Yes but that's just pointless isn't it....

Lets look at it, and this is purely just guess work here cos I can't be bothered to look properly.

How much is a Quaife diff say, what, £500? Plus fitting it, which is going to be a good few hours labour no doubt.

Then the roll bar, how much are they? Plus fitting costs again.

Springs, well, gotta be over £100 notes, plus fitting again, another couple of hours labour.

You've spent quite a bit of money there to be honest.

Fit a diff to the Focus, some springs and some anti-roll bar tweaks, and how do the two compare then? You can't compared a modified VXR against a standard ST, that's irrelevant to the arguement.

I'm going to take a stab in the dark here and say that due to the amount of STs on the second hand market compared to VXRs, that you could probably buy a Focus for less now? So by the time you've bought your VXR, spent a good bit of money on the upgrades, you're probably a good bit worse off? I might be wrong, I can't be bothered to check prices, but with the ST being so common, I would think you'd probably get one for less.

I haven't driven either, you're right, and I'm not necessarily saying the VXR is a bad car, I'm just going on what I've heard from people who've watched them understeering and tyre smoking their way round the Lotus test track, and the opinion of the majority of the motoring world, is that the Focus ST, from the factory at least, is a better handling car.

A modified VXR might be a fantastic machine, but that isn't quite the point of this debate...