The Ford Focus RS is coming, this has been confirmed a while back by Ford themselves. Last night they released a teaser video of the new RS, and confirmed that the new range-topper will be unveiled officially on the 3rd of February. Good news for Ford fans, then.
We’ve got the teaser video for you below, but we’ve also got some information on the development ad drivetrain for you as well. As for development, the testing of the new RS is being carried out by none other than Ken Block – he instagrammed a photo recently of a camouflaged development mule that matches the spy shots of the RS in testing. It also stands to good reason that he’s the man hooning it about in the teaser video.
As for the drivetrain, the RS will ditch the 5-cylinder engine in favour of a 2.3-litre turbocharged 4-cylinder from the Ford Mustang. It’s likely to get a bit of a power bump though, with figures rumoured to be around the 250kW region. A source within Ford has allegedly confirmed to Road & Track that the new Focus RS will do away with the front-wheel drive system of the previous model, opting in favour of an AWD setup to put all the power down to the tarmac. It’s likely that this will be via a 6-speed manual transmission, as Ford seems to enjoy letting drivers change their own gears.
With that sort of power on offer, and a drive system that can actually use all the power effectively, Ford may have a rival to the Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG and Audi RS3, or at least the VW Golf R. The Focus RS has been confirmed for global launch, which means South Africa should receive it soon after the global launch later this year or early 2016.
