RE: Focus Cosworth takes a bow

[TNH]

This actually looks fantastic

[Kev T]

I own one of these and I can assure you they are a huge step forward from the mkII, which I also owned. Mine is performance blue and much better looking than my old one.

[Mark Wibble]

the article said said:

We'd wager the engineers have lashed on a ruddy big turbo, delivering the punch but also lag of the sort that used to make the original Escort Cosworth from the early 90s so interesting to drive.

A little speculative no?! I agree that if it's a bodged car done for styling and headline figures alone then yes, they may have been a bit simplistic about it. But would Cosworth do that? Suitably matched turbo elements and correctly tuned pipework should make it pretty flexible...

[aeropilot]

olly22n said:

Twincam16 said:

RTH said:

This was a Ford in 1971 the GT70 - started life as a project devised by Roger Clark and Stuart Turner for rallying with a view to putting it in to production the Ghia styling house did a fully trimmed road version.
Started with a mid mounted Cologne 2.9 V6 just as they put a BDG in it , sorted the handling , senior management cancelled it in a round of company cuts.

Used to have a Corgi toy of that as a kid, just like this one:



Pity it never got properly rallied, it could have been a British Stratos.

Was there something called the 'Frua'??

Or have I made that up?

Nope, there was but it wasn't a rally prototype or anything.

It was a one-off produced Frua re-bodied Escort Mexico, with a view to being a serious production car, but never happened. It had the registration UEV 790K and when I was a committee member of AVO OC back in the 1980's it turned up at quite a few shows - (must have photos somewhere)
It was exported to NZ some years ago, and here is a photo from the net of it now in NZ.

Edited by aeropilot on Wednesday 31st October 13:57

[Pistonwot]

Front drive, 5 doors, 3 tonnes and comedy styling by C**t-Tastic.
Hideous beyond all reason sums it up.
Looking at it is like being poked in the eye with something sharp and infected.
Ford have seriously lost their mojo and this POS confirms that as a sad fact.

[Gizmoish]

Ford have lost their mojo?

But they're considering putting a Formula Ford with a 1.0 turbo into production as a road car?

[Pistonwot]

Gizmoish said:

Ford have lost their mojo?

But they're considering putting a Formula Ford with a 1.0 turbo into production as a road car?

Stick on topic, Focus

[Pistonwot]

Should have said so but I do like Fords proper efforts. A lot.
GT40, Mk1-2 Escorts, RS2000, RS200, RS500 etc. They are all awesome vehicles with some great engineering behind them.

IF Ford made a decent modern ligtweight car with that ethos I would love it.
But, they dont!
They just give us ever more rediculous monstrosities like that prepostorous Focus in the article.

[Pixelpeep]

It seems that (Apart from the resemblance to the megane) the only real criticism is that its front wheel drive.

I think thats a bit like someone that bought a sony cassette walkman in 1985 and got their tape chewed up refusing to buy an ipod incase the same thing happens..

Things and technology move on. Look at Porsche and their rear engined madness!

[PanzerCommander]

Pixelpeep said:

It seems that (Apart from the resemblance to the megane) the only real criticism is that its front wheel drive.

I think thats a bit like someone that bought a sony cassette walkman in 1985 and got their tape chewed up refusing to buy an ipod incase the same thing happens..

Things and technology move on. Look at Porsche and their rear engined madness!

I know it didn't have 350bhp but the ST I had felt a sure footed as a hatchback was ever going to at that point, an RS owner I know says that the RS is way ahead of the ST in what it is capable of. Sure an AWD system might be better but given they were costing £25k base new (basically a white RS with the same kit level as the ST-2 variant of the ST) I would imagine they'd have been £30k base with RWD/AWD and how many people that say they would get one if it had X actually would.

[aeropilot]

Pistonwot said:

Should have said so but I do like Fords proper efforts. A lot.
GT40, Mk1-2 Escorts, RS2000, RS200, RS500 etc. They are all awesome vehicles with some great engineering behind them.

IF Ford made a decent modern ligtweight car with that ethos I would love it.
But, they dont!
They just give us ever more rediculous monstrosities like that prepostorous Focus in the article.

The FoMoCo of the halcyon days of 60's/70's had petrolheads high up in the company.

Today, like most other companies they are run by eco-mentalist bean counters.

[Johnnytheboy]

aeropilot said:

The FoMoCo of the halcyon days of 60's/70's had petrolheads high up in the company.

Today, like most other companies they are run by eco-mentalist bean counters.

My father - in a position to know - said Ford sat down with people from the RS Owner's Club some (10?) years ago and asked them what they really wanted Ford to build.

Apparently what the RSOC wanted was so laughably uncommercial, that they were more or less kicked out of the building. IIRC they effectively wanted Ford to build a RWD lightweight car with 200bhp - then charge £10,000 for it.

Every time I read threads about modern fwd Fords I'm reminded of this story.

[aeropilot]

Johnnytheboy said:

aeropilot said:

The FoMoCo of the halcyon days of 60's/70's had petrolheads high up in the company.

Today, like most other companies they are run by eco-mentalist bean counters.

My father - in a position to know - said Ford sat down with people from the RS Owner's Club some (10?) years ago and asked them what they really wanted Ford to build.

Apparently what the RSOC wanted was so laughably uncommercial, that they were more or less kicked out of the building. IIRC they effectively wanted Ford to build a RWD lightweight car with 200bhp - then charge £10,000 for it.

That's my point precisely.

No petrolheads within FoMoCo anymore.

If there was they wouldn't have had to ask anyone from the RSOC in the first place and also if there was they would have known that the RSOC would have been the last people to ask

Also Ford would have known precisely why it's laughably uncommercial without even needing to ask anyone, because Ford (along with all the other manufacturers) put pressure on the FiA to alter the various regs for motorsport so they didn't have to build homologation specials anymore.

Ford should be looking at what Toyota have done with the GT86 and taking note (they won't though)

[stuckmojo]

Pistonwot said:

Front drive, 5 doors, 3 tonnes and comedy styling by C**t-Tastic.
Hideous beyond all reason sums it up.
Looking at it is like being poked in the eye with something sharp and infected.
Ford have seriously lost their mojo and this POS confirms that as a sad fact.

I agree, It's hideous.

Designed by marketing people. People will buy that in droves, though.


Also, I love the comments such as "the only criticism is that it's FWD".

A bit like saying "that girl is stunning, the only issue is that she's got a dick"

Quite insignificant, it appears

[Johnnytheboy]

aeropilot said:

Ford should be looking at what Toyota have done with the GT86 and taking note (they won't though)

I suspect they will sell more ST's at a higher margin than Toyota will sell GT86's though.