Focus RS Starts Production.

[J03]

wow i bet that is mental...

boxters are good cars... porsche has sold alot of them... whether people say its diluting the brand or not they talk crap. you see so many boxters on the road and obviously porsche has done the right thing to making them.. id take one over a french heap anyday reguardless of performance.
heritage, image, good performance, brand.. would be abit boring if porsche only made one car in the same league as the 911 what would be the point in that?

 

[OllyTB]

My mate has been going on and on and on and on and on and (you get the idea) about the new RS. He has been saving his pennies for a while and his dad works for ford so gets 30% off.
He currently has a Festa ST and still thinks his car would beat my 182 round a track.
Even when i tell him that having more weight and less power isnt a good thing he still goes on.
So when march comes he will no doubt have one of the early ones.
Watch this space.

Even if his dad does work for Ford he won't get 30% off as it's not on the Ford Privilidge scheme and probably never will be. Discount on Focus ST was not 30% either. Yes the focus uses the C1 platform shared with the S40, C70 and V50, along with some Mazda's but this does not mean you can automatically package the AWD in the focus, yes you can invest in the tooling to do so but the RS project has to be a financially viable one in the ucrrent economic climate and not a loss leader. Sharing a plaform doens't mean it shares the exact same carry over floorpan, merely the same vehcile architecture.
You also need to consider the design of the Haldex AWD system and Getrag transmission. It is designed to power the front wheels with engine in transverse layout and transfer torque to the rear when the front wheel slip, it is not suited to a performance car application like a conventional longitudinal layout used in other cars like the impreza and it's response time is slow in the early generations of the system. Not to mention the availibility of the latest generation as it is not PAG's in house technology and is license to other OEM's on exclusive terms in many cases. For these reasons and many more the Ford decision was to go with fwd and develop it's own technologies. I've not even talked about the obvious weight complexity within manufacture or limited power/torque capacity of this sytem.

Suffice to say, the change and investment required to make it a profitable and credible program did not add up.

 

[mini-valver]

Add to that they found in testing that the 4WD system offered little to no advantage over the FWD set-up they had developed, it'd be retarded to make the car a) more expensive to produce b) Heavier, arguably you'd need more power to compensate this and the additional transmission losses c) In the price bracket of some of the big name sports cars.

Good market decision, like the Pie man says.....

 

[Christophe]

looks so nice in that green.

 

[Englebert]

What is it's 'Ring time then? Anyone suspicious that it has started production yet the time hasn't been banded about in the press yet... does that mean its slower than the Megane?!

 

[JT182]

I love 'em.

Possibly my next car after Uni, Green with Black alloys! They just look so mean, a proper weapon and such a lads car! Always loved fast Fords, just something about them. What do you lot think the residuals will be like? I think they'll drop quite quickly?

Would be good to set up a poll actually, this or the R26R.

 

[OllyTB]

RS has january build dates specified.

 

[Waitey]

You can't eliminate torque steer when one drive shaft is longer than the other.
Its pyhsics.

 

[OllyTB]

intermediate shafts and stiffening the long side mitigate alot of the driveshaft geometry and elasticity issues though.

 

[Waitey]

Yeah and torque limiting diff does the rest in theory. In practice there are too many other factors affecting the system.

 

[OllyTB]

At the end of the day, driving the front wheels is wrong!

 

[mini-valver]

When are you putting that shitbox XE in the Astra driving the rear wheels Turner???


RWD Mk1 would be epic.....

 

[Waitey]

At the end of the day, driving the front wheels is wrong!

Amen. Says the guy with a TT and 172.

Oh how i miss my Westfield.

 

[Ian_182]

I love the "impossible to use 300bhp through the front wheels" comments earlier in the thread. Touring cars prove unequivocally that it's a false claim.

 

[blackpool_john]

I love 'em.

Possibly my next car after Uni, Green with Black alloys! They just look so mean, a proper weapon and such a lads car! Always loved fast Fords, just something about them. What do you lot think the residuals will be like? I think they'll drop quite quickly?

Would be good to set up a poll actually, this or the R26R.

residuals will be rock solid mate!
look how much a nice escort cossie is worth now and the last one was built over 10 years ago.
everyone loves an rs, supply and demand, blah, blah.

 

[ukaskew]

So a new evo X may have its work cut out

Isn't the R26R firmly in that territory anyhow? Not really heard a bad word about it, the RS is going to have its work cut out to be better than the Megane imo.

 

[Ian_182]

I think it will be better than the meg.

 

[jeremy]

It was GP silver. EU05 FRT (aka euro-fart) Boxster S for your info with sat-nav and 19" wheels :rasp: *b^t^h slap for Roy Munson* LOL

I nearly bought a R26.R but the Focus RS isn't for me. GT3 RS in Green would be nice but the 85k+ they're still fetching isn't so appealing.

Ahh ok cool. Thanks for the info mate. Out of interest, what colour was the one you drove?

 

[OllyTB]

Looks like its just gone onto ford privelidge with about 8% off.