25 Oct 05
Ever since the last Focus RS torque-steered its way off the production line nearly two years ago, there has been a gaping hot-hatch shaped hole in the Blue Oval's line-up. Sure, the Mondeo and Fiesta STs are great at what they do, but Ford really needs a car to epitomise what a hot hatch should be in the 21st Century.
Wearing lurid orange paint as its signature colour, the Focus ST certainly isn't a run-of-the-mill family hatch. Chunky 18-inch alloys, gaping air intakes, twin exhausts, a substantial real spoiler and countless flashes of aluminium leave you with no doubt about where the Focus ST is coming from.
But a wild paint job and big alloys does not a hot hatch make: it must have the bark to match its visual bite.
In the Focus ST, that bark comes from a turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder Volvo engine, tuned by Ford's TeamRS to a substantial 221bhp. A five-cylinder engine may not be de rigueur for a hot hatch - most others on the market use turbocharged fours - but Ford has decided to go its own way.
