RE: PH Buying Guide: Ford Focus RS

[mpm1987]

I miss mine, such a capable car!

[anonymous-user]

AER said:

Of all of the development cars, one of the AP build csrs (AP03?) was my fave because it was so light.

Here you go then:

AP03 blending into the scenery:







;-)

[CampDavid]

AP03 now-

[Biker's Nemesis]

Max_Torque said:

AER said:

Of all of the development cars, one of the AP build csrs (AP03?) was my fave because it was so light.

Here you go then:

AP03 blending into the scenery:







;-)

I am sure there was a thread from a few years back when this subject of the RS development was discussed?

If there isn't any chance you boys could do one.

[neiljohnson]

CampDavid said:

AP03 now-

Sucks that they do that to the development cars should be in the heritage collection

[zeppelin]

I was seriously considering selling my mk1 for a mk2, but seeing this story, what's been written and all of the love for the mk1 has convinced me to keep it as I think I would regret it if I did sell the mk1.

[neiljohnson]

There was a bit of discussion on my readers car thread a while back also some of the development photos courtesy of max

http://mobile.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=...

[tomoleeds]

i am a ford nut, although my own car now is a audi a4 s line,but when i was 17 got a capri,then over the years orion 1.6i ghia"s, around 6 xr3i mk3 and mk4, when they where 3-5 years old,and sierra 2.0"s but this RS never appealed to me, outside looks ok but inside looks dated now. if i had the £8k needed to buy a minter would try to find a good escort mk3 RS turbo,or maybe a sierra cossie problem with them look great but dont drive good compared to modern stuff, cant have everything eh, my caspian blue xr3i when 3 years old,paid £5,500 in 1989

[The Borg]

neilbauer said:

How much is the road tax on one of these, I had an idea it was £350 a year and thats too rich for my blood. I would love one though

Vehicle Excise Duty rate for vehicle

6 Months Rate £143.00
12 Months Rate £260.00

[Baryonyx]

These are such great looking cars (from the outside). None of the cheesy, cod-aggressive stylings of the mk2 Focus RS. None of the pomp or the daftness, just an entertaining and fairly special car. Mind you, it was a hard act to follow for the mk2.

[neilbauer]

The Borg said:

neilbauer said:

How much is the road tax on one of these, I had an idea it was £350 a year and thats too rich for my blood. I would love one though

Vehicle Excise Duty rate for vehicle

6 Months Rate £143.00
12 Months Rate £260.00

Thanks thats a lot better than I thought, now how much would I get px on my fez zs?

[Picard]

Will be running one of these long term as a weekend car (family owned). Was either this or a MK5 Golf R32 with the DSG box.

From previous drives I reckon the chassis could handle the extra power and more importantly the torque out of corners, that comes from the various remap options.

Will probably upgrade the brake pads and tyres so any recommendations on the latter is much appreciated!

Cheers

To add: I did London to Hull in one and was a very comfortable drive given the suspension set up.

Edited by Picard on Sunday 5th February 16:56

[neiljohnson]

Picard said:

Will be running one of these long term as a weekend car (family owned). Was either this or a MK5 Golf R32 with the DSG box.

From previous drives I reckon the chassis could handle the extra power and more importantly the torque out of corners, that comes from the various remap options.

Will probably upgrade the brake pads and tyres so any recommendations on the latter is much appreciated!

Cheers

Can handle a lot more power, bar the engine stabiliser (made of chocolate)the chassis on my one is totally stock & i have no problems (over 300bhp, 310lb) the stock brakes are very good although after one 'eposode' i make sure i change the brake fluid every year as you can get fade when the brakes are (very) hot no problems since i have been doing that ive run Ferodo ds2500 pads which are very good but currently on stock pads which are not quite as good but are quiet which the ferodos are not.

Tyre wise i have michelin pilot sport 3 having experianced various other brands no other will be fitted to my car in future they are expensive but worth every penny.

[Picard]

neiljohnson said:

Can handle a lot more power, bar the engine stabiliser (made of chocolate)the chassis on my one is totally stock & i have no problems (over 300bhp, 310lb) the stock brakes are very good although after one 'eposode' i make sure i change the brake fluid every year as you can get fade when the brakes are (very) hot no problems since i have been doing that ive run Ferodo ds2500 pads which are very good but currently on stock pads which are not quite as good but are quiet which the ferodos are not.

Tyre wise i have michelin pilot sport 3 having experianced various other brands no other will be fitted to my car in future they are expensive but worth every penny.

Thanks Neil, must admit didn't think the standard brake set up was bad but with the added power, thought I would at least fit new pads.

Yeah the Michelin's are good but I was considering the Continental Sport Contact 3's as EVO gave them 1st place for 2012.

[neiljohnson]

Picard said:

Thanks Neil, must admit didn't think the standard brake set up was bad but with the added power, thought I would at least fit new pads.

Yeah the Michelin's are good but I was considering the Continental Sport Contact 3's as EVO gave them 1st place for 2012.

Didnt get on with the contis the grip fell off a cliff as they wore then the sidewalls cracked really badly which caused me to bin them when still at 4mm others have had better experiance though i think the trouble with all these mag tests is its all on new tyres it doesnt take into consideration what the tyres will be like when half worn for instance

[AER]

Ah, now I remember who Max Torque is. Didn't he concoct the pass-by noise data...? :P

[AER]

In hindsight, the mk1 RS was a series of lost opportunities given what else was happening at the time within the Ford empire.

IMO, it should have adopted the Black-Oak (? - I'm forgetting all my Ford-isms...) controller of the ST170, along with its CAN-based instrument cluster and architecture. This would have mean that the boost gauge could have been an addition, rather than a substitution to the coolant gauge (not that it matters, they're all telling sweet stories until its too late...). As well, unbeknownst to us at the time, our colleagues in Australia were developing the software for turbo boost control on the very same platform for the Falcon XR6 Turbo... That was a quarter million squid that could have been better spent...

The VVT of the ST170 and the cylinder head would have been a useful addition too, possibly adding a bunch of low-end torque. George the testcell guru ran a power curve once using the 1.6 cams and got a thoroughly useful boost in torque at the low end. Obviously it didn't translate into useful power at the top, but it proved a point. I think it would have improved the 50km/h+ third gear accel times no end, wouldn't it Max...?

The exhaust system palava was an event waiting to happen - what, being a 4-into-3.1415926-into-1.41421-into-1 design..., however the change to a log manifold was a huge suprise to us when our esteemed German friends unvieled it at Precedent Drive.

The real shame was that after bring it into production, virtually noone that I know of who was involved in the Mk1, got to use their newly hewn experience on the Mk2. Talk about corporate amnesia!

[pridmorej]

Spy said:

Here are some photos of mine from when I owned it...

It's a small world.... I seriously considered buying that plate from regtransfers last year when I got my RS - it's not available now though. Nice looking example there. I bet you miss it despite having a 996 now

[RedStrat]

Is it true that all the panelwork for the Mk1 RS is now NLA? If so, crunch it even slightly and you'd be in a mess.

[neiljohnson]

RedStrat said:

Is it true that all the panelwork for the Mk1 RS is now NLA? If so, crunch it even slightly and you'd be in a mess.

Still available but very expensive front wings are circa £1000 there are quite a few people looking into alternatives such as carbon fibre etc but also as the cars get older & higher mileage the cheaper ones are being cannibalised as far as other parts go there was a time when the water pumps were not available which caused an issue but resourceful people found a company that could repair them & then pressured ford into having some more made which sorted the problem
Afaik there are no parts you can't get hold of at this time