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Someone tell Ford to bring here. Please. We need something to fight off all these flippin' Subarus & Incoming Lancer hatchbacks!Top GearWhen the new Focus RS arrives, the Impreza STi is one of the cars it's going to be gunning for. Pat Devereux can't wait
Hot on the heels of its 2007 World Rally Championship triumph, Ford has serious plans to get back into the hyperhatch market alongside the Subaru WRX STI with an all-new Focus RS in 2009.
Yes, 2009, not 2008. Ford will show a finished concept Focus RS at this year's London Motor Show in July, but the production version of the Blue Oval's new road rocket will not be launched until the London Motor Show in 2009. The company says its design department is just too busy getting all its other new cars - the slick new Fiesta, Kuga and Ka - sorted to have the time this year to get the RS ready.
But, while Martin Smith's design team is sharpening its crayons, the engineering team, led by Ford Team RS boss and ex Paris-Dakar racer, Jost Capitos, will be hard at work deciding on the car's final specification. First indications are that the car will have two-wheel drive and produce at least 280bhp, but don't take those as gospel yet.
The news that it will be front-wheel and not four-wheel-drive will disappoint rally fans wanting a clone of the Championship-winning car, but Ford is certain that once we have seen and driven the car, few will be upset. It says it has rejected the all-wheel-drive set-up as it adds cost and weight, plus it is working on a super sexy semi-active limited-slip diff that it reckons will not struggle to get the power down.
'Traction and handling will be completely reworked to improve downforce and sucker it down onto the road'
How much power those front wheels will have to handle is still unclear. While initial rumours suggest 280bhp is the magic number, that would put the car at a significant disadvantage to the Subaru and Evo rally weapons, each of which have around 300bhp to play with. Even allowing for the Japanese cars' power-sapping four-wheel drive, a 20bhp deficit could leave the new RS eating dust.
The other key reason for expecting more than 280bhp from the turbocharged five-cylinder engine is Ford Team RS's project Blufin. Set up to capture some of the lucrative aftermarket tuning business for the Focus and Fiesta ST, the dealer-fit engine and chassis tune-up kits, produced for Ford by tuning ace Roush Engineering under the Mountune name, will boost the standard Focus ST's 225bhp in steps all the way to as high as 260bhp.
So there's no way that the full-blown RS is only going to make 20bhp more than a warmed-up standard Focus ST. 300bhp then? That sounds much more like it.
Helping traction and handling will be some very special 19-inch wheels plus a completely reworked suspension system - new dampers, springs, anti-roll bars - that lower the car to improve aerodynamic downforce and sucker it down onto the road. The brakes will also be significantly upgraded for sure.
While the company claims that the final design has yet to be signed off, the first teaser picture of the car released at the WRC celebration dinner last December shows that it's going to be a very long way from modestly styled. It might not have the rally car's four-wheel drive, but it'll have plenty of the mud-slinger's styling cues.
The deep front airdam will be complemented by some muscular wheelarches and a rally-style rear wing to give the car some serious visual attitude. Expect none of it to be there for show. The whale-tailed Escort RS Cosworth was the only production car to generate positive downforce when it was built in 1992 and the new car builds on everything that car started.
'The interior has an RS trim, mixing proper rally style functionality without compromising comfort'
And it's not just the exterior that gets new clothes. The interior will be swathed in a unique RS trim that, initial reports suggest, will mix proper rally style functionality without compromising comfort on the most important rally stage of all - the one to and from the office in the morning.
But as valve-bouncingly exciting as the rest of the car sounds, it's the price of the Focus RS that could be the real shocker. In the same way that the ST has captured the lion's share of the hot hatch market in the UK through its addictive low price/high performance mix, the RS is expected to undercut the opposition significantly.
Figures as low as £21,000 have been mentioned but expect something nearer £23,000 by the time the car hits the dealerships in mid 2009.
At that price it could kill the competition before it even turns a wheel, so expect the new Focus RS to sell out fast. And start talking nicely to your insurance agent now.
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If its an auto don't count on it being nearly as fast as the manual--infact its easily ¾ - 1s slower than the manual. I'll accept your statement about the cornering to a point. I just don't want the GT getting an undeserved review. 
Oh and remember to enter corners slightly wide in the GT when you drive it or you'll encounter some odd understeer at the apex leading to massive oversteer on the exit. While fun (and it is), it isn't very "technical" and doesn't feel as fast as doing it with more precision (which is also fun).
