would need to be at RS spec power level to compete (std 166kw wouldnt cut it, especially with the added weight), be too expensive I'd think.Originally Posted by MRMOPARMAN
Plus re-engineering everything for 4wd adds to the development costs
would need to be at RS spec power level to compete (std 166kw wouldnt cut it, especially with the added weight), be too expensive I'd think.
Plus re-engineering everything for 4wd adds to the development costs
Given that Ford pulled the RS engine off the Ford Group parts-shelf (coincidence that it has the same power to the killerwasp as a Volvo S60R & V70R?), they could also have done the same with AWD ... if it was available in the Focus body. Seems like the only thing they came-up with for the RS is the fuckknuckle suspension; however, as you say it'd have been way too expensive to redesign the body for AWD even though the original platform was designed for AWD.
There is of course the chance that they decided that being not-AWD would be a point of difference in the above-WRX segment of the market where Evo's & STI's live.
Mr Mango & Mr Pear are my heroes!!
(*) Assisted by Boeing Drivers in 2005.
If were a girl I'd have a Toyota Starlet GT Turbo
if this is true, i hate ford more than i thought.
hi-hi performance hatch market does not need or want FWD. (135I,STI, EVO, golf R etc etc..)
if you design a hot hatch with heaps of power and "rally pedigree" for the specs page of your brochure, and then determine you need to implement torque limiting in most of the gears because some dickhead decide it should be FWD, and the car becomes shit when you turn the limiter off, you've fucked up somewhere.
AWD RS would fix this, and i would buy tomorrow.
a 400hp fwd is retarded, a 400hp awd or rwd hatch is awesome.
Last edited by burn4005; 11-03-12 at 09:15 AM.
yes i have a car and a bike and a computer and some other shit... but why the fuck would i bother posting details about them here... are you retired? why do you care anyway?
It's all a moot point now that the new model Focus is out, they haven't released the hot shot version yet have they?
Doesnt want FWD? In January there 5 STIs, 10 Evos, 14 Ralliarts sold... There were 28 RS250s in comparison.
And yet the Focus is more fun than a WRX. Slower, but more fun.
But yeah if you buy cars based on a maximum theoretical lap time achieved by somebody else on another continent the WRX would be the go.
i buy cars based on the feel of driving it, and theknowledge i'll get bored and double the power of the thing within 6 months of driving it.
ive had a Mk5 golf GTI from work, and 147kw is great up to 60km/h but after that its a bucket. another 20 wouldn't help. accelerating around a corner on a damp/wet road had the dash lighting up like a christmas tree. you're on a leash.
double the power of the RS or rs250 and you've got a axle tramping mess that has the traction light flashing whenever you do anything.
sure, some cars are aimed at daily commuters, and "fun" is enough. but i would have thought an RS was serious enough to not be aimed at that. i find piece of shit cars like hyundai getz hire cars fun, because you have to thrash the crap out of them, and they lurch around like a lump of jelly and the brakes are shit.
i do realize that my thoughts do not reflect that of most consumers, so i guess im just venting the fact that i like the car but am of the firm idealogical belief that fwd is crap.
my current car is a 305awkw Evo 9 now and track it every chance i get. isnt that what the RS250 and RS are about? i dont care about what is faster on paper, i care about what is fun/faster with me driving. and i'd be incredibly impressed if a focus RS has a higher potential. im not going to quote others lap times because it's not important.
im a warm blooded male, if im trying to push an accelerator through the floor to get the car to actually go, or feel like a computer is telling me im a hoon and it was going to turn of the power for a second, im not having a good time. my previous car was a 300rwkw rx-7, and while it didn't grip all that well, it was a rediculously fun car to drive on a track/back road.
actually, i'll be flying home next weekend. if i can get a test drive of an xr5 or an rs250 i'll give one a blast.
Last edited by burn4005; 11-03-12 at 11:51 AM.
yes i have a car and a bike and a computer and some other shit... but why the fuck would i bother posting details about them here... are you retired? why do you care anyway?
Im bored so will break this down with my 2c
i buy cars based on the feel of driving it, and theknowledge i'll get bored and double the power of the thing within 6 months of driving it.
Why would you want to double the HP of you RS, RS250, or GTi. when yes your right you will ruin its driveablity and fun factor. Not to mention these sort of cars are likely to be 'Fun' daily drivers not all out track cars.
ive had a Mk5 golf GTI from work, and 147kw is great up to 60km/h but after that its a bucket. another 20 wouldn't help. accelerating around a corner on a damp/wet road had the dash lighting up like a christmas tree. you're on a leash.
I have a MKVI GTi stock, heck it does 0-100 in 6 odd seconds runs high 14 qtrs, will hit 160kmh fairly quick....not so long ago this was the performance of fairly exotic cars.....heaps fast enough for some fun in your daily commutes. If your lighting your tyres up everywhere on the street in a stock MKV GTi your driving it wrong
double the power of the RS or rs250 and you've got a axle tramping mess that has the traction light flashing whenever you do anything.
Exactly so why do it?
sure, some cars are aimed at daily commuters, and "fun" is enough. but i would have thought an RS was serious enough to not be aimed at that. i find piece of shit cars like hyundai getz hire cars fun, because you have to thrash the crap out of them, and they lurch around like a lump of jelly and the brakes are shit.
Yeah the RS has track day asperations, but again thinking lack of HP is the problem is missng the point of the vehicle.
i do realize that my thoughts do not reflect that of most consumers, so i guess im just venting the fact that i like the car but am of the firm idealogical belief that fwd is crap.
Crap for what?......Time attack tracks days....or what 99.99% of people use them for spirited on road driving.
my current car is a 305awkw Evo 9 now and track it every chance i get. isnt that what the RS250 and RS are about? i dont care about what is faster on paper, i care about what is fun/faster with me driving. and i'd be incredibly impressed if a focus RS has a higher potential. im not going to quote others lap times because it's not important.
Fact: Evos make bad drivers look good, maybe this is why your lighting tyres up in your MKV GTi everywhere
im a warm blooded male, if im trying to push an accelerator through the floor to get the car to actually go, or feel like a computer is telling me im a hoon and it was going to turn of the power for a second, im not having a good time. my previous car was a 300rwkw rx-7, and while it didn't grip all that well, it was a rediculously fun car to drive on a track/back road.
This is why we have toysHeck I have a 300awKW GTR....is it more fun than my GTi?.....yeah on the track for sure, all the rest of the time...and I mean all the rest of the time I would take the GTi.
actually, i'll be flying home next weekend. if i can get a test drive of an xr5 or an rs250 i'll give one a blast.
If your looking for outright performance your going to be dissapointed
Lucky is the man who can afford to have a dedicated track only car. For the rest of us we need a compromise between fun, and commute.
yep some people miss the point of a fwd hot hatch, there is a fun factor there.
Most fun car to drive i've ever had was my 100whp, 800kg charade, shitloads more fun than the r32 with 2.5x the power and rwd.
everyone has a different viewpoint i guess, hence why there are many different cars around, catering for different tastes and markets.
Umm ... sort of. There are the people who like the cars I like, and there are the people who are wrong.
I guess there's no law against being wrong, like there's no law against using the non-word "legos" or mispronouncing the letter h as "haitch", but similarly maybe we should bring the death-sentence back to stop any breeding etc.
Mr Mango & Mr Pear are my heroes!!
(*) Assisted by Boeing Drivers in 2005.
If were a girl I'd have a Toyota Starlet GT Turbo
I'm gen y dammit, everything needs to be perfect for me, i dont care about anyone else.
yes i have a car and a bike and a computer and some other shit... but why the fuck would i bother posting details about them here... are you retired? why do you care anyway?
Same with my '89 Suzuki GTi - only had 100bhp (stock) and a bit more tweaked, didn't handle like my DC2R (or even come close) but god damn that car was a lot of fun. It wasn't the power that was addictive, just the simple feeling that you could chuck it any which way you wanted and have fun.
im not saying they should only have awd models.. they could keep the fwd puss box and have an AWD model for hard cunts that wanna take it to the next level
'75 international acco fire truck!!
'70 VG sedan - current project, now 13's for $1300 project
'70 dodge yoot, current project - mothballed long term
'73 KE25 corolla - race car
'74 KE25 corolla - back on the road!
'89 BNR32 skyline - mothballed..
Probably going to find it hard to get people to pay $70-$80 for a focus when a $60k RS is considered pretty damn good by most people, let alone a base model XR5 at $35k
VW manages to do it with the golf R for less than 70-80k. im sure ford could if they actually tried.
'75 international acco fire truck!!
'70 VG sedan - current project, now 13's for $1300 project
'70 dodge yoot, current project - mothballed long term
'73 KE25 corolla - race car
'74 KE25 corolla - back on the road!
'89 BNR32 skyline - mothballed..
Yeah my G102 Charade was great fun, didn't have much grunt, 77kw claimed when new, and was completely fucked but I loved driving the ring out of it. Until I found the chassis was cracked and twisted then I just always had the thought the thing was going to snap in half as I hit 7k in ever gear I could.
I don't think so. I reckon an AWD Focus RS, or something more mental, at $70k would actually sell since it would be very easy to play on the whole WRC connection. And lets face it, part of the whole hot Ford hatch image is the rally heritage, hence the RS badge for the top Focus.
bought the xr5 today for a reasonable price. good times ahead.
There is a lot of talk about the DCR2 being a great FWD handler, but I wonder how they compare to say an XR5 or similar.
handling wise no comparison...
XR5 much better daily and in a straight line
Guess the Honda only weighed 1 tonne.
This discussion got interesting, this thing is just a daily driver that gets me around town and into the country on weekends, it's comfy gets 10.5L per 100 and can overtake anything I want, heck it now does 80-120 in under 4 sec.
Good work Wiggah on your purchase.
How's this thing working out for you Mr Rust?
I am thinking of getting rid of the wife's XR6T in favour of one. How have you found it for packing the kids stuff in etc?
Been thinking if I can flick the XR for low teens and get her into on on a novated lease it might make sense as a family truck.
Thanks for asking, it's going great, am up to 13,500km, I've been running the Race + tune for about a month now, reset the trip and got 8.2L per 100 going out to the farm the other day which is rolling hills and shit but 110km/h most of the way. Still pulls harder than Cam at a porn shop!! Have found that overtaking from 80km/hr is about just the same in 3rd, 4th or 5th. Being an oversquare engine it doesn't rev that hard, best to just floor it in what ever gear you happen to be in rather than drop it back and rev the buggery out of it.
Mine is only a 4seater with the leather package but meh, I hate taking 5 people in the car anyway, to be honest if you wanted to go away for a mega trip with 2kids, then the luggage space isn't massive but I've just learn't to pack smarter now that I have a smaller car and carry less shit.
If you fold the back seat bum rests forward and then tilt the back rest down, it is a pretty decent space, can easily chuck a bike in there minus the front wheel.
Last edited by Greg Rust; 20-04-12 at 12:32 AM.
I survived the great 2v vs 4v debate.
I can say the XR5 is the only hot hatch that I fine appealing. No Golf, Renault does the same.
That engine note is damn addictive. Shame it's going to be replaced by a four pot!!
Does anyone know when the new ST is coming out?
Good info Mr Rust.
Might look for one to drive.
So now that it silly raining season in WA, I was thinking of getting a pressure activated switch so that when it boosts up, the left hand indicator comes on and I change lanes effortlessly.
I survived the great 2v vs 4v debate.
Quaife time?
Expensive option when it only rains in Perth 4.5 days per annum............
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