fastfrank

Ford plans a mega-powered, M3-beating RS



It looks likely that the forthcoming Focus RS will have up to 350bhp and 332lb-ft of torque from a high-pressure turbocharged 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder engine, driven through all four wheels. That's more than the current BMW M3's 343bhp and 269lb-ft.


According to Autocar, Ford execs are considering a plan to install the Volvo-developed engine in the RS, which is due out in 2007. The unit is an aluminium block, four valve-per-cylinder powerplant weighing just 180Kg.

Three versions will be built:

• 3.2-litre naturally aspirated with variable cam timing for inlet valves only, producing 235bhp at 6,000rpm and 236lb-ft of torque at 3,500rpm
• 3.0-litre low-pressure turbocharged with variable cam timing on all valves, producing 285bhp and 295lb-ft.
• 3.0-litre high-pressure turbocharged with variable cam timing on all valves, producing 350bhp and 332lb-ft.

The added power would put the RS at the top of the European hot hatch power ranks, and gives it massively more power more than the ST, with its 2.5-litre engine making 217bhp and 236lb-ft of torque.

Bodywork modifications include vents in the bonnet and an additional chin splitter.

The only piece of the jigsaw still missing, according to the report, is the right gearbox to handle all that grunt...

fatherpierre

No word on price??

Sounds like it'll be a high end Evo and Scooby fighter rather than a BMW teaser.

Buckrogers

Figures sound nice, don't like the look of the new Focus, much prefer the old!
(Bit like Subaru's!)

Brother_Will

Could well be looking to take on the Scooby and Evo since this RS will have awd, the chassis is already running awd on the Volvo V50. And all reports so far have mentioned it although previously the talk was of the 2.5 turbocharged (also from Volvo)

Where will this power craze stop? i heard the New RS6 will have the V10 from the gallardo with twin turbos, 600bhp from an estate car.

TheBigMan

...it's a dead link

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Sounds suspect to me, An Inline 6 into a focus would be one hell of a squeeze (bear in mind it must keep all the crash protection crap too).


Sod the 4wd, dump in a RWD T5 box and sort out a proper rear suspension setup

logiclee

The platform was designed from the begining to take AWD and inline 6's as Volvo will also be using the same platform.

Cheers
Lee

stilover

As a previous owner of the Mark 1 Focus RS. This is a touchy subject, as many on the Focus RS forums would agree. The chance of Ford actually building the Mark 2 RS is remote. Ford are in finacial mess at the moment, so building a specialist Focus that will only be bought by the few and not the many is unlikely. They announced the Focus ST at the start of this year. When are they selling it? At the end of this year to try and take the focus off the Astra VXR & planned Golf R34.
Now, many people on the Ford forums are adamant the Ford will start selling the Focus RS in 2006. If the are starting to sell the ST in November 2005, that means in order to start selling the RS, they will have to announce in shortly. Which they won't cos it would take interest / sales away from the ST. If ford do make another RS, we're unlikely to see it before the end of 2007 at the earliest, and by that time the market will have moved on. The biggest problem with Ford to me is since the demise of the Escort Cossie, they are playing catchup. They seam to introduce a car to market years after the competition have flooded the market. Afterall how many Impreza's & Evo's have been sold over the last 5-6 years. Now Ford want a share of that.......... in 1 or 2 or 3 years time. Come on ford, pull ya finger out.
Plus (sorry to rabit on) they canned the Fiesta RS not so long ago due to high costs, for a low volume specialist car. I can see a link here.

Mark 1 Focus RS ... Sold for £19,950
Cost Ford to build ............. £27,000

£7000 (approx) x 4501 cars = £31.5m loss.

No wonder Ford are in the Financial S**t

STilover

Yes you guessed it, I am a Ford man. Got sick of waiting for news on the Mark 2 RS, so went out and bought a STI uk with PPP.