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Originally Posted by Steffo
The first gen Focus ST was definitley not a beast.
The current Fiesta ST aka XR4 is also fimly in the not beast category.
I'm all for it. Go FPV!
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The point I was making was that everything from ST170 to Fiesta ST and Focus ST has been a well made car. All of them with brilliant chassis and all of them very well built.
Despite not having a Turbo, the Fiesta ST is a little ball tearer on anything but the Western Suburbs traffic Light Drag on a Friday night and you should know the benefits of a real car that turns corners since you own one of the best in the world.
Hard to argue against the Focus ST at all really as it's a fine automobile. Sure any car could take more power, but most would lose their balance too.
Leaving the ST170 to last, it too is an absolutely brilliant car on real roads. Granted it was criticised for not having enough power but much of that was not due to the weakness of the engine rather the brilliance of the chassis that begged for MORE power. It won't smoke an XR6 in a straight line. That was the RS' job and it was never brought out here back then due to import tariffs being much higher I'd imagine. It would be more cost effective to bring out an RS model form Europe now with lower tariffs and a more competitive market than develop a model locally. The reason th RS was so dear was due to the Brembo, Sparco, Oz Racing and all manner of automotive porn brands fitted to it. Focus ST is a lot more cost effective thanks to mostly non-branded parts apart from the Recaro seats. The ST170 was an excellent vehicle and will do more than keep up with many more powerful cars thanks to its unbelievable grip and handling.
Why spend money trying to add kilowatts to already well rounded and highly-effective packages when you're suddenly going to go against the multi million dollar budgets of Europe. It'd be like asking Renault to mod local RSport Clios for more power if they were built here, when they already come almost perfect. It just doesn't make business sense when you consider that making a local version would probably involve crash testing etc, all of which is costly and has already been done by the Europeans.
I've spent quality time in Focus XR5 (ST), Fiesta XR4 (ST) and Focus ST170 vehicles and all three are stunning drives, all three leave you smiling just like a Clio would. European carws are about balance, control and finesse, not bulk kilowatts for boasting power!
And TITO, Focus RS production stopped in November 2003. No current RS model exists on sale nor has for almost 4 and a half years. There's known to be only one old model in Australia, that's in Perth, imported by an ex-pat Englishman. It has a S55 badge on the boot, indicating it's boosted to 255hp (which I think is rice to be honest on a car as cool as the RS).