Just drove my mates Focus.....
 

...... and I was blown away.

He has a RS converted ST2 running around 450bhp. Im a die hard old school Ford fanatic (even though my daily is a 06 Focus), and refer to his car as "The Volvo"....

But i take it all back, its the only car ive ever driven thats scared me with its onslaught of acceleration (and ive driven a 700bhp GTR).

Looks like the Series 2 will be going up for sale in the summer, need Cosworth power in my life.... :)

Used to love my old ST :)

The st and rs mk2's are brilliantly good cars they cover many bases

They're good cars. I've driven a heavily modified, forged internals etc... 420bhp Focus ST and thought it had a lot of mid-range punch but having been in a GTR there's no comparison. Good cars but wasn't for me.

This is knocking on the door of 500bhp, with a lot more to come. It hasnt been set up since having the RS engine dropped in yet.
I kinda wrote off performance Fords after the Escort Cosworth, but not anymore.

Best thing is, it still looks like a ST :)

Nice! What's the spec? I know the standard Focus RS pistons, turbo and fuel pump all need upgrading at around the 440bhp mark so assume it must be forged with a big turbo etc....?

They defo make some good power!

Agree it will be a punchy car & go well but compared to one with 700bhp it will be left for dead.

Don't recall him saying it was faster than the GTR, just that it felt more frightening? Perhaps just my take.

I really rate the ST, think it's a really good all-rounder, especially considering what you can pick one up for these days. Though I think I might actually prefer the C30/S40/V50 if it was purely a daily runner, as Volvo's are usually pretty refined beasts. Not really ever spent any time in one though, so can't comment for sure.

The old 5 pot turbo was a great engine though. Can't beat a five cylinder turbo for noise.

There a good car.

Its all forged and uprated, running a custom Collins map. Huge turbo, plenum etc...
The GTR was a more refined delivery of power, whereas the Focus was a brutal onslaught of power.
Its going to Motorscope on Saturday for its dyno, Ill post a video of the dyno run.

Gotta love a bit of ford fusion ;)

My ST was just over 300 bhp and was lairy enough, couldn't imagine what half as much power again would be like!

it will feel quicker than it actually is mate especially being fwd. my supra felt faster than my gtr even though it isn't

This is it ! Tbh found the focus useless over 420bhp when driven hard

My missus bro went in the gtr and said "it's not as quick as the supra was is it", I said "no, it's quicker were doing xxx mph look" lol

Even after seeing said speed on gtr speedo he was still adamant it's slower, I had to explain to him there's no more squat or wheelspin it's just pure acceleration and is alot quicker in reality . I can imagine there's alot of drama on a lightweight 500bhp fwd focus and it would feel mental imagine the torquesteer lol

Its like driving a well modded saff it will feel faster than say a M3 Audi Rs4 but probably the M3 and RS4 are quicker.

This was the reason ford gave for making the mk2 frs fwd thier team had both 4wd and 2wd at the ring same power not a good comparison imo 4wd would obs need more power

Its the Fear of death in a cossie that makes them feel fast because the chassis is not capable of 100bhp let alone 3-500:cry:
My Porka was a prime example, the chassis was so capable, driving 300bhp flat out was easy, infact you could drive it flat out everywhere which just becomes boring

Lol@the fear of death ! Thats it in a nut shell

Whenever I go round a certain sweeping bend I've driven over the years I always think about my Cossie days years ago. The Cossie would get up to 100 (let's say kph) but if you needed to lift or had anything less than a dry surface it'd make your guts churn feeling like it was going to bite. In my STI you can do the same speed, lift off, bugger about if you want and it feels so planted and reassuring. I remember swapping to a GTI-R after various cossies, back when pulsars were quite rare and that felt fool proof.