Good news for hot hatch fans from Ford in Frankfurt with news the racy 2.0-litre Ford Focus ST will be coming to Australia.
A collaborative effort of Ford’s performance arms – Ford Team RS in Europe and the Special Vehicles Team in North America – the Ford Focus ST is Ford’s first global performance car and is destined for sale in 40 countries.
Ford has taken the great-looking Focus five-door design and added some muscle. It looks great with real street cred hot hatch fans will love.
Best news is under the bonnet in the form of Ford’s 184kW/360Nm turbocharged EcoBoost engine which just about matches Volkswagen Golf R’s 188kW/330Nm 2.0-litre and easily eclipses the potent Honda Civic Type R’s 148kW/193Nm 2.0-litre. Ford says the new 2.0-litre Focus ST outguns its previous 2.5-litre, five-cylinder but is 20 per cent more fuel efficient and cleaner.
Drive is via a six-speed manual transmission with three driver-select modes for the ESP and torque vectoring control and uprated sports suspension to deliver the required sporty driving dynamics.
Ford Focus ST is available in four colours – the ‘Tangerine Scream’ of the show car, ‘Performance Blue’, ‘Race Red’ and ‘White’. Styling builds on the great looks of the standard Focus and adds a dynamic front end, side skirts, rear diffuser, centre exhaust, roof spoiler and 18-inch Y-spoke alloy wheels.
Inside are Recaro front seats, a sculptured rear seat, sports pedals and gearshift and instruments.
Ford also launched a wagon version of the Focus ST but at this stage only for Europe.
