New Focus RS coming soon! but..Uh? somethings wrong with this one.

[06CivEXJon]

Why the hell is the new Focus RS FWD?! the last gen was awesome and had AWD and a Turbo motor aswell,so why does the new one have FWD?! and Ford wonders why they are in trouble. Ford switched from a good AWD system to a low end FWD system..why?! I was excited to hear the news of the new Focus RS,but right when it said FWD i was shocked because this RS has FWD. The last gen Focus RS was based off the heritage of the Focus Rally car,very much like the last and current/next gen Lancer EVO/EVO rally car/road car and WRX/STI Impreza rally/road car. 280 HP to the front wheels is suicidal and stupid. Ford has completely lost it,if they only made the RS in AWD like the last gen and brought it over here it would easily destroy the Dodge Crapler SRT and Chevy Crapbolt SS. The title of the thread might be misleading to some because it says "coming soon" obviously for European consumers not American consumers just needed to clear that up.
Follow up: Ford Focus RS confirmed to have 280 hp, front-wheel drive

[TJ213]

AWD would have made it better, but if done right with that new diff and good boost control that could still be a great car.

Of course we will probably never see it here in the states.

[strutking]

eh, thats an RS?

[whtdvl]

looks cool...

there were plenty of Neon SRT4's that were really fast with FWD...

the logical option would be AWD...but logic doesn't always come into play

[reaper702]

hmmm 295 ft lbs of tq + fwd + to go head-to-head with evo/sti/r32? that is a FAIL imo...

[Special Ringpop]

I'd still take it over the Si any day. It looks nice, too.

Besides, it's better than that abortion of a Focus we got for 2008. God that is one ugly car. Even my Ford friends hate it.

[whtdvl]

^+1..the new focus is hideous

[reaper702]

Originally Posted by Special Ringpop

I'd still take it over the Si any day. It looks nice, too.

Besides, it's better than that abortion of a Focus we got for 2008. God that is one ugly car. Even my Ford friends hate it.

that's nice, but considering it should be considerably higher in price if it is trying to compete with the evo/sti/r32.. not worth it... not even close

[e60.deluxe]

i cant imagine how they would sell a 280HP FWD car outside of the US. over here is the only place you have people dumb enough to want that much power out of a FWD car...

lol abortion = abomination?

[reaper702]

Originally Posted by e60.deluxe

i cant imagine how they would sell a 280HP FWD car outside of the US. over here is the only place you have people dumb enough to want that much power out of a FWD car...

lol abortion = abomination?

i don't think the hp #'s are the problem, i would say the TQ, right?

[webby]

Powering the Focus RS will be a Volvo-sourced 2.5L inline-five turbo that produces 280 horsepower and 295 lb-ft or torque.

think- acura v6 tl motor + more... in a car that small/light in fwd?

[e60.deluxe]

Originally Posted by reaper702

i don't think the hp #'s are the problem, i would say the TQ, right?

Tq gets multiplied through the transmission. a 280HP car of 295tq or 200tq would probably put down equal torque to the front axles, because the lower Tq car would have a higher RPM and thus higher gearing.

[e60.deluxe]

Originally Posted by webby

Powering the Focus RS will be a Volvo-sourced 2.5L inline-five turbo that produces 280 horsepower and 295 lb-ft or torque.

think- acura v6 tl motor + more... in a car that small/light in fwd?

yeah, and the torque steer of the TL-S is incredibly noticble even driving around american roads...imagine zipping around tiny european streets...

[Sirbelch]

Originally Posted by 06CivEXJon

Why the hell is the new Focus RS FWD?! the last gen was awesome and had AWD and a Turbo motor aswell,so why does the new one have FWD?! and Ford wonders why they are in trouble. Ford switched from a good AWD system to a low end FWD system..why?! I was excited to hear the news of the new Focus RS,but right when it said FWD i was shocked because this RS has FWD. The last gen Focus RS was based off the heritage of the Focus Rally car,very much like the last and current/next gen Lancer EVO/EVO rally car/road car and WRX/STI Impreza rally/road car. 280 HP to the front wheels is suicidal and stupid. Ford has completely lost it,if they only made the RS in AWD like the last gen and brought it over here it would easily destroy the Dodge Crapler SRT and Chevy Crapbolt SS. The title of the thread might be misleading to some because it says "coming soon" obviously for European consumers not American consumers just needed to clear that up.
Follow up: Ford Focus RS confirmed to have 280 hp, front-wheel drive

Ford of Europe actually makes money unlike its US counterpart.
Also, the RS before the last one was FWD and it still sold.
Do you really think they could bring that car here? They can't even bring the base EDM Focus over, which is far better than the USDM Focus, because of the exchange rates would make it almost 20 grand. If they made an AWD one and brought it over, it would be over 40 grand, hell a FWD one would cost 30+ easy. Sure an AWD RS would beat an SS and SRT but the RS wouldn't be in their class and thusly it would be unfair to compair the SS and SRT to an AWD RS. It would have to be placed in the EVO/STi class. I think that a FWD RS would still beat the SS and SRT.


You know what really makes Ford look stupid? Ford says they can't bring over the EDM Focus because it would cost to much money to sell in the US. Funny thing is, Mazda and Volvo both bring over, and sell well, cars based off the EDM Focus, the Mazda 3 and S40. Hmmmmmmmm makes you wonder.

[I Vtec, do you?]

I donno why everyone is freaking out over 280 hp in a FWD car. I drove a mazdaspeed3 recently and it handled 263~ hp through the front wheels better than the SI does with 197. By that I mean the car felt more much stable and poised during acceleration.

[e60.deluxe]

Originally Posted by Sirbelch

Ford of Europe actually makes money unlike its US counterpart.
Also, the RS before the last one was FWD and it still sold.
Do you really think they could bring that car here? They can't even bring the base EDM Focus over, which is far better than the USDM Focus, because of the exchange rates would make it almost 20 grand.

something people forget is that prices in Europe generally give the On the Road price. which includes taxes, registration, fees, road tax and etc, wich is also generally much higher than the taxes and fees in US.

for example in UK sales tax istself is roughly 17%. road tax and fees are more costly also. when we look at prices over here we dont look at any of those, we look at the base price of the car. if you subtract all that out before you convert, youll find its not really all that much more expensive,

[e60.deluxe]

Originally Posted by I Vtec, do you?

I donno why everyone is freaking out over 280 hp in a FWD car. I drove a mazdaspeed3 recently and it handled 263~ hp through the front wheels better than the SI does with 197. By that I mean the car felt more much stable and poised during acceleration.

the mazdaspeed 3 does a good job of masking its torque steer. torque in 1 and 2 is limited, and even more is limited dependent on steering angles. driving around town its gonna be difficult to see whats wrong.

straight line is generally not going to be a problem regardless however, which is why people who drive 350+ HP SRT's generally dont complain.

[I Vtec, do you?]

Originally Posted by e60.deluxe

the mazdaspeed 3 does a good job of masking its torque steer. torque in 1 and 2 is limited, and even more is limited dependent on steering angles. driving around town its gonna be difficult to see whats wrong.

straight line is generally not going to be a problem regardless however, which is why people who drive 350+ HP SRT's generally dont complain.

Yep that's my point. Clever engineering can overcome lots of faults. I was pegging it in 3rd gear mostly since I knew of the power limiting in 1/2 and it handled VERY well. The Si has a much more visceral feeling of speed, whereas the MS3 doesn't have that (which sucks) but it's much more poised when the throttled is pegged and it's pushing you back in the seat.

Considering Mazda and Ford share many things, I'm sure this would be one of them

[06CivEXJon]

Originally Posted by Sirbelch

Ford of Europe actually makes money unlike its US counterpart.
Also, the RS before the last one was FWD and it still sold.
Do you really think they could bring that car here? They can't even bring the base EDM Focus over, which is far better than the USDM Focus, because of the exchange rates would make it almost 20 grand. If they made an AWD one and brought it over, it would be over 40 grand, hell a FWD one would cost 30+ easy. Sure an AWD RS would beat an SS and SRT but the RS wouldn't be in their class and thusly it would be unfair to compair the SS and SRT to an AWD RS. It would have to be placed in the EVO/STi class. I think that a FWD RS would still beat the SS and SRT.


You know what really makes Ford look stupid? Ford says they can't bring over the EDM Focus because it would cost to much money to sell in the US. Funny thing is, Mazda and Volvo both bring over, and sell well, cars based off the EDM Focus, the Mazda 3 and S40. Hmmmmmmmm makes you wonder.

Due to the exchange rates in Europe and weak dollar in America and Canada,Ford cant bring over their European vehicles here?! thanks bush... i think thats bullshit,not saying from you but i read a article awhile back that the Ford execs said exactly that,they cant do it because the price would be too high. Ok if the price will be too high then why is GM doing it then? with the Opel Astra? Pontiac G8? i think Ford really just wants to die, the same with Chrysler. If i was the CEO of Ford i'd put the FOE designers in charge and fire the three bar grille designers. I would also bring the platforms over to build all new vehicles and bring the existing ones over aswell.

[TJ213]

Originally Posted by 06CivEXJon

Due to the exchange rates and weak dollar Ford cant bring over their European vehicles here?! thanks bush... i think thats bullshit,not saying from you but i read a article awhile back that the Ford execs said exactly that,they cant do it because the price would be too high. Ok if the price will be too high then why is GM doing it then? with the Opel Astra? Pontiac G8? i think Ford really just wants to die, the same with Chrysler. If i was the CEO of Ford i'd put Europe's designers in charge and fire the three bar grille designers. I would also bring the platforms over to build all new vehicles and bring the exciting ones over aswell.

Part of it is the market Ford tries to get here, any company using the Tarus name again is looking for older people, plus they have their trucks here.

US emissions standards probably don't help much either.

btw, not everything is the president's fault.