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An American Ford engineer was posted to Europe in the mid-1990s. Upon arriving at the company’s European headquarters in Cologne, he was offered a choice of company car. Once he’d had a chance to realize how boring most European Fords were at that time, he immediately opted for an Escort RS Cosworth.
To Americans, the “Cossie” was fanboy fantasy. A turbocharged, four-wheel-drive rally homologation special, it’s always ranked near the top of the list of Great Performance Models Ford Denied Us. The engineer loved it, used it to transport his young family, and refused to return it. Eventually he was shipped back to Dearborn, Michigan, leaving the Escort behind.
His name? Raj Nair, now Ford’s VP of product development and chief technical officer. And although there’s no officially acknowledged link between his one-time choice of company car and his decision to turn the new Focus RS into a global superstar, we’re calling it a compelling coincidence.
The first two generations of Focus RS were front-drive, with the most powerful RS500 sending 345 horsepower through just two tortured tires. But Nair says this third-generation car was designed to be four-wheel drive from the get-go, using a clever new system that we can anticipate seeing in other Fords soon. It has twin electronically controlled clutches on the rear axle, one for each side. Up to 70 percent of the available torque can go to the rear, all of which can then be marshaled to either wheel for torque vectoring. Under cornering, the outside rear gets more oomph to assist turn-in and reduce understeer. Ford also promises that the system has been set up to allow power-on drifting, something demonstrated at the official unveiling in Ford’s Cologne factory by “project consultant” and YouTube hoon-king Ken Block.
The RS looks good in the metal, a measure more muscular than a Focus ST. A retuned version of the Lincoln MKC’s 2.3-liter *EcoBoost four with a low-inertia turbocharger makes the power. As is Ford’s way, there’s an official promise of “well in excess of 315 horsepower,” and insiders hint at an output around 340. The only transmission will be a six-speed manual; there’s never been an automatic Focus RS, and Ford has no plans to offer one now. Adjustable dampers will be standard, and on optional track-appropriate tires the RS is claimed to be capable of delivering more than 1.0 g of lateral acceleration. This certainly looks set to be Ford’s hottest hatch yet when it goes on sale early next year priced around $35,000.
