Ford Focus GGR RS370FR

"£3,750, plus £24,995 for original Focus RS"
A Focus RS does not cost £24,995.
They start from £26,995, Auto express uses out of date archived information.

By beachland on 22 December, 2009, 6:14pm

Chav tastic

Chav, common & nasty.

By scott1234 on 25 December, 2009, 2:57am

Allego Equipe anyone?

The standard Focus RS and I mean that . It really is standard, reminds me of the horror of having to sell what must be motorings most aweful remake - the Austin Allegro Equipe. Anyone remember that dreadful incarnation? I was unfortunate enough to sell BL cars for a while. I remember the day this silver horror with a fat red and orange stripe down the side arrived on a car transporter from the scrapyard at a secret British Leyland location somewhere in the nether regions of it's factories. I was standing with the Sales Director in the showroom still trying to recover from yet another customer who's car came in for it's 1st service with at least 30 serious faults. Our jaws dropped as we both made a very loud sigh then went totally silent with shock. We immediatley pushed it to the outermost corner of the storage facility around the back. The battery was flat of course, the paint micro blistered from contamination. We immediatley rang head office to instruct them to remove it. The reply, "Every dealer has one, you must sell it" . Oh no. Not this time. It stayed in our compound rust upon rust for nearly 12 months. In the end BL registered it for the local rep. I believe he had a nervous breakdown the following month. It was overpowered for the chassis and the torque steering had you off the road in the blink of an eye. That reminds me of another car , oh yes the Focus RS.
Believe it or not the above comments are really true!!

By PeterJK on 25 December, 2009, 12:01pm

Allego Equipe anyone?

The standard Focus RS and I mean that . It really is standard, reminds me of the horror of having to sell what must be motorings most aweful remake - the Austin Allegro Equipe. Anyone remember that dreadful incarnation? I was unfortunate enough to sell BL cars for a while. I remember the day this silver horror with a fat red and orange stripe down the side arrived on a car transporter from the scrapyard at a secret British Leyland location somewhere in the nether regions of it's factories. I was standing with the Sales Director in the showroom still trying to recover from yet another customer who's car came in for it's 1st service with at least 30 serious faults. Our jaws dropped as we both made a very loud sigh then went totally silent with shock. We immediatley pushed it to the outermost corner of the storage facility around the back. The battery was flat of course, the paint micro blistered from contamination. We immediatley rang head office to instruct them to remove it. The reply, "Every dealer has one, you must sell it" . Oh no. Not this time. It stayed in our compound rust upon rust for nearly 12 months. In the end BL registered it for the local rep. I believe he had a nervous breakdown the following month. It was overpowered for the chassis and the torque steering had you off the road in the blink of an eye. That reminds me of another car , oh yes the Focus RS.
Believe it or not the above comments are really true!!

By PeterJK on 26 December, 2009, 1:16pm

Peter Jk you are talking complete rubbish, what sort of idiot compares a Allegro with the highly disarable and acclaimed Focus rs?? No probs selling them, great to drive, well made like all other focus. I bet my right arm you have never driven one. Keep your uneducated comments to yourself.

By Jjtb81 on 27 December, 2009, 5:16pm

Chav as you like..

By mondeo_man on 2 January, 2010, 11:56am

Allego Equipe anyone?

Hi Jjtb81
You are a very serious person. I bow to that enormous brain that you obviously have. It really is ideal to put 370 bhp all through the front wheels and pay nearly £30,000 for it. The car will be worth at least 3 times what you paid for it in a years time after a years thrashing as well if it's not pranged in the meantime. All those people clamoring after that lovely bright green colour too. Everyone dreams of paying £30,000 for a Focus. I can see you champing at the bit if you haven't already.

By PeterJK on 4 January, 2010, 12:25am

I like the car but no I would never go for a after Market add on.
Peter Jk, thanks for the Allego story, its a great cure for insomnia. Xx

By Jjtb81 on 5 January, 2010, 12:33pm

these chav comments make me laugh, I know a lot of RS owners and I can honestly say not one of them could even be loosely categorised as a chav.

I personally am the proud owner of a green RS and receive nothing but positve comments about the car when I'm out and about and can only assume the chav references are made by people that: -

a. can't afford the car
b. are to old to get the leg over the recaro
c. prefer mpg discussions and road tax levels LOL!!!

On a serious note my car is stage 2 tune running around 360hp with 400lbs and yes it does torque steer, and yes its a biatch in the wet however its bloody lot of fun!!!

but then as we know not everyone is into fun ;)

By AndyBrew on 5 January, 2010, 5:50pm

RS Goode Add on?

Well I like the look of the focus as a flashy but grown up sport hatchback,though with all that power four wheel drive would make it more attractive with all the add on performance that always attracts,though not for me,sales will be pretty low volume as the price is not really cheap either and there are plenty of cars out there that offer sensible and measured ownership and I don't think it wil hold its price that well if some rememberthe RS Turbo add ons? Insurance will be very high too?
Still good luck to Graham Goode a true racer and a good reputation as a tuning company..

By browser0072000 on 7 January, 2010, 8:39am

Keep it standard

Andybrew, good comments - quite true. I have driven a few of these 'beasts' and consider them among the Great Cars for usability - at home on a track or for shopping. Very refined responses from all aspects of the powertrain. Until you really get near the limit you would never think it was just FWD. Fantastic car, as standard - IMHO it doesn't need any more power. As for sales being low - this is a limited production car which was restricted to a total 8,000 world-wide. And they are all sold. LOL.

By roger_walker1 on 7 January, 2010, 9:03am

RE: Allego Equipe

The Allegro story brings back the memories. I was about 12 and went with Dad to take our car for a service at the local BL garage. They handed us the keys to a new courtesy car -an Allegro Equipe in silver with that red and orange hockey stick stripe. We jumped in and Dad put his foot down, it seemed to go quite well. The we came to a set of traffic lights and had to brake fairly hard - then we both shot forward in our seats, the runners didn't lock!!!! This was obviously very dangerous but we spent all day accelerating and braking, going backwards and forwards in our seats, laughing as we went. It wouldn't be so funny if you'd bought the car!

Fortunately things have moved on since then, the RS is a corker and its amazing Graham Goode can improve it. I'll take one in silver with a red and orange stripe please!

By bmw1502 on 7 January, 2010, 9:12am

crazy

I DO DRIVE A FOCUS... so I AM qualified to comment.

IMHO the Ford Focus is one of the worst handling cars I have ever driven. I doesn't seem to know where to put the front end and will happily follow any grooves, white lines or chalk marks on the road, at times, it is positively unsafe..... GOD only knows how long the LUCKY RS 370 owner will live...... ???

By alfadriver on 7 January, 2010, 10:46am

Fantastic!

Fantastic! Driven it, Love it, want one. you can even live with it everyday and for long trips. (Heated seats, Heated Quickclear Front Screen, Washer jets and Mirrors, reversing camera too) which sadly cant be said for Japanese rivals which are just uncomfortable and tiring to drive long distances. In this case More Power really is good. Keep it up Ford. Should be an "RS" badge on every Ford model with equal gusto.

By agf30 on 7 January, 2010, 11:08am

Front, real or 4 wheel drive?

Why Ford insist on giving these cars so much power to the front wheels I don't understand. Can I ask everyone to imagine what a rear wheel or 4 wheel drive 368bhp Focus would be like? VW, Audi and now Vauxhall all equip their high performance cars with 4 wheel drive. BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes etc are rear wheel drive. I'm not criticising the Focus but it could be so much better.....

By billylabonga on 7 January, 2010, 11:34am

@ billlylabonga

It is becuase Volvo/Ford can not seem to build a 4wd system that can handle serious amounts of power and be reliable,
I bet that Focus is fun but absolutely dangerous in certain conditions, I drive a 1500kg fwd car with 300whp 410 nm and that can be hairy in at certain times this car will be uninsurable after a few years when the real chavs can get hold of them..

By ESARN on 7 January, 2010, 2:48pm

That's a good point about Volvo/Ford but I think they have missed a trick. The AWD system on the Jag X-type that I have would have been ideal - Permanent 4 wheel drive with 60% power to the rear wheels and 40% to the front wheels, traction control to shift the power around to where needed. Jaguar developed this system whilst they were under the ownership of Ford and could have fitted it to the hot Focuses. A car like that would have catapulted itself out of corners like a rat up a drainpipe. Probably would have won all the rallys too!

By billylabonga on 8 January, 2010, 2:10am

@alfadriver

I'm sorry I simply can't believe your comments, ok so the FRS is never going to be awsome in the wet but on a dry road the FRS is one of the best handling cars you can buy today and that includes our 4x4 based japanses models!

I have owned an Evo GSR VIII and a Subaru STi8 and the FRS is almost identical in its handling (not off the line ;)) until you go past the limit and to be honest on public roads that shouldn't happen very often in my opinion.

The FRS was originaly tested with a 4x4 transmission but Jost Capito and his team decided that the extra weight of the 4x4 transmission dulled the cars dynamics and thus went back to FWD and the RevoKnuckle solution.

Don't get me wrong I would have loved a 4x4 variant and nearly never ordered one because of it, but after driving it the car really does handle the power remarkably well, compare it to my Astra VXR daily driver and its in another league and if it behaved like that does I would agree whole heartedly with the comments.

Personally I slow down in the wet anyway and use the accelerator to modulate the amount of power I find this works wonders in preventing any "dangerous" moments, which in my opinion if you can't follow that basic premis then you shouldn't be driving a high performance vehicle of any description in the first place LOL!!

By AndyBrew on 8 January, 2010, 8:35pm

Megane the mighty cup

All this talk about a FRS. Its a lime with a leaf on the back
A megane 250 cup will take it apart on any road and also in the wet. Does not have the torque steer issues because RenaultSports know a thing or two about hot hatch building.
Even seen a Clio cup 200 up the new Focus's chuff on a race track (in the dry) because the FRS was holding it up in the bends. and yes I am a track day specialist.
Enough said.....

By monarch17 on 11 January, 2010, 7:15pm

Then French a thorn in Henrys side....

Citroen - World Rally Champions...how many times....
Renault - 2nd in F1 - Vettel one to watch
Peugeot - Le Mans 24 hour winners with a diesel.

As I said the French also know a thing or two about building fast road cars

By monarch17 on 11 January, 2010, 7:30pm