Comments on: Ford Focus RS versus its hot hatch rivals

By: Jae Pecanty

Jae Pecanty — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:37:41 +0000

Thanks a lot for the interesting post guys, been following your blog for the past several months while trying to lose weight for my wedding on the Cambridge diet and it’s going really great. I’m down about 20 pounds in the past few months and this website has really inspired me to keep going. Fantastic job.

By: Darren

Darren — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 08:27:42 +0000

What are you on about?!

All i have been saying is. why spend £30,000 on a car when you can do pretty much the same thing yourself, brand new i might add, for over £10,000 less? And at what point did i say that it was better than all cars faster than it? My point is that the RS is priced far too highly for what it is, its too slow for £30,000 and frankly its not classy enough for £30,000 either.

And yes, they should have made it 4 wheel drive and given it a good 50 bhp more, But as we all know ford are half way down the swanny so they cant do that. But if enough people go and spend £30.000 (thats with no extras btw) on a front wheel drive hatch back that has too much power but a diff that hones it all in so you can only access about 250 bhp of the 300 its meant to have then who knows, they might do a Focus RS, 4 wheel drive monster with the new shape thats coming out. I really hope they do, its about time they went back to their roots.

As for me, ive now got an Audi S4 V8 tuned to 380 BHP, so no, i cant afford a Focus RS, i spent my money on something much better.
Don’t comment if you don’t have some idea of what you’re talking about before you start, you don’t know me so don’t tell me what i can and cant afford.

Oh, and PS, i can safely assure you that the ST mountune did sound a bit like a V8 seeing as i now have one to compare notes.

By: al

al — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:44:51 +0000

ffs darren you cant afford an rs get over it …mountune mountune blah blah blah, sounds like a v8 I bet it does pal yeah…stop trying to play top trumps with ur car when its the same as my nans with a turbo, bet you got it in nob-ed green or orange aswell…but hey its better than all cars faster than it cus you only spent 14k,not exactly the fastest car for the money is it?!you sure the guy in the s3 was actually racing you?!anyway,no rs owner can honestly say theyd rather it wasnt 4wd..hey guys check out my lift off oversteer!brilliant.any of these cars get owned by your local drug dealer in a second hand evo,I lose the point of them.

By: thelowestbidauction

thelowestbidauction — Mon, 17 May 2010 02:50:40 +0000

Things like this are incredibly disturbing to me and should be to everyone.

By: Darren

Darren — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:52:14 +0000

Well, that’s all good then mate, as long as your happy then that’s all that matters. I have to admit i recently chopped the Mountune in. It was nearly out of warranty and it started shaking wildly at 50 mph and making some strange noises. I couldn’t believe my luck when i stumbled across an 04 plate Audi S4 V8 for £12,000 (£2,500 less than it should have been!!) in absolutely mint condition. I took it for a drive and i couldn’t believe it. I instantly got a remap so the economy is around 27 combined which isn’t much less than i was getting from the ST. It also increased power to 364 bhp and torque to 440 NM ish and believe me, it’s a completely different world!! I managed 0-60 in 5.0 dead the other day. With the remap it’s quicker then the equivalent M3 and it only cost £200 more to insure than the Focus. It’s in the next league and beyond!! What a find and what a car. Oh yea, and I got it for £11,250 in the end (my car plus £750). That V8 is the best engine i have ever come across. The ST was an awesome car and i loved it but i’m glad i changed, i just went up to Manchester from Cambridge and barely noticed it, it just wafts along.

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:28:18 +0000

I just came across this discussion while browsing and it was very interesting reading all the comments so far. I have a Focus RS which I purchased a few weeks ago. I totally agree with the comments about the mountune ST as I originally ordered a new ST before I brought the RS as I wanted 5 doors, but Ford took so long delivering the ST that I couldn’t wait any longer and brought the RS as they just had a new delivery of an RS so it was actually an impulse buy on my part!
Anyway, I’m really not that fussed about 0-62 times. If a car can do under 7sec, that pretty damn fast to me. Also before I purchased the Ford, I did a lot of research in what I wanted in a car. For me it had to have power, at least 4 proper seats, a good sized boot (as I carry bike and stuff regulary), not be too big in size and under 30k. These criteria ruled out a LOT of cars and it came down to the Golf GTI & the Ford ST. The BMW 135i is fast but has very little boot and rear seat space (and also the image of the BMW!). I could have brought a second-hand Porsche Cayman, but again only 2 seats, very little boot space which is useless for me. So all in all I feel that the Ford was a great purchase for me. The acceleration in any gear has to be seen to be believed – just incredible! I was a little apprehensive as I originally felt that it looked a bit too boy racer-ish, but the more I look at it, the more the looks are growing on me big time so I’m a very happy customer. At the end of the day what I love about the Ford is that it’s just a FORD! It’s not trying to prove anything like the BMW & Audis are, it’s just a working man’s car and I like that fact a lot.

By: Darren

Darren — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:36:26 +0000

Well i would hope that there is no one talking on here who wouldn’t know everything you just said. But there is one thing you said that actually proves my point of the RS NOT being as good as it should have been. It has 300 bhp, mine has 260 bhp and its faster, only slightly, but the fact is that every time they put the 2 together the Mountune is quicker. But 0-60 is irrelevant to me any way, it’s in gear acceleration that matters in my opinion, a 3.2 V6 S3 does 30-70 in 5.1, a Mountune WITHOUT the full exhaust (which i cant wait to get by the way, lol) does it in 4.9, same power, roughly the same weight. So yes, a 4wd ton and a bit car is quicker than a similarly powered fwd ton and a bit car 0-60. But unless its very wet i have no problems at all. And if i wanted a really fast car, i wouldn’t buy a hot hatch of any sort because in the grand scheme of things they are very very slow, in fact you can buy a Rousch Mustang (0-60 in 4.7) for £18000 second hand. But i was 20 when i got the ST and it was perfect, just about insurable, has some guts, big boot and so on. The fact that it’s front wheel drive isn’t ideal, but if it keeps up with a 4wd S3 then it will do.

By: MikePaul

MikePaul — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:27:37 +0000

Front wheel drive has a limit to how much power it can handle in respect of traction to the road. Improvements in recent years with techno suspension and electronic traction have tamed tire burning antics have lessened incidents of scared old ladies at bus stops being harassed by spikey hair youths with cardboard rear wing hatches.
The fact remains that FWD still lacks the traction of rear wheel drive or 4 wheel drive rally cars. I think only an idiot would argue this fact. When a journalist writes “boy the FWD car is good why do you need 4 wheel drive anymore” he was actually driving in the south of France on a hot summers days doodling along with the sound of birds echoing along with the visual seduction of the beautiful Alps scenery. Mr Car Journalist he didn’t expect you to take his statement laterally, he expects only educated people read car magazine possessing a university degree in engineering and can read between the lines and employ common sense.
Even a 400Bhp FWD car will not crack 0-60 in much below 6 seconds due to the laws of motion and mechanical grip (check-out EVO times for a 400bhp Focus ST), then check-out the times for a 400BHP Audi S3; the stock German S3 upper middle-class hatch with 265bhp record a 0-60 time of 5.7 seconds – but up the power to 400BHP and the same 0-60 sprint is reduced to 4.6 seconds.
Many home made tuned FWD with 350bhp are just too hard to drive without changing tires every week and loosing it with torque steer into Farmer brown field and heading towards the petrified Cow mooing loudly that he’s about to meet his maker; this will make entertaining viewing on police camera action or you tube, but proves nothing. Your friends with take your horse power ranting and boasts in the same way as your believe you are a better driver than Michael Schumacher.

To be fair to Ford, they designed the Focus RS to just about handle 300BHP without the drive involving a church service afterwards. Its fast, safe and looks like a million euros.

By: Darren

Darren — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:19:12 +0000

350 bhp will get it doing around 0-60 in 5.3ish from what i’ve seen so far. Golf GTi beet the STi around the fifth gear test track so a 350 bhp RS will be a nice machine. But a standard RS was never what it could have been, you can only improve it by tuning it. But i don’t want to pay the extra money. Mines running about 5.7, bit quicker in a couple of weeks. That’ll do me.

By: danny

danny — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:27:47 +0000

An sti is just that it is not an rs yours is tuned i assume when you compare speeds it is compared to a standard rs ?I traded my st 5 months ago for an rs different league comes to mind the rs is much quicker than the media reports suggest god knows what my rs will be capable of when i have it tuned to 350bhp + did like the sti though lol sorry no punctuation just finished a 22hr stint at the hospital

By: MikePaul

MikePaul — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:18:36 +0000

It seems the Focus RS is infact 285ps (279bhp), this was confirmed in a recent EVO test and it comes very clear why the Montune ST is faster (its a lot lighter)

However Ford should be reported to trading standards for misleading customers into thinking they have a 300bhp car in the RS. This figure was dreamt up by the marketing department to make Ford be seen as the pioneer of the first 300bhp FWD car. This 300bhp does not bear truth to the dynos all round the country that see no more than 280hp from the Focus RS. Phone Power Engineering and ask them !

The Audi S3, VW Golf GTI and the Renault 250 are make atleast their quoted bhp. So in the real world the performance differences between the RS rivals is less than the marketing figures suggest.

By: Darren

Darren — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:47:49 +0000

I don’t think dull is the word i’d use and it’s sports car quick on the straights and in the bends. I think the best way i can describe it is that it’s too grown up for a hot hatch, there isn’t any lunacy.

By: Sell My Number Plate

Sell My Number Plate — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:39:21 +0000

Got to agree on the S3, going to be my next car actually, I also agree that its often overlooked as a hot hatch, then again many people have said it can be quite a dull drive, maybe that’s why its sometimes overlooked?

By: Darren

Darren — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:58:17 +0000

The new one which is apparently a “hatch back” although not so sure if i’d call it that is vial, really ugly and not as good as it should have been!! And the reason we aren’t talking about the decent ones of old is because they definitely weren’t hatch backs and this is entitled “Focus RS vs its HOT HATCH rivals” and said RS wasn’t designed to compete with Subaru any way.
And if you had read enough of this thread you would have seen that earlier we were talking about the Audi S3, probably the fastest standard Hot Hatch of the main bunch which wasn’t “conveniently overlooked” because it’s 4 wheel drive and doesn’t “scramble around”. And for the record, my Mountune has 260 bhp, does 0-60 in 5.8, 0-100 in less than 14 seconds and unless it’s really wet it literally doesn’t scramble at all, nor do i get any torque steer so get your facts right b4 you come and talk about the wrong type of car for the discussion.
If you have a Subaru then remember that you will never, ever be as fast as the guy who went next door after saving up for a couple more months and purchased Subaru’s actual rival, the EVO. But if you buy an RS you have the best of that type of car, front wheel drive hot hatches.

By: Mike Paul

Mike Paul — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:04:08 +0000

The Subaru STi beats the Focus RS hands down on the road and on the track. Much much faster and goes round corners in the wet. The Subaru 330s is even faster and an M3 chaser.

Because of its looks its being forgotten by many young pups, which is a shame.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:23:09 +0000

What about the new Impreza Sti 330S ?
Or the Impreza Sti or WRXS ?
Or are they conveniently overlooked when tyre scrambling/ torque steer mad front wheel drive hatches are being compared in case they might come out on top ?

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:34:51 +0000

But that’s the thing, i have my car for so many reasons but if i bought an RS it wouldn’t be because of speed, it would be because of its exclusivity and the fact that it would become a classic. Don’t get me wrong, when i heard that mine was faster than an RS (even if it is only in a straight line, (although hoping to change that very soon) ) i was very VERY!! happy! Lol. But i don’t think it would have bothered me much if it wasn’t. And it’s kinda like having the underdog in many ways and i like that.
But if you look at all the forums then we are all stupid because (according to the world of chav) we should all have bought Type R’s and our cars a rubbish!! Haha.

By: Mike Paul

Mike Paul — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:18:16 +0000

You touched on something Darren, for a fully loaded Focus RS price you can get a discounted Audi S4. The Focus RS figures vary 0-60 (5.7
autocar is unlikely more like 6.0-6.3 seconds), the 30-70 time (again autocar 4.9 and autoexpress is 5.8). I tend to use autoexpress figures as they tend to be the average figures overall. but one thing is clear the Focus ST montune is faster than an RS and thats figures published across all magazines, so reliable.

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:31:24 +0000

Yes, and a BMW 330i is a hell of a lot faster than that, but it’s still just as boring. There is no drama in the audi, it just goes quickly, and even then the 0-60 time is only 0.2 of a second faster and the 0-100 is only 0.3 of a second faster in the 8P, and in the sportback 0-100 is only 0.8 of a second faster so it wont exactly leave the RS for dead.
So yea, the 2006 onwards S3 is marginally faster than an RS/tuned ST (although i wouldn’t mind giving a newer one a go) but i need some drama, some excitement and i won’t get it in an Audi with anything less than an S4 or maybe a TTRS. Like i said, i’m sure it’s a fantastically brilliant car but i need more.

By: Mike Paul

Mike Paul — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:20:31 +0000

My wife just bought a brand new Audi S3 for £26,000 from an authorised Audi dealer. Thats a lot cheaper than an RS and we didnt pay extra for the colour she wanted. The Audi is faster than the RS, 0-60 time and 0-100, enought said. The resale value of Audi S3 I think will be more than the RS, once the RS fever dies down.