Top Car

January 2016|TOPCAR.CO.ZA 63

2016’s most wanted:FOCUS RS

Mazda were bedfellows). Finding this ‘breathed’ too much

when su bject to RS-level forc es, additi onal strengthening

was added, which then effectively defeated the rear cras h

structures, leading to further head scratching. With more

reinforc ement within the bodyshell and on the front

subframe, the RS is 23 per cent stiffer than a regular Focus

overall, but 200 per cent stiffer in key areas. Other bespoke

RS elements include lower balljoints and knuckles at the

front, increasing camber to -1.5 degrees for extra grip, while

the front power transfer unit and some of the bushes actually

come from the Kuga. All of this has to be managed on a

factory line already bursting to capacity. You get the idea.

And even once all-wheel drive was agreed, it’s not as if

Johnson and his team went for the easy option. ‘We built a

Haldex pr otot ype,’ he explains, ‘and then said “we’re not

doing that”.’ He ’s not a fan of the system used by basically

every rival – at his most succinct he describes it in four-letter

form – largely beca use the advantages over front-wheel

drive are rooted in stra ight-line traction alone. ‘For

understeer, those all-wheel-drive systems do nothing,’ he

claims. Ford’s system is intended to be rather moreactive, or

as Gagstatter puts it: ‘Like a rear-whe el-drive car with an

enormous amount of grip’. The distinction is instantly

apparent from the passenger seat.

Can you ge nuinely tell how immediate the front end feels

from the wrong side of the car, how resistant it is to washing

wide through Lommel’s ‘Track Seven’ hairpins – the scene

of so many offs? Not definitivel y. But what is

unquestionable is just how stra ightforward it is for the

technician driving to bring the ba ck axle into play. Not in

terms of lurid tailslides (that comes later, on a skid pan), but

in the way he’s able to adjust the car’s corner-exit trajectory

under power. Nosing down the ro ad like a laser or neatly

sidestepping the rear tyres for a flourish, the RS feels

unerringly transparent in its intentions and almost

shockingly ke en to do the driver’s bidding. Yet he’s so

relaxed behind the wheel and so clearly not trying overly

hard – with th is brief demonstration of its prowess,

carefully contro lled though it is, you can’t help thinking this

Focus is going to make the Golf R and Audi RS3 seem as

agile as an oven gl ove. Exactly how has Ford achieved this

using essentially the same all-wheel-drive system as the

Range Rover Evoque?

Let’s bust that myth. Pointin g at the Rear Drive Unit

(RDU) on the underside of an RS that’s been conveniently

hoisted up in one of Lommel’s garages, Johnson explains.

‘Land Rover takes aunit like this from the same supplier,

GKN. But our unit is different now. We actually used some

of the Land Rover components early on in the programme,

but we broke them all.’ Deadpan, but you can tell he’s

grinning inside. ‘So we’ve changed it completel y. The

housing is different, the internals are different, the ge ars are

different – basically everything’s different now. And we’ve

made it morecompact to fit our space.’

He’s not kidding ab out compact. Sitting at the junc tion

between the three-piece propsh aft and the two rear drive

shafts is a silver bo x that looks ba rely bigger than a loaf of

bread – certainly much smaller than a conventional

differential. It houses a pair of el ectronically contro lled

clutches, one for either si de of the car, constantly varying

the amount of drive going to each rear wheel and enabling

the RS to achieve true torque vectoring. A Haldex system

can only control the distribution front and rear; in the Focus

up to100 per cent of available rear torque – and that’s

nominally 70 per cent of the total at most, though Ford has

seen up to95 per cent real world delivery in testing – can be

sent to a single rear wheel. It’s not hard to see the dynamic

potential, while outright traction and launch control means

The other partof

the challenge is

thatit can’t be

too hardcore –it’s

alsogot totake

four people down

the shops

PriceTBC

Engine2 261ccturbo 4cyl,

257kW@ 6000rpm, 440Nm @ 2000-

4 500rpm (470onoverboost)

Transmission6-spd manual, AWD

SuspensionMacPhersonstrutwith semi-

isolated subframefront; SLA independentwith

control blade rear

Performance4.7sec0-100kph, 265kph,

7.7ℓ/ 10 0km, 175g/km CO 2

Length/width/height

4 390/1 823/1 472mm

Weight/made from1 599kg/steel

OnSaleQ2 2016