Ford Focus ST – Getting Warmer
So the Focus ST shall forever reside in the collective consciousness in that day-glo shade that Ford calls Electric Orange: an orange oranger than the offspring of Dale Winton and Judith Chalmers weaned only on Sunny Delight.
Stranger still, because the Focus ST has never really been a day-glo orange sort of car. Conceptually, I mean. Citroen Saxo VTS? That’s an orange car. The Astra VXR, too. Loud, angry cars favoured by loud, angry punters. But the ST has always been a slightly subtler hot hatch proposition: a bit less flighty, a bit more refined. Even if Clarkson does call it the Asbo.
Maybe the orangeness was a luminescent nod back to the Focus ST pre-pre-predecessor, the Escort Mexico. Maybe the Ford design team just likes really bright colours. Maybe it was a rebellion against the more, er mature styling of the second generation Focus. Whatever the reason, every pub discussion I’ve ever had about the Focus ST has contained the reply, “What, that orange one?”
And now the Focus ST has grown up just a bit more. It gets the same ‘Kinetic’ styling revisions – that’s Ford-speak for ‘a bit more like the Mondeo’ – as the rest of the Focus range, along with a few engineering tweaks to freshen it up for 2008.
Don’t worry, you can still order it in Electric Orange. Top of the colour chart, in fact. Today though, we’re driving the Focus ST in a more retina-friendly Colorado Red, a shade calculated to reduce boy-racer red-light revving by up to 23 per cent. For my money, the Focus ST carries off the bulgier, more angular styling better than the rest of the Focus range. While the bigger ridged bonnet makes the stock Focus look a touch fat-faced, the deeper, body kitted chin of the Focus ST balances it out nicely.
Same story round the back, where the twin tailpipes and rear diffuser (because a hot hatch ain’t a hot hatch without a whacking great lump of ridged plastic under the bumper nowadays) add proportion to the Focus’s wider, squarer arse. In truth – and despite Fords assurances that they’ve changed every panel except the roof – its a pretty subtle face-lift, but it does just enough to keep the ST looking fresh.
Problem is, drop into the gently bucketed seats, push the starter button to fire up the 2.5-litre turbo engine, and immediate impressions are curiously underwhelming. Its not the cabin, which now has vast swathes of something that looks a bit like carbon fibre, and on closer inspection turns out to be exactly that – something that looks a bit like carbon fibre – or the new red-on-black dials. That’s all good.
No, the underwhelming bit is how sedate, how soft, how well-behaved the Focus ST is through town and gently cruising on the motorway. I his is Ford’s flagship hot hatch, for chrissakes, the car that’s meant to be the aggressive, snarling little scrote of the line-up. But, despite a handful of suspension revisions from the Ford engineers, it doesn’t feel aggressive and snarling on the road.
Instead, it drives as gently and well-manneredly as any other Focus: light clutch, slightly spongy brakes and nicely weighted steering. With the exception of the odd bassy cough from the exhausts, there’s little hint of the 222bhp lurking in front of you. In fact, you can quite happily potter around under 3000 rpm with diesel-like ease, if you’re that way inclined.
But it’s all a front, a Jekyll and Hyde facade. Find a quiet, sinuous stretch of В-road, floor the accelerator, and the Focus ST reveals itself to be truly snarling-bastard quick. Quicker in real-world, real-road driving than exotic stuff of twice, three times the price. Beyond that initial low-down turbo punch, the revs just kick on for miles and miles, accompanied by a rasping metallic growl and a crackle and thump from the exhaust on downchanges.
This isn’t some lazy forced-induction lump: the Focus ST pulls hard all the way up to 7,000rpm, and will treat you to a little shuffle of the tyres over 5000rpm in second gear. In the dry. The initial impression of softness simply spirits away as you push on, the steering and brakes revealing far more feel the harder you drive. Yes, there’s more give in the chassis than you might expect, but in a good way – the best way I am describe it is as a sort of elasticity, a suppleness that keeps the ST feeling wired, almost on tiptoes through corners. It is, it) short, an epic drive.
If I’ve got a gripe, it’s that the Focus ST’s traction control system isn’t as delicate or helpful as some of its rivals. True, it’ll allow you to get the back end loose, but whereas the Renaultsport Megane, for example, nudges you round corners with leathery adjustments to the driven wheels, the Focus STs traction control kills the power rather more aggressively, meaning that in the wet you’re often stuck with a dead accelerator while the wheels untangle themselves. Then again, you can turn the TC oft. And off really does mean oft. You’re on your own.
The biggest criticism, however, will come from those who wanted something harder, something less comfortable, something less civilised from ford. But there are enough bone-jarring hot hatches out there, enough track-day specials that demand to be driven everywhere in a haze of near-psychotic fury. The Focus ST is a rather more fine-spun proposition: a car that’s placid and domesticated when you want it to be. but capable of full-blown back-road lunacy when you’re in the mood.
And besides, there’s a little something called the Focus RS on the way to satisfy those who want their hot hatch with greater lairiness. Ah yes, the RS. The car that, with a rumoured 300bhp (through the front wheels. Eep) and a trick diff (slightly less eep) is set to give the Impreza STi and Evo X a proper scare when it arrives next summer. That’s the other reason that this Focus ST is big news: it’ll provide the underpinnings for the 2009 RS. Quite a responsibility.
When I chatted to Jost Capito, the former Paris-Dakar winner in charge of Ford’s performance division, he said, “If the Focus ST is a dolphin, the Focus RS will be a shark. That’s the mentality we’re using to build it.” A strange metaphor maybe, but the message is clear: the Focus RS is going to be one uncompromising sharp-toothed brute of a hot hatch.
If sharp-toothed brutes arc your thing, hold oil until next year, because every indication is that the Focus RS will be seriously, seriously good. For most of us, though – the most of us who need the same car to do the boring, day-to-day shlepping and the nobody’s-looking-now-floor-it Stuff in between – the Focus ST licks all the boxes. The best hot hatch on sale today? It just might be. liven in orange.
Source: TopGear