Ford Focus RS test drive since 2008 hatchback

Layer

305 l. With. And the front -wheel drive as soon as Ford declared the technical parameters of the new Focus RS, it became clear: this is either a farce or apotheosis. This machine will either overtake everyone, or ruin itself and all its environment.
Over the past years of the world economic upsurge, manufacturers have bought a crazy number of fast cars, in which, judging by pieces of paper from them, there was everything to live deliciously. To move even wooden and please even green. They are unprecedentedly fast: they flaunted with agility, which yesterday was available to two stacks of money higher, and the day before yesterday it could have dreamed. It seems that all of them could have entered history, but in fact, most of them can only get into it. And only the best units of them can make us experience the same delight at the wheel, for which, being in a sober steering wheel and solid apex, you can forgive and justify the life on the roads of all this multi -liter bacchanalia of turbines and compressors of the beginning of the third millennium.
We have already experienced the golden age of supercars by the time when the unprecedented number of fast modifications of cars of all tribes and varieties came out into the light of God. Naturally, and hot-shaktche. It is they, by the way, to admire the most difficult thing. Due to the innate, alas, inferiority, from the point of view of running abilities, front-wheel drive, they previously reached the limit of possible power supply and exceeded it. 225 hp, 230, 260 ... And here, when, in the idea of \u200b\u200bfurther development of the front -wheel drive race horse, even those who, without a baseball cap, were doubted by a foot, Ford promises such a Focus RS, which even looks grore on paper. The idea to pour more than three hundred horsepower forces of power and four hundred and forty Newtonometers of the moment even speculatively seems to be a wild all the same as an attempt to charge a defibrillator into a dead mare’s concept of a super-powerful front-wheel drive sports car so that it drove one more hoof to someone again. So, the new Ford is another worthless pitching on thin bones?

Get down late: Focus RS before us. He bristled, swollen, brutally. This is not another hot hatchback, in which only a loving low -profile tires and nameplate of three letters of the eye is able to see not just Renault Astra alone and four in the period, but the real Peugeot Cupri GTI, distinguishing him along the tip of the exhaust pipe. Focus RS cannot be confused with anything: it stands on widely arranged wide bast shoes, and holes, swelling and wings on its body are no less than on the Ford Focus RS WRC one of those cars that used the regulations of the world in the world is so masterly that They inflated the cost of racing to the thunderstorm of the FIA \u200b\u200bcloud and signed a sentence of their tribe, becoming for him both the top and the executioner, like the Ford RS 200 B in the late eighties.

RS gives rise to power from a dense base from below, develops it with muscular power in the middle and ends with lush dance under the cutoff itself

RS creates sounds. Dozens of notes, hundreds of shades. He rumbles, barks, sighs, sip, whistles, shoots ... He is inexhausted in a conversation with you

Ford is incomparably voiced. Read about technical sounds in the text, and here we are talking about the work of regular acoustics. Infrequently, even in the representative class is played so well: for those who understand, of course

RECARO seats are real racing buckets. Many will want to put them lower. This is relatively easy: adjustment is carried out in the same way as in WRC boards, with a wrench
Modesty in RS is not a penny, but from the usual Focus there are only tears: even the sidewalls of the body are changed. We approached him, jokingly: everything that the people had to buy on the collective farm bazaar before, even cilia on the headlights at the factory had already screwed on him. But the jokes ended on this: I was mistaken. And my colleague was mistaken. We were all wrong! All automobile experts around the world were mistaken in their expectations. And thank God that we can still be surprised. Because as soon as the first tens of meters of the road went under the wheels of Focus RS, suspicion arose. Hope came. The confidence was born that the joy of involvement with the genuine did not become a mistake. That I, damn it, are indeed driving one of the best sports cars in the world.
The engine breathes lively and eagerly. This is not familiar in Focus ST Volvovsky five -cylinder turbomeechanism. This is a new heart, created specifically for RS, and the pulse of its three hundred five horses vividly pounding right in your hands. From the bottom to the late top, the beat of their strength is always tangible and financially. RS gives rise to power from a dense base from below, develops it with muscular power in the middle and ends with lush dance under the cutoff itself. And he creates sounds. Dozens of notes, hundreds of shades. He rumbles, barks, sighs, sip, whistles, shoots ... He is inexhaustible. In RS, as in other few great sports cars, as in the race stallions, life beats and snorts at any speed: at least a trot, even in a gallop, even about, they will not do not look like a nag. When you joke with inflated, rolling along the Nice Promenade, you can lower the Focus RS glass and catch smiles. Because you don't look like an idiot. Because the sounds that this Ford gives rise to not only the driver, but also passers -by.
And when you break out to the spaciousness, what will happen to the horses, which, as was proved by other hot hatchbacks, will not be able to shoot the front -wheel drive? And not everyone needs it, as it turned out on Focus RS, to shoot them. In a good field, they can be given free rein, and they will endure: a differential with mechanical locking an engineering miracle on the verge of art. The development team had to sneak up what Quaife offered for complete satisfaction. The mechanical lock takes so softly that you do not feel its presence even on an uneven road. And it works so efficiently, then all the power and all the strength of the living heart Focus RS turns into a movement in any gear and with any kind of open throttle. From the start, you can leave so serene, as if you rely on the work of all -wheel drive. And just as confident to feel in turns. It is simply incomprehensible, but on the asphalt, even in close mother -in -law languages, the first gear can be opened even before the middle of the turn. What can we say about the turns are more running! It seems that Focus RS is generally deprived of any type of drive: you click on the gas, and it simply accelerates where the steering wheel was turned.
Of course, the point is not only in the differential, but also how the wheels stand on the road. In the suspension, remember this name, Revoknuckle: Mcpherson, which allows to smash the wheel rotation axis and the support line of the shock absorber of the ball support. In the five years earlier, the Megane Renault Sport appeared, such a scheme was successfully used, but on RS, together with the differential, it provided the quality of work, which makes us completely change the idea of \u200b\u200bthe marginal capabilities of the front -wheel drive. There is not a drop of inferiority from him from the point of view of running abilities, but only effectiveness: weight and money savings, and layout trump cards. A compact power plant, which is blocked with a wheel drive, allows you to leave a maximum space for people and baggage. Focus RS, contrary to expectations, did not kill the idea of \u200b\u200ba powerful front -wheel drive car, he gave her a second life. At one time, the Ford Escort RS 2000 4x4 was among the first all -wheel drive turbocharges that had selected roads from rally dopes. And it is Ford today makes a conscious choice in favor of the front -wheel drive, having learned to use its capabilities best. Surely on the asphalt RS will not lag behind the Impreza STI and LANCER EVO, but according to the vague memories that I remained from the Ford GT supercar, it will leave from it with the spellular. And he will do it with pleasure. Speed \u200b\u200band effectiveness is not all.
If we only had a speed of speed, an ideal sports car would have long had to be recognized as a racing trolleybus. In fast cars, we are attracted not only by their speed, which is simply nowhere to use on an ordinary road, they are valuable and a sports breed. With your posture and gait. The fact that each of their movements delight others.
On Focus RS, it is not necessary to rush on the ears to enjoy driving. Each steering wheel turn returns to you a living sensation as if you yourself feel the rough surface of the asphalt with your palm. I want to delay each press on the gas pedal or brakes to feel: here the turbine has vanished the intake a little stronger, but the pads grabbed the brake disk and hold it, hold it ... The sensations are all in them. All worldly pleasures from good wine to subtle aroma. It is they that forced us to feel alive, and they are strong by those cars that sink into the souls. The team of Yost Kapito and John Wieler did not create its own masterpiece from scratch: both of them worked in motorsport and were connected with the best in this matter. And they created such a Ford ... You must first recognize and understand Porsche and Ferrari in order to correctly evaluate the splendor of this Ford one of the last originals of the past Golden Age Supercars. Will the new come? Who knows...
Design

The differential of high -friction QUAIFE is swimmer than all the systems that appeared earlier. The characteristics are selected so subtly that it allows the margin to realize full power even in steep turns and does not worsen the feelings of the steering wheel
A five -cylinder RS \u200b\u200bturbo engine with a capacity of 305 hp Although created on the basis of the Focus ST motor, it has little in common with it. Changed pistons, new connecting rods, an enlarged Borg Warner turbocharger ... In practice, this is a new engine created specifically for RS. It is very elastic from the bottom, but it works excellently under the very limiter of the maximum revolutions of 7050 min1. The miracle of the effectiveness of the Ford Focus RS front -wheel drive merit of the chassis. The track of the car is expanded, and the front McPherson is replaced by a suspension with a spaced wheel rotation axis and a structural axis of the suspension. Due to this decision, it was possible to reduce the shoulder of the front wheels and, accordingly, the negative impact of the traction force put to the controlled wheels: parasite efforts and shocks that come to the steering wheel during acceleration are almost reduced to zero. Including on uneven asphalt, and at the exit of turns: the steering wheel remains as clean as on the best rear -wheel drive sportsmen. Light twitching do not interfere with management, but only supply the driver with complete information about the adhesion of the wheels with the road.

Text Dmitry Sokolov

 
 

Source: Cars