| Archive for The Motor Forum talking cars since 2006 |
| cbeaks1 |
Focus RSI had a stroke of luck today. I made a throw-away 'gis a go in your car mister' to the chap that had driven it down, and to my utter amazement he chucked me the keys and told me to put it back where I found it, and not to hurt it.Sadly I could only get 10 minutes in, and up to a speed of only 60, but its a hell of a car even for such a brief spell. Looks are obviously subjective but the blue and black combo was beautiful in the sun today, and the Recaros were lovely. As ever the driving position was slightly high, but everything else is just right - the seats, wheel and stubby gear knob are just right. On start-up and pull away it is totally docile, and the ride seemed good, though the roads I was on were pretty flat. I didn't get a change to really utilise the power, but the noise in 2nd and 3rd even getting up to 60 is fantastic. There is much more induction noise than an ST its worthy of all kinds of cliches. A few laps around a roundabout showed me that there is plenty of grip and no washing out, albeit on a very dry and warm day. I cannot confirm or deny the lack of torque steer, but it seemed to me to be safe and effective, with a great feeling of solidity. I'm a bit smitten to be honest, and I'm happy to have now driven my first 300bhp car, but I can't think of any sensible justification for persuading my wife that she needs one. |
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| Stuntman |
Forget sensible justification! If you want it and can afford it, why not?
Glad you enjoyed it, sounds like a good 'un. |
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| SpecB |
Damn right! This thread has just made me think - I have never driven a proper hot hatch. I will have to remedy that at some point. (The Corsa SRi and 1.6 16v I used to own don't count as they were both pretty rubbish). |
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| Rodge |
Just thought 'I'll see if there's anything interesting in the Test Driven section today'
Damn right there is! Glad you enjoyed your brief spell with it, now go and buy one. I'd love one but I couldn't justify buying one here when for the same €45k, I could get a 3 year old M3 or a Boxster or a (disappears off to Autotrader...) |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
+1. It's a sensible roomy hatchback, isn't it? 
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| simonp |
Fella on the Clio forum I use has just placed an order for one. I see Autocar reckon the green is sold out already. | ||||
| Humphrey The Pug |
One thing that I struggle to fathom, the hype of what is a great car and they are selling well and probably for full list.
Renault have a similar car in the R26R with only 230 for the UK, which has been hyped by the magazines, why have they struggled to sell them, there are still, ironically, 26 left and have been on sale since the summer. What is Renault doing wrong, the same thing happened with the Clio Trophy, which was hailed as the best Hot Hatch ever and well worth it's £14995 asking price. In the end they were going for £12995. |
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| Pkh72 |
I think one area Renault may have gone wrong, although i personally give them a pat on the back for having the balls to do it, is making the car a two seater.
It is aimed at the more hardcore enthusiast so i understand why they have done that, but it looks like it may have restricted it's audience somewhat. I am correct in assuming that you can't get one with rear seats aren't i? If not then my reasoning goes out the window 
Whereas the Focus RS is probably not as 'focused' as the R26R in extremis but it would appear it is more useable on a day to day basis, and has the advantage of being able to carry out all the tasks your basic Focus can, plus just a little bit that they can't. As for the Clio conundrum, i don't know 
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| "him" |
You are correct, and as it has fixed bucket seats there would be no access into the rear anyway? Also any kids in the back would scratch the polycarbonate windows... 
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| Blarno |
If we're ever at the same meet, you're more than welcome to give Blue Frog a blast. |
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| Humphrey The Pug |
That's the exact reason that my colleague has come up with, the fact the R26R is a supplimentary fun car due to it's hard core nature and only two seats where as the Focus RS can be your fun car and also a a normal every day car too, but I still wouldn't have though it would be too hard to find 230 buyers though. |
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| "him" |
I have heard that there are some dog carrying issues with them...
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Is that one of those special editions? |
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| Pkh72 |
I think so, it makes you wonder why the fuck you bought it. 
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| Guitar Zero |
I can get privilege on an RS
Basically, another £2k off on top of whatever Joe Soap would get i.e - circa 23 big ones. |
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| "him" |
Could you be tempted back into a "high profile" car again though? |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Especially after what happened to the last one ... |
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| "him" |
Exactly... | ||||
| Guitar Zero |
No I wouldn't touch one to be honest.
I'd be doing porridge within the month |
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| simonp |
I've heard that, too!
I've also heard that you can pick up an R26.R for about £18K at some dealers. Tis a rather specialised thing, though, isn't it. I think the thing that'd piss me off the most is the stereo deletion. |
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| "him" |
I would go for a nearly new Focus ST, and get Mountune to work their magic on it... |
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| Pkh72 |
I'm waiting to see how much spondoolies i have left after paying for my wedding/honeymoon and if there is enough left in the coffers i may invest in the Mountune kit.
I do have a question about the Mountune jobbie though, with Bluefin and some of the other simple re-maps you get a hand held device that allows you to remove the map and put it back to standard, does the Mountune have this facility? If not isn't there the risk of when it is serviced that the dealer may flash the ECU back to it's standrad map? |
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| "him" |
I think I remember GZ saying that there was a setting in the ECU that prevented a Ford "upgrade" from overwriting the Mountune Map? Hopefully he can confirm this? |
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| Clunes |
And, by all accounts, the Mountune work shits all over most of the cheapo plug and play maps.
I think it was Drivers Repulblic but their Mountune test car had no real trouble keeping up with (and in some cases beating) a 300BHP conversion from another reputable tuner (Graham Goode perhaps) I think EVO are fitting one to their long term ST - so it should be interesting to see the results - the 256BHP is, as they termed it, a copper bottomed figure - absolute minimum in most (any?) conditions. Wish there was such a (relatively) cheap and easy way of getting a bit more out of the 3.0ltr lump in mine. |
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| gonnabuildabuggy |
Re: Focus RS
Can't you get one as a company car? Surely cheaper than the depreciation on buying one? |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Isn't the Ford V6 supposed to be quite easy to tune? It's used in quite a few low-production sports cars, and even in production Jaguar spec, it has 240 bhp. |
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| Guitar Zero |
Jaguar's V6 has very little in common with the Ford V6 - at the time it was developed the Ford duratec unit was only available as a 2.5 litre. Apart from the block, Jaguar redesigned almost everything else, with most of the work on the bespoke cylinder heads. Ford's 3.0 litre was their own development of the 2.5 (and it's a much nicer engine in my humble opinion).
The Ford press ST220s ran an " enhanced " calibration that was good for circa 235 bhp - a colleague did offer to redo mine if I ever bought one. Ford do spend time making the ECUs resistant to lap top neddery, but like all software coding, it can be broken and it needs to be accessable so that dealers can reflash modules in the field. The mountune conversion is factory approved and offered for sale by Ford agents, that's why it does not affect the 3 year warranty - so the chance of a service agent reflashing a mountune car with a standard calibration is rare, but could probably be achieved if the technician was deliberately arseish or spectacularly stupid. |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
That was the impression I'd got - that the Mountune conversions are effectively semi-works, in that Ford approve them. Interesting info about the V6 too - thanks. | ||||
| Pkh72 |
Cheers GZ | ||||
| Clunes |
Typical 'mods' on the Ford V6 are limited to exhaust and intake stuff (re-locating filters to get cooler intake) which don't offer much increase (if any) for the money.
A custom map combined with the improved breathing seems to offer up 20-30 Bhp over the quoted factory figure but it seems that a fair few of the ST220's push out 230 or so when tested in stock trim - so the gains are pretty small for the outlay (e.g. 400 exhaust, 200 filter stuff, 400 remap) Some owners have done further work with headers and got about 260bhp but it's not cheap. There are a couple of supercharged models out there - 1 place in Germany sells a kit - but it costs a heck of a lot (something like 9000 euros) - and Turbo kits are custom 1-offs - so again v.pricey. To be honest not looking for much but if I had a Focus ST and the £'s the Mountune sounds like a no-brainer. As for the RS - sounds like a fantastic piece of kit - now make a 'normal' looking estate version of the Mondy with that engine and the revo-stuff and, like the VW R36, it could be a great second hand car in a couple of years :) |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
I'd be very loath to put a turbo on a car not designed for it, especially without upgrading the transmission, cooling, suspension and brakes. | ||||
| "him" |
Fixed your post! |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
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| Guitar Zero |
Given my experience of the ST220 (1,000 miles over 4 days in the facelift 6 speed saloon), I would be loathe to do any modifications to the vehicle at all. The powertrain is the most impressive aspect of the car and the particular example I used felt far more muscular than the 220 bhp figure would suggest. Most pleasing was the balance between linearity of the power delivery and the juicy fat gobs of torque that you could exploit when you weren't really in the mood for thrashery. It would scream with the best of them, but pull cleanly and with conviction from not much more than tickover in the higher gears.
As soon as you start to tune for more power (invariably by raising the rev limit) you reduce the low to mid range stonk that makes the car so appealing in the first place. If I had an ST220, I would spend the money on keeping the suspension as fresh as possible. |
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| Andy C |
http://www.mountuneperformance.co...mountune&catid=39:latest-news
Interesting. It's not just the general public getting the conversion then. It really does seem such a worthy upgrade. I know if I had an ST, it would be something I'd certainly do. |
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| "him" |
I am not sure many will put out much more than quoted TBH, I suspect that it is just very usable power. Youtube - AMD Rolling Road 09 March 2009 Focus ST Mountune |
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| cbeaks1 |
Re: Focus RS
Nope - too many actual customers for them, and our list is sub 159 g/km CO2 diesels only. |
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| Matt |
The Jag-spec Duratec is 230 IIRC and the AJV6 in the S-Type has 240bhp - and it goes well, too
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