The current Ford Focus ST is one of the very best hot hatches ever made, but even it cannot match the sheer madness of the old Ford Focus RS. The good news is that Ford may just be cooking up another Focus RS that's even more powerful than the last one.
Sweden's Auto Motor Sport reported recently that a 2015 Focus RS is still in the works, probably not for the Geneva or Paris shows, but for a debut later this year. To look at what that car might entail, let's look at this Top Gear exclusive from a while back. They reported that a new Focus RS will have at least 320 horsepower once again going to the front wheels. Because insanity.
Sadly, because Ford and Volvo are no longer those awkward teenage cousins who have hot makeout sessions at family reunions while the other relatives gorge on potato salad and complain about how biased the newspaper is these days, the new RS won't have a turbo five-cylinder engine like the last one. Boooo! Instead, it will likely have a 2.3-liter turbo four instead.
If that sounds familiar, it's because it's the same performance-oriented four slated to go into the 2015 Ford Mustang, but Top Gear says it will get extra boost when it pulls Focus RS duty. I'll miss the five-banger too, but this also sounds fun.
Top Gear also says that an all-wheel drive system a la the one on the Ford Escape has been ruled out for being too heavy and unable to fit in a small hatchback. It's just as well. The obscene amount of power going to the front wheels was one of the things that made the old RS so special.
None of this is official yet, and Top Gear's report is a little old now, so keep your fingers crossed — and keep your toes crossed that Ford is impressed enough with Focus and Fiesta ST sales to bring this bad mother to America this time.