Our friends over at Drivers Republic have just made a comparison test between two of the most powerful hatchbacks on the European market, Ford’s rally inspired Focus RS and Renault’s wild Megane R26.R. Which hot hatch reigns supreme? You’ll just have to watch the video to find out.
We apologize for getting your hopes up about seeing the rally inspired Focus RS in Ford dealerships here in the U.S., and despite the company’s Executive Vice President, Mark Fields telling me that “anything is possible” with a reserved grin on his face, apparently a U.S. spec RS is not.
Apparently the Focus RS that was spotted in Michigan wearing manufacturer plates was nothing more than a false alarm. The official word was handed down by Jost Capito, the man in charge of Ford’s global performance division. In an interview with AutoCar magazine, the Ford representative said that "we’d like to [bring the RS to the U.S.], but the base car isn’t homologated for North America and that’s too costly a job to carry out just for a niche vehicle like the RS."
So if you were saving up your paychecks to go out and pick up a Focus RS as soon as it came stateside, we were sorry to get your hopes up. The way that things are looking, it is more likely that you will be able to purchase a Fiesta Sport than Ford’s latest hot hatch.
When Ford announced plans for their factory tuned Focus RS they also reveal the hot hatch will be limited to just 4000 units. So, if you were hoping to snatch one up, but you still haven’t, we have some bad news for you. 2400 of the Ford factory hot rods have already been sold. If you are still interested, you have two options: wait six months and hope there will still be a few examples laying around, or fork over a pretty pound to get one.
Those mostly affected by the news are the blue oval enthusiasts in the U.K. Their stock has already been depleted. So if you go down to your local Ford dealership and make the payment, you will have to wait until December to get behind the wheel. Or you could check out the used car market, there are a few examples around, but they start at around £27,250 and already have about 500 miles on clock.
Whereas we here in the U.S. are still waiting for the big wigs at Ford to give the RS a shot here in the American market.
The first Ford Focus RS has been spotted in the U.S., and in Royal Oak, Michigan of all places. However we here at Top Speed are familiar with those manufacturer tags, and know that the M in the middle of the license plate means exactly that, manufacturer.
Hopefully this employee of the Ford Motor Company will be able to come up with some rationale as to why the 300 HP hot hatch should be sold stateside. Hear that development engineer, or marketing guy or even some executive’s kid. Go back to where you got this car from and don’t stop pleading until the order is placed to bring 1000 or so of these 2.5 Liter turbocharged RS’s over to this side of the pond.
Answering the age old question about the benefits of affordable speed, the gang at AutoCar took the opportunity to look at two different versions of cheep speed. The Focus RS running with Subaru STi’s and rally bred EVO’s, while the $80,000 Nissan GT-R makes supercars twice as expensive seem like a joke. So which is a better bargain? Check out the video to find out!
