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January 2016|TOPCAR.CO.ZA 632016’s most wanted:FOCUS RSMazda were bedfellows). Finding this ‘breathed’ too muchwhen su bject to RS-level forc es, additi onal strengtheningwas added, which then effectively defeated the rear cras hstructures, leading to further head scratching. With morereinforc ement within the bodyshell and on the frontsubframe, the RS is 23 per cent stiffer than a regular Focusoverall, but 200 per cent stiffer in key areas. Other bespokeRS elements include lower balljoints and knuckles at thefront, increasing camber to -1.5 degrees for extra grip, whilethe front power transfer unit and some of the bushes actuallycome from the Kuga. All of this has to be managed on afactory line already bursting to capacity. You get the idea.And even once all-wheel drive was agreed, it’s not as ifJohnson and his team went for the easy option. ‘We built aHaldex pr otot ype,’ he explains, ‘and then said “we’re notdoing that”.’ He ’s not a fan of the system used by basicallyevery rival – at his most succinct he describes it in four-letterform – largely beca use the advantages over front-wheeldrive are rooted in stra ight-line traction alone. ‘Forundersteer, those all-wheel-drive systems do nothing,’ heclaims. Ford’s system is intended to be rather moreactive, oras Gagstatter puts it: ‘Like a rear-whe el-drive car with anenormous amount of grip’. The distinction is instantlyapparent from the passenger seat.Can you ge nuinely tell how immediate the front end feelsfrom the wrong side of the car, how resistant it is to washingwide through Lommel’s ‘Track Seven’ hairpins – the sceneof so many offs? Not definitivel y. But what isunquestionable is just how stra ightforward it is for thetechnician driving to bring the ba ck axle into play. Not interms of lurid tailslides (that comes later, on a skid pan), butin the way he’s able to adjust the car’s corner-exit trajectoryunder power. Nosing down the ro ad like a laser or neatlysidestepping the rear tyres for a flourish, the RS feelsunerringly transparent in its intentions and almostshockingly ke en to do the driver’s bidding. Yet he’s sorelaxed behind the wheel and so clearly not trying overlyhard – with th is brief demonstration of its prowess,carefully contro lled though it is, you can’t help thinking thisFocus is going to make the Golf R and Audi RS3 seem asagile as an oven gl ove. Exactly how has Ford achieved thisusing essentially the same all-wheel-drive system as theRange Rover Evoque?Let’s bust that myth. Pointin g at the Rear Drive Unit(RDU) on the underside of an RS that’s been convenientlyhoisted 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 someof the Land Rover components early on in the programme,but we broke them all.’ Deadpan, but you can tell he’sgrinning inside. ‘So we’ve changed it completel y. Thehousing is different, the internals are different, the ge ars aredifferent – basically everything’s different now. And we’vemade it morecompact to fit our space.’He’s not kidding ab out compact. Sitting at the junc tionbetween the three-piece propsh aft and the two rear driveshafts is a silver bo x that looks ba rely bigger than a loaf ofbread – certainly much smaller than a conventionaldifferential. It houses a pair of el ectronically contro lledclutches, one for either si de of the car, constantly varyingthe amount of drive going to each rear wheel and enablingthe RS to achieve true torque vectoring. A Haldex systemcan only control the distribution front and rear; in the Focusup to100 per cent of available rear torque – and that’snominally 70 per cent of the total at most, though Ford hasseen up to95 per cent real world delivery in testing – can besent to a single rear wheel. It’s not hard to see the dynamicpotential, while outright traction and launch control means``````The other partofthe challenge isthatit can’t betoo hardcore –it’salsogot totakefour people downthe shops``````PriceTBCEngine2 261ccturbo 4cyl,257kW@ 6000rpm, 440Nm @ 2000-4 500rpm (470onoverboost)Transmission6-spd manual, AWDSuspensionMacPhersonstrutwith semi-isolated subframefront; SLA independentwithcontrol blade rearPerformance4.7sec0-100kph, 265kph,7.7ℓ/ 10 0km, 175g/km CO 2Length/width/height4 390/1 823/1 472mmWeight/made from1 599kg/steelOnSaleQ2 2016