, you'd actually know them! Please stop bragging about cars you don't own, it's quite pathetic.
Bit more 'behind the scenes' on the Autotrader group test. The one where the AMG 45 won most of the tests but didn't get the win lol:
I'll just leave this here for Aerofoils delectation: COLOGNE, Germany -- The all-new Ford Focus RS has won Car of the Year at the prestigious 2016 Vehicle Dynamics International (VDI) Awards. The Ford Performance team that developed the widely-acclaimed high-performance hatchback also has won Dynamics Team of the Year at the VDI Awards. A jury of 23 independent automotive journalists from around the world praised the Focus RS for "handling characteristics the opposition can't match" and its "pure driving pleasure". The Focus RS pioneers innovative Ford Performance All Wheel Drive with Dynamic Torque Vectoring for a new level of handling, grip and cornering speed. Selectable Drive Modes -- including an industry-first Drift Mode that allows controlled oversteer drifts -- and Launch Control feature on the RS model for the first time. Demand for the high-performance hatchback is accelerating fast, with 6,200 vehicles already ordered by European customers - almost double Ford expectations - and the Nitrous Blue paint colour among the most popular options. "We set the bar high for the Focus RS, to deliver a world-beating hot hatch worthy of the Rallye Sport badge with the most exhilarating and dynamic RS driving experience yet," said Tyrone Johnson, vehicle engineering manager, Ford Performance. "Ford Performance is honoured to receive two awards from Vehicle Dynamics International, and proud to have developed a car that sets new standards for affordable hot hatch performance." The annual VDI awards recognise the best ideas, technology innovation and achievements in vehicle dynamics development. Ford now has won six VDI awards - more than any other manufacturer -- including four Dynamics Team of the Year awards. This year's double success follows a similar achievement in 2013, when Ford won Dynamics Team of the Year and Ford vehicle dynamics specialist David Put won Dynamicist of the Year. The Focus RS is the first Ford vehicle to win in the Car of the Year category. Developed by Ford Performance engineers in Europe and the U.S., the model is powered by a specially engineered version of Ford's 2.3-litre EcoBoost engine delivering 350 PS, and sprints from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 4.7 seconds, making it the fastest accelerating Ford RS model ever. Jurors said of the Focus RS: "... Ford's Focus RS has completely rewritten the hot hatch rulebook," Alvaro Sauras, Autofácil/EVO, Spain "Ford Focus RS is. by far the most entertaining to drive owing to neutral and oversteer handling characteristics that the opposition can't match," Nicol Louw, CAR magazine, South Africa "The Focus RS simply rewrites the rulebook for how sporting hatchbacks behave. The combination of handling prowess, safety and security, and the sheer hooliganism of Drift Mode blends performance and pure driving pleasure like few cars ever have," Jim Kenzie, Toronto Star, Canada Jurors said of the Ford Performance team: "...when the Blue Oval skunkworks teams are let off the leash, magic inevitably follows," Brian Cowan, motoring writer, New Zealand Focus RS arrives with customers Full production of the Focus RS -- also crowned 2016 Car of the Year by Top Gear magazine, U.K. -- is under way at Ford's Saarlouis, Germany assembly plant and the first cars are now arriving with Ford Performance fans across the region. The initial wave of European orders reveals that the signature Nitrous Blue paint colour has been selected by more than half of all Focus RS customers, making it more than three times as popular as the second favourite colour choice, Frozen White. Reflecting the car's high-performance nature, more than 50 per cent of customers have opted for the distinctive RS Recaro shell front seats offering increased lateral support for fast road and track driving, while 60 per cent have specified the lightweight forged alloy wheels finished in low-gloss black that offer enhanced strength and impact resistance, with weight savings of 950 g per wheel. The most popular option of all is the RS blue paint finish for the powerful Brembo brake callipers, chosen by more than two-thirds of Focus RS customers.
Damn, you beat me to it. But for fun I'll leave the link here as well. http://www.carsuk.net/ford-focus-rs-vdi-car-year-orders-keep-growing/ It burns.
It stinks of a stitch up. Some decent press jollys all over the world all paid. Not saying it's not an epic car and I'll probably end up buying one, but the sensationalist journalism around this is pants. That above read like a bloody mills and boon story..so the wife tells me lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The majority, if not all publish them early on. Gives people something to read and get angry about. http://www.sunmotors.co.uk/news/top-gear-names-ford-focus-rs-car-of-the-year-2016/ Another one. Remember we can't pick and choose lap times! So we can't pick and choose which reviews we believe? They are all factual and 100% correct just like the all important lap times. That member who has a penchant for irony will be along soon to tell us how all around him people ignore the facts and pick the "truths", whilst he does the exact same thing himself.
To be fair every new performance car that gets lauded like that is not as epic as the hype would suggest, its just journalism doing their thing which is always involves a certain amount of whipping up interest in new cars. My first experience of that effect was years ago when they went crazy for the Subarus, honestly I felt the cars were garbage just reasonably quick but cheaper than Porsches. None of them were anything like a sports car but believing all the hype year after year made them seem like the second coming.
I'm just so glad we have the keyboard warriors and internet based experts to bring "balance" to whole debate. Where would we be without them?, how on earth would we be able to make an informed decision without their well thought out vitriolic rants.
he's got plenty of previous for it, states everything as fact, trys to shoot everyone else down with relentless BS, on a never ending wind up, i love it : ) would help if he had a car as well.
It would all be funny if it wasn't so tragic. I must stop, the more I read the more it become apparent he's not firing on all cylinders.
I think the lack of balance comes from both sides tbf. It's clearly a brilliant car in isolation and it's designed to flatter your average road driver while not frustrating your average track peddler too much. But let's be honest it's never going to replicate the driving experience of a low cog, low pmoi RWD sports car either. The future of those is hopefully not affected by the 4wd obsession although Jaguar is nibbling at it...
don't let it get on your tits mate, its what he's on here for, the more bites he gets the more he trolls.
This is the point that escapes most people, it's not meant to fully replicate a dedicated RWD car. Look at any press release, it's always been advertised as a RWD biased AWD system that does exactly what it says. Anyone who hasn't driven one cannot intelligently comment on its abilities or sensation. With regards if it not being balanced, I disagree, no one has chosen to post only positive reviews, nothing has been missed on the basis that it is not flattering, yet his campaign of balance has been built on made up and exaggerated stories, misinterpreted track times and General bullshit. He should be a politician, he's on par with most when it comes to avoiding truths. It's become a bit of a game really, one that was more enjoyable when it became clear he does this on a regular basis.
My mate would have been in the car then - he's just been driving it at spa and around Belgium the lucky fucker. He works for autocar, just seen on his Facebook he got to take home a 488 gtb tonight, he's only 25!
