Ford’s SVT group is still on the fence on whether to break its own mold by manufacturing a five-door Focus RS
– all previous Foci RS were three-door hatches – or replace the Focus
RS with the smaller Fiesta RS. That said, all of the confusion between
what to build does not mean Ford isn’t raking its brain to plan on how
to maximize the Focus’ power plant to satisfy RS buyers.
According
to reports, the 2.0-liter plant in the Focus ST is pretty much maxed
out and attempting to squeeze too much more power from it could be
catastrophic without massive upgrades, and Focus RS buyer will not be
happy with a simple 10 to 20-horsepower increase over the ST model. To
help rectify the situation it appears as if engineers are turning to the
future Mustang for an answer.
Ford is currently developing a turbo four-banger measuring 2.3-liter and pumping out 330 horsepower for the upcoming Mustang redesign,
which will replace the base level V-6 engine. Matthias Ton, a chief
engineer on the Focus RS project, confirmed that if indeed the Focus RS
is produced this year, all signs point to it bearing this new 2.3-liter
boosted four-cylinder under its aggressive-looking bonnet. That would
give the newest rendition of the RS a full 32 ponies more than the
latest model and only 15 horsepower less than the special edition RS500 Focus.
In
addition to the extra ponies, the RS would include the typical larger
brakes and stiffer suspension. There is also talk of a mechanical
limited slip differential coming standard on the new RS, but that has
not been confirmed.
We will continue to follow the
Focus RS saga and let you know what is going on. We assume that the SVT
division will come to its senses and just roll out a five-door Focus RS.
Rolling out a low-horsepower, lightweight Fiesta
RS just to retain the three-door body seems like a huge risk, as the
Fiesta is not a “tuner” style car and an RS model is unlikely to draw
much interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment