Ford Sports Cars

Ford has been working to dethrone the Volkswagen Golf GTI with the Focus ST for more than a decade now. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly successful at it, as the Golf GTI is still the best-selling hot hatch in nearly every market. But Ford Performance Europe boss Stefan Meunzinger thinks that the latest-generation Focus ST finally has what it takes to overtake its rival.

There’s no easy way to put it so here we go: Ford won’t build a fourth-generation Focus RS because it cannot develop a high-performance hybrid powertrain for the sports car, one that would help the carmaker keep its vehicle fleet within the EU’s CO2 emission standards requirements.

With the prices of cars increasing, a $20,000 used sports car has become harder to obtain these days. Not too long ago, you could afford a decent runner for $20,000 and still have enough change to buy a few cosmetic kits. But that’s no longer the case today, or at least, not for the most part. Look hard enough, though, and you can still score some good deals on used sports cars for $20,000 or less. These cars aren’t world-beaters by any stretch of the imagination, but they should still have enough juice to get the adrenaline flowing. They’re out there in the world. All you need to do is look for them.

Hennessey recently launched its latest recreation of the Ford F-150 called the Hennessey Venom 775. The truck has received a massive makeover, especially under the hood, and looks like Bruce Banner being exposed to Gamma rays. The truck is mighty quick and looks like a monster with the lift job and massive tires. To prove that the truck has more to it than its looks, the folks at Hennessey decided to pit it against a stock Mustang GT350. The GT350 is not an ordinary car, but can the Venom 775 beat it in a drag race?

The last-gen Ford Focus RS was a fantastic car in every way, essentially setting a new standard for the term “hot hatch.” The next-generation Focus RS should have raised the bar even higher with its expected mild-hybrid drivetrain, 400 horsepower, and blistering quick acceleration. All of that has changed now, though, and the new European fleet emissions standards have, at the very least, delayed the next-generation Focus RS and could possibly lead to its cancellation altogether.

On paper, a 480-horsepower Ford Mustang Bullitt should have no problem beating a 335-horsepower Toyota Supra in a drag race. But the tricky thing about predicting drag race results on paper is that they’re not worth the trees that were cut down to produce said paper. In other words, they don’t mean anything.

Car Magazine SA sought to answer the Mustang Bullitt versus Supra question by doing it the proper way: a drag race between the American muscle car and the Japanese sports car. If you’re looking at the protagonists of this race and you’re convinced that the Mustang Bullitt will have no problem laying waste to the Supra, then you might want to watch this video in all its entirety.

I know you’re already bummed that the Ford Focus Hatch isn’t long for the U.S. market, and, I’m sorry to tell you, depression is about to set in even worse. We now have word from Car Magazine that the next-gen Focus RS is arriving soon and, even better yet, it’s being pushed into 400-horsepower, mild-hybrid territory. Will the new Focus RS feature a drift mode? Well, it’ll be better than that! This baby will ride like a hardcore hatch and accelerate like a true-to-life sportscar. Does it get any better than this?

You don’t get to see a Dodge Demon every day. Then again, you don’t get to see it as it stretches its muscles during some good ol’ drag racing in the company of a Toyota Supra, a BMW E30, and Savage Garage’s Ford Raptor. Oh, and this is no prep drag-race, by the way, as the whole scenario unfolds in the desert, between bursting clouds of sand.

Now that we have your attention, get ready to be amazed by the Supra, which proves extremely apt at putting down the power and generating enough grip to shoot ahead of its rivals, literally leaving them behind, choking on its dust.

Ford has brought back the Bronco and Puma name, and let’s not forget about the revival of the Ford GT, so what’s next on the Blue Oval’s plate? Well, word has it that there could be a revival of the Capri name, and we’re thinking it could be a smaller sports car that would fill the gap between the Mustang and the Ford GT – a BIG gap, I know – and it could even take on the likes of cars like the Jaguar F-Type, Porsche 718, or the Audi TT.

Carmakers like to pound their chests with Nurburgring lap times when it comes to how fast their cars are, while automotive journos tend to take those cars and measure them against each other in perhaps the most telling form of competition: the good ‘ol drag race.

Naturally, such a staged drag race isn’t always about gas-guzzling muscle cars or heavily-modded vehicles that put out in excess of 1,000 horsepower. We’ve seen econoboxes taking forever to complete the quarter-mile all in the name of fun, so when someone pits the Ford Mustang GT Fastback against the new Toyota Supra and BMW Z4, all we can do is watch and enjoy.

Mountune has long been a provider of sinister aftermarket programs for Ford and judging by its latest offering for the Ford Focus, it looks like that trend will continue. The tuner is offering two new programs for Ford’s resident hot hatch. One is obviously more powerful than the other, but the other one isn’t a slouch, either. I suppose picking one program over the other depends on how your stomach can handle all the extra juice both versions provide. Don’t worry, though. The third-generation Ford Focus will be far more enjoyable to drive in either state of tune. Just make sure to buckle up.

Ford makes some of the best hot hatches on the planet, and according to those who have already driven it, the new Focus ST is no exception. However, the Blue Oval was a bit overly cautious with the styling of the new Focus ST, so much so that it doesn’t even look like a proper ST, but more like an ST Line.

And I’m a car guy who pays attention to details and is usually quick to spot (even subtle) differences between models, but even to myself this just looks like the sport pack you pay a bit extra for to have on your mid-range Focus. This is a disappointment because it really doesn’t do this car’s performance and handling justice - if I’d buy this car, I’d instantly start searching for some sort of more aggressive body kit to spruce it up.

The Shelby GT500 returned in 2019 after a five-year hiatus as the most powerful street-legal Ford, even when compared to the GT supercar. Now more track-ready than ever, the GT500 also borrows technology from the Mustang GT4 race car in order to compete with the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat (or even the Demon?) and the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. But is this 760-horsepower muscle car good enough to compete with higher-performance vehicles, like the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera? Let’s find out in the comparison below.

The Ford Escape ST is a rumored, high-performance version of the fourth-generation crossover, unveiled in 2019 for the 2020 model year. Ford has yet to confirm plans to launch an ST variant of the Escape, but the company’s announced shift toward SUVs in the United States suggests that a more powerful crossover is in the making. Should it happen, it won’t arrive until 2020.

The trouble with the Escape ST is that Ford has never developed one before, despite the fact that the Escape nameplate has been around since 2000. Sure, Ford did offer an ST-Line model of the Euro-spec Kuga, but the package was only about the looks and no extra power. Will Ford change its mind for the fourth-generation SUV? That’s very likely because high-performance SUVs are growing popular and more and more carmakers are jumping on the bandwagon. Let’s find out how it may look and what it might hide under the hood.

Hot hatch lovers that need more practicality than what a hatchback can offer now have one more excellent car to choose - the brand new 2019 Ford Focus ST wagon, based on the fourth-generation Focus. The new Focus ST wagon retains the sporty driving edge of the ST hatch but injects extra practicality for those who need it. Some may even say it’s cooler than the ST hatch since hot wagons always seem to have a glowing halo around them that just makes people go crazy.

When you say Ford Mustang, it can conjure up a very wide and different array of iconic models in peoples head. Most will probably associate the name with a V-8 coupe of some sort or maybe an old-school muscle car, but nowadays you can buy the Mustang as a drop-top four-cylinder. And, we bet you aren’t yet convinced whether one is worth the money or not.

Well, it depends a lot on what you plan to do with your new Mustang. If you want to have a fast daily that’s properly quick, you get the V8-powered GT. Meanwhile, if you want to take your car to regular track days, you spring for the GT350R, widely acknowledged as being the best car ever to bear a Mustang badge. So, where does that leave the Mustang convertible with a four-pot? It’s for people who don’t want to go around corners at crazy speeds faster than the next car just have to out-accelerate most cars on the road.

It has softer suspension than the hardtop, and because it has no roof, it doesn’t have the coupe’s structural rigidity. This translates into a far more relaxed driving experience where you are not edged to drive faster, brake later, and whip the car’s tail out at every opportunity. It can still do all these things very well, but when you subject it to them, the feedback it provides you suggests it is not enjoying the treatment.

As a swift cruiser that looks great and, maybe more importantly, you look cool in, there are few better cars out there for the money. Its turbocharged engine is pokey enough to make any overtaking maneuver a breeze, and because it is downsized, it returns much better efficiency numbers compared to the V-8. The automatic gearbox on our tester could have been snappier, and even though this convertible is a really relaxed flavor of Mustang, getting it with the six-speed stick makes a lot of sense.

Now that Ford has decided to kill off its entire lineup of cars in the United States, aside from the Ford Mustang, of course, the Focus ST is destined to become to enthusiasts what the Honda Civic Type R once was – a car that fills our every desire but is somehow just out of reach. It’s more powerful brethren, the Focus RS, will also suffer the same fate, never landing on U.S. shores again, but for now, the new ST has been announced, and it already has fanboys up in arms. It’s not surprising really since the new ST comes complete with a 2.3-liter EcoBoost that’s good for 276 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque – 24 ponies and 40 pound-feet more than the last model we were lucky enough to see. And, it comes with a striking new look and the reminder that the next-gen Focus RS will be that much better too. We know you’re sad that you can’t get your hands on the new ST, so we’ve decided to make it our wallpaper of the day. At the very least, you can plaster it on your desktop and show it some love from afar.

Ford Performance has finally unveiled the all-new Ford Focus ST. Although it does not feature a lot of exterior and interior changes, the hatch is pumped up on the inside. Under the hood sit’s as much as 276 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque just waiting to be unleashed. On paper, the 2020 Ford Focus ST seems very promising. Does it have enough to take on the Volkswagen Golf GTI/GTD?

While it’s certainly the case that we’re living in a special time with regards to enthusiast vehicles, the flip side is a tangle of profit-seeking and litigious backlash, as Mecum Auctions found out after it sold a 2017 Ford GT in Indianapolis.

Ford started ST-ing its high rider range with the Edge ST it revealed last year and this year at the Detroit auto show it showed an ST version of its new Explorer. The manufacturer’s intention couldn’t be clearer - it intends to inject some youthfulness and fun into vehicles not usually known for their sporty credentials.