second generation
Ford Focus RS fluttering its plumage always triggers the same response these days – it just makes me want to own a
first-generation car
Mk1 RS has a special place in Harris's heart
I know the five-cylinder car is faster, more tuneable, has clever suspension and all manner of other improvements - but the combination of understated aggression and brilliant memories of running one back in 2003 always brings me back to the four-cylinder version.
Everyone knows the story of this car, perhaps the last European Ford that will ever be allowed to lose money on every unit sold. It was complicated, inefficiently assembled and, wouldn’t you just know it, utterly convincing as my sole means of transport. In other words the perfect enthusiast’s machine, because Ford was underwriting the cost of its specialness. It was invisible to those who neither knew nor cared what it was; worshiped by those who did.
Finding an unmolested one is getting harder
Finding an example which doesn’t have the immortal ‘Stage 1, 2, 3 etc’ suffixed to its name is getting harder, but there are a few out there.
The problem with owning a car like this would be one of usage. I’d want to cherish it, but would end up using it the whole time.
FORD FOCUS RS
Price: £8,995
Why you should: It's one of the finest performance Fords out there, and oozes subtle aggression from every pore
Why you shouldn't: The Mk2 is faster and grippier, and doesn't have an interior shot through with bright blue bits
See the original ad here.