Photo: Ford
Since Ford Performance wants to educate the American consumer on the hot hatch topic, they figured they might as well go full throttle and top their competitors in terms of output. The Blue Oval has announced the official US-spec figures for the manic Focus and things are looking good.
Ford had introduced an estimated 315 hp plus and now they’ve come up with a nicely rounded 350 hp and 350 lb-ft. Sure, this isn’t exactly a surprise, since the numbers (almost) mirror the European-spec figures Ford released back in June.
Interestingly, the automaker didn’t mention anything about the overboost function described at the introduction of the European version. We’re talking about a 22 lb-ft (30 Nm) premium that’s offered for up to 15 seconds when the driver mashes the throttle. In the Old Continent version, the max torque sits at 440 Nm (324 lb-ft) from 2,000 to 4,500 rpm, with the overboost obvisouly addidng to that.
Still, this doesn’t change the fact that the Focus RS now tops both its more direct rivals, such as the Volkswagen Golf R and rally-bred machines like the Subaru WRX STI and the outgoing Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
Ford’s go-fast arm wanted to get us all into a tech mood, so they’ve decided to share some tech details of the unit with us. For instance, the four-cylinder units twin-scroll turbo delivers a peak boost of 23.2 psi.
Since the engineers had to gift the car with a stop-start system, so they started playing with the idea and came up with an anti-stall feature. If you happen to have issues with driving a stick and kill the engine, simply press the clutch again and it will come back to life, so you can enjoy it once again.
"We knew we wanted to put start-stop technology on the RS," explained Tyrone Johnson, engineering and vehicle manager, Ford Performance Europe. "So we said, 'What if we went one step further, and controlled for engine stall at launch using the same technology?' Well, that's exactly what we did and it's just as fast as our start-stop technology."
Interestingly, the automaker didn’t mention anything about the overboost function described at the introduction of the European version. We’re talking about a 22 lb-ft (30 Nm) premium that’s offered for up to 15 seconds when the driver mashes the throttle. In the Old Continent version, the max torque sits at 440 Nm (324 lb-ft) from 2,000 to 4,500 rpm, with the overboost obvisouly addidng to that.
Still, this doesn’t change the fact that the Focus RS now tops both its more direct rivals, such as the Volkswagen Golf R and rally-bred machines like the Subaru WRX STI and the outgoing Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
Ford’s go-fast arm wanted to get us all into a tech mood, so they’ve decided to share some tech details of the unit with us. For instance, the four-cylinder units twin-scroll turbo delivers a peak boost of 23.2 psi.
Since the engineers had to gift the car with a stop-start system, so they started playing with the idea and came up with an anti-stall feature. If you happen to have issues with driving a stick and kill the engine, simply press the clutch again and it will come back to life, so you can enjoy it once again.
"We knew we wanted to put start-stop technology on the RS," explained Tyrone Johnson, engineering and vehicle manager, Ford Performance Europe. "So we said, 'What if we went one step further, and controlled for engine stall at launch using the same technology?' Well, that's exactly what we did and it's just as fast as our start-stop technology."
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