Focus RS500: 345 HP, FWD And One Blurry Blue Oval

by Edward Niedermeyer

March 29th, 2010 2:05 PM

focus rs500 345 hp fwd and one blurry blue oval

Here’s some encouragement for the folks freaking out about BMW’s front wheel drive heresy. Ford has found a way to make 345 horsepower work in an FWD chassis, shattering the conventional wisdom that 250 hp marks the reasonable limit for front-drive performance. Well, at least until the 500 lucky owners of this limited-edition mega-hatch start adding up their tire bills in a few years. According to Ford, the RS500 should be looking at a 5.6 second 0-60 time and a top speed of 163 mph. And no, you can’t order one at your Ford dealer in the US.

#Enthusiasm #Europe #Focus #Ford #HotHatch

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Ott on Mar 29, 2010

Beat me to it Silvy. 345 HP and only capable of mustering 0-60 in 5.6 seconds? That seems awefully slow. But, since we won't see it here, why worry about it? I'll just keep enjoying my Cobalt SS...

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- Psarhjinian on Mar 29, 2010
  
  A lot of that is likely due to a combination of all-wheel drive's launch penalty and an engine that makes power up high. You'd probably see the RS do better from a rolling start and certainly once you're already at a good clip. 0-60 is not exactly a rally-car's forté.
  
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- Gimmeamanual on Mar 29, 2010
  
  It's FWD, but yeah everything I've read has talked about mid-range and top-end power. A standing mile race would be more interesting.
  
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- MBella on Mar 30, 2010
  
  For one, this car is FWD. Second, I don't get this AWD launch penalty myth people talk about. In an example of AWD vs. 2WD in otherwise identical cars, the AWD car, driven correctly will always beat the other during the launch. The AWD will always be able to put down more power at first. Why do you think an STI and EVO can put down super-car like 0-60 times, and this Focus can't.If an AWD car bogs down during the launch, it means the driver didn't give it enough power.
  
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Jkross22 on Mar 30, 2010

AWESOME engine note! I love it.

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