It’s not often I get the opportunity to
review a new performance car owned by one of the long-time readers of Pirate
Press, but this just so happens to be one of those rare
occasions.
The vehicle in focus is, funny enough, a
Focus. And due to it’s humble origins, it gets about as much respect as my
Saturn.
That’s right, the Focus started out in
1998 as the successor to the Ford Escort, the ubiquitous economy car of
Generation X. Granted, the Escort was a decent, albeit unexciting, way to get
from Point A to Point B. And it seemed that it fell into two sales demographics:
If you were unlucky enough to be under twenty, or over sixty, you owned an
Escort.
Ford sought to overturn this prejudice
with the 2002 Focus SVT. It was the 170 hp car for people who wanted some
caffeine in their morning coffee, but without the high-insurance and
fuel-penalty of the Mustang GT. Built in small batches like a good whiskey, it
was even named as one of Car and Driver’s 10 Best Cars of 2002. Alas,
like Formula 1 in North America, the SVT Focus was largely invisible and
cancelled in 2004.
But it’s overseas
success continued and in 2005, Ford introduced the second generation of the
Focus ST in Europe. With 225 hp and a 152 mph top speed, it put the Focus on
North American wish lists even though it was more politically non grata than
Fidel Castro.
All the while,
British publications continued to rub our Yankee noses in the fact that we
couldn’t buy one at any price. In 2009, Autocar picked the 300 hp Focus
RS over the 480 hp Nissan GT-R: “The
Focus
RS is no match for the GT-R
on The 'Ring, where the massive power and sophisticated AWD setup gives the
Nissan a clear advantage over the FWD, 300 HP Ford. Take the two out to some
wonderful back roads in the English countryside and it's a slightly different
story. Whereas the GT-R is all about the controlled distribution of force, the
Focus RS is all about confident fun. As a real world daily driver on narrow
roads with steep drop-offs and few long straights, the Focus RS wins out in
terms of experience.”
Top Gear U.K. presented a similar argument pitting the RS
against Ford’s 550 hp GT supercar with the same conclusion: “It doesn't matter that the GT has several
hundred horsepower more than the RS, it doesn't matter that it can pull more
lateral G, or that it is by some margin a more focused fast car. It's just that
in the RS you can deploy 85 percent of the available ability in every situation.
The GT can't. On any kind of straight, the GT murders the RS, no matter how
useless the driver, but it's when you start to pinch back effortless seconds on
the bendy bits that the RS starts to make rich owners of supposedly superior
cars sweat quite badly and have militant thoughts about their latest supercar
acquisition.”
With such effusive praise, it was
therefore met with mini-riots of celebration when it was revealed that Ford
would finally start selling the new 252 hp 2013 Focus ST here. Naturally, there was some dissent that we weren’t getting
the hotter 300 hp RS model, or the ultimate 350 hp RS500, but in retrospect it
looks like Ford knew what it was doing.
The particular Tuxedo Black 2013 Focus
ST that I drove belongs to Randy Saunders, a life-long enthusiast who has driven
Fords for thirty years. Starting with a new 1986 Mustang GT, he progressed up
the horsepower ladder before ending with a modified 2007 Shelby GT500 that made
over 600 hp at the rear wheels. He’s also an experienced driver, having spent
those same three decades racking up countless races on the street and at the
track.
We met up at the Cars and
Coffee I covered last month and when it was winding down, he offered me the
opportunity to take the Focus for a spin. Like myself, he’s keenly aware that
his car doesn’t carry a prestigious nameplate and that may cause some
discrimination at car shows. However, he expects it and with his
self-deprecating sense of humor, he’s the first to make fun of it. “What idiot
would pay $30K for a Focus?” he asks rhetorically before answering, “Oh,
wait...I did!”
Upon opening the driver door, I was
greeted by the deeply bolstered Recaro seats. Part of the top-of-the-line $4,435
ST3 Equipment Group, these heated leather seats are the closest to actual race
car seats that I’ve ever experienced in a production car. However, if you
routinely shop in the “Big & Tall” section or purchase “Husky”-size pants,
then you might want to pass on the snug-fitting chairs. They’re wonderful for
holding you in place during spirited driving, but may be a bit uncomfortable if
your waistline approaches your age. In fact, we spoke at length to one such
portly owner who purposely purchased his Focus ST without the Recaros for that
very reason.
The next thing that strikes me is that
there is no ignition cylinder or place for a key, just a push-button start.
Naturally, this would have saved GM millions of dollars in legal woes, bad
publicity, and recall headaches if cars such as mine had this feature. I
tentatively push the red Start/Stop button and with a brief whir of the starter,
the Focus comes to life.
Randy reaches over and makes an
adjustment on the dash. I see an image of a tiny car with wavy lines behind it
illuminate on the instrument panel. “I’ve just turned off the traction control,”
he announces before adding, “You’re in Sport Mode now.” He explains that there
are two other settings as well: The default setting is called “Standard Mode”
and enables all driving aids allowing the car to maintain grip and stability in
virtually any weather condition. The other setting is the most extreme, which
disables all electronic intervention. Depending on your skill level, this can
either be a blessing or a curse. However, with “Sport Mode” the system acts as
high-wire net, intruding only if I do something life-threatening.
As I find first in the gearbox and go to
pull away, I’m startled by the light take-up of the clutch. Typically,
performance cars are imbued with heavy clutch pedals due to the necessary
clamping force. I recall there was a distinct increase in clutch stiffness when
I graduated from my 125 hp SC2 to my 205 hp Red Line. But the ST’s airy clutch
takes some getting used to, as I don’t want to embarrassingly stall it at an
intersection.
Turning a corner, the leather-wrapped
steering wheel looks and feels good in my hands. It has thumb grips at the Ten
and Two positions as well as thick, contrasting stitching. At the bottom,
there’s an aluminum insert with a bright red “ST” emblazoned on it. Unlike the
clutch, there’s just the right amount of weight to it--- it’s neither too light
nor too heavy. There are buttons on either side of the steering wheel, but I
don’t have the time or the inclination to study them in traffic.
Even short-shifting around town, it’s
evident how torque-friendly the 2.0-liter four-cylinder is. In stock form, the
turbocharged engine is electronically limited to 270 lb.-ft. at 2500 rpm, but
Randy’s custom “Unleashed” tune bumps that up to a neck-snapping 340 lb.-ft. at
just 2800 rpm. I remark to him how torquey the Focus is and he points out that
I’m not even in the boost yet. Indeed, nestled in a tiny nacelle on the top of
the dash are three gauges. The turbo boost gauge is in the middle, flanked by
one for water temperature and the other for oil pressure. The boost gauge spans
from 0-25 PSI and I ask Randy how much it produces with the tune and he replies
22 PSI. He admits it could make more, but instead prefers to err on the
conservative side for safety reasons. As I dip into the boost in second gear, I
discover that the gauge is really more for aesthetics than information. Unless
you’re a passenger, it’s simply impossible to divide your eyesight between it
and the road as the car leaps forward. Incidentally, Randy states that with the
new tune there’s not the precipitous drop-off in power experienced with the
stock electronics. Now, he declares, it pulls strongly all the way to the red
line.
Prior to the drive, Randy had
warned me about torque steer with the car in Sport Mode, but if there was any
present I positively didn’t feel it. With meaty 235/40-18 Goodyear Eagle F1
tires and electrically-assisted rack-and-pinion steering,
the ST laid down all 340 lb.-ft. of torque with nary a tug at the wheel. As for
power, a tune-adjusted 250+ horsepower is present at the front wheels. And due
to a lightweight composite intake manifold and cam cover, as well as an exhaust
manifold integrated within the cylinder head, turbo-lag is practically
non-existent.
When it comes
time to stop, I discovered the brakes are as touchy as the clutch. There’s maybe
an inch of travel before they grab and then they stop RIGHT NOW!
Seriously, the first time I used them I almost catapulted us through the
windshield. Confidence-inspiring is an understatement for these discs which
measure 12.6 inches up front and 10.7 in the back. Stopping distance is a
measured 164 feet from 70 mph with excellent
modulation.
Despite the
stunning acceleration and braking, Randy claims the ST’s real strength is in the
handling. Like an overzealous driving instructor, he urged me to go faster and
faster on each and every corner we tackled. “Don’t use the brakes!” he demanded
as we’d lean into a curve, which is something you seldom hear on test drives.
Sure enough, there was no body-roll or sideslip even at fantastic speeds. Yet
remarkably, the washboard-stiff chassis didn’t translate to a jarring or harsh
ride. Freeway expansion strips were met with a muted thump that didn’t upset the
balance of the car, and the ST was so calm and centered that I felt I could
drive it for days on end.
The Ford engineers could have simply
stopped there and the ST would have still been a roaring success. But they went
a step further, and made sure the rest of the car was commensurate with the
powertrain. As we were stopped at a red light, Randy commanded, “Play
Kickstart My Heart!” Immediately, Mick Mars’ famous opening guitar riff
flooded the cabin and the MyFord Touch display screen lit up with all the
pertinent info from the Dr. Feelgood album. Randy cranked up the stereo
momentarily to let me sample it before turning it down and concluding, “Not too
bad for a stock system!” The built-in navigation is also a nice feature, and
sure beats the heck out of having to suction-cup a Garmin GPS to the windshield
on trips. Finally, there’s even a “Hill Assist” function for parking on steep
grades. I can’t really envision using it around here, but I suppose it would be
a lifesaver in areas like San Francisco.
Although gas prices have started
declining, nearly eight years with the Obama Administration has turned car
enthusiasts’ questions of “What’s the MPH?” to “What’s the MPG?” Surprisingly,
the average displayed on Randy’s Focus is a very respectable 29.4 MPG. He adds
that this is on the low-side from a lot of city driving, and that he has seen as
high as 34 MPG on the highway. Incredibly, he credits the aftermarket
programming for actually improving his overall fuel economy. And with
the handheld programmer, he can load various tunes on the fly depending on what
is required. For instance, a trip to the dealer necessitated flashing it back to
stock, or if no premium fuel is available (a scenario that happened after
Hurricane Katrina) there’s even a low-octane setting. All totaled, he has six
different configurations to choose from, and setting a new one only takes a
couple minutes.
So what’s not to like about the
ST? Well, and some might not even consider this a negative, the car is almost
too quiet. Ford was aware of this during development and even went so
far as to design a system that pipes in manufactured acoustics. Called a “Sound
Symposer” it utilizes a sophisticated valve
and composite paddle to amplify and transmit the desired sounds into the cabin.
Understandably, this synthetic sound has fallen on a lot of deaf ears with
owners who resent the effort. Randy, for his part, has removed the symposer
completely. And to make his Focus more vocal, he’s ordered a new cat-back
exhaust system that deletes the muffler entirely. He says it will be easy to
spot since it replaces the factory trapezoidal exhaust tip with two rounded
ones. Regrettably, it arrived too late to be included in the test drive, but he
sent me a picture after it was installed.
Also, it seems the designers didn’t pay
as much attention to the engine bay as they did the Focus’s flashy exterior.
When I popped my hood at Cars and Coffee to proudly show off the
supercharger, Randy simply shrugged his shoulders and maintained there was no
reason for him to do the same, since a large shroud conceals much of the engine
and turbocharger. Certainly, there’s an eye-catching “ST” logo on the intake
manifold, but most everything else is hidden under acres of black plastic.
Again, some might not be turned off by this, particularly those who aren’t
enamored with cleaning their engines every week.
And as with any new model, there were
also some minor teething problems such as a recommended removal and replacement
of the rear motor mount for customers who experienced a loud noise when changing
gears. Still, for a first year car, that’s not an awfully bad thing.
Finally, and this isn’t a ding against
the Focus as much as it is against my driving habits, but I had trouble with the
six-speed transmission. The physical location of the gearbox was over much more
than what I’m used to, so I was continually making sure that I had first gear
and not third. Secondly, the ST’s engine was so smooth and drama-free that Randy
had to to continually remind to shift into sixth gear. Typically, engine noise
from the high revs will alert you to shift into the next gear, but the Focus was
so tolerant that I was never aware I was in the wrong gear.
We pull back into the parking lot and I
look at the odometer and see a mere 11,000 miles from nearly two years of
ownership. I’ve seen exotic cars with higher mileage than that. Although it
would make a perfect 300 hp daily driver, Randy defends the weekends-only use as
a consequence of both the distance he commutes daily, as well as where he
commutes. He relates a story of his previous work car that was retired with
250,000 miles on it. He travels the interstate nearly 500 miles each week and
claims the combination of bugs and highway debris had literally sand-blasted the
paint off the nose and hood. Besides, he wants to keep the Focus pristine for
whatever he decides to trade it in on next. He says a recent test drive of the
new 2015 Mustang GT was met with disappointment when it failed to handle as well
as his Focus. But for now, he’s waiting on the new Shelby GT-350 and Focus RS
before he makes his decision.
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