Focus RS Handling

[CTE]

Generally the car is excellent in this department, but I wonder if they vary slightly. Mine pulls slightly to the left although the dealer says its ok, and I expect it is according to the tracking equiptment and specifications they are working with.
My missus has a 1.6 Zetec on a 53 plate, and whilst soft, handles very neutrally and just goes where you point it...its a delight. I test drove an ST before ordering the RS and it again was extremely neutral to slightly oversteery...in otherwords, great fun and a car which could be chucked around with complete abandon, but with full control. The RS however does not behave quite the same. It has much higher limits of adhesion so chucking a car around at silly speeds on a public road is pretty stupid, however, in greasy conditions, the car tends to understeer. I have not tried it on a track day yet, but I get the impression that it will not willingly oversteer or better still drift neutrally through a corner. It is undoubtedly very fast and I can safely say its the fastest cornering car I have ever driven, and whilst I thoughrouly enjoy driving the car, I feel it could be better and wonder if the tracking/geometry is not quite right. I have read before that someone moaned about their car understeering all day on a track day, yet others have said the cars tend to be of an overteery nature?

Whats your experience?....are there any suspension settings we need to know about or suspension guru`s out there?

Thanks

Mark

[Roop]

My RS is not as progressive in the wet as the base-model 2.0 Focus I have. I think this comes down to the fact that it's very stiffly sprung and stiffly damped. It doesn't pull either way although does tend to tramline a little, although not nearly as much as my Civic Type-R did.

[Gareth350]

Yep, agree with Roop, mine does exactly the same.

[Grebo911]

Yep mine tramlines a bit when overtaking - although ford have done an excellent job with the RS they most certainly ain't stopped it torque steering although now where like the mk 1 RS. Absolutely love it and can't wait to start tinkering with it when its run in properly.

[ChapppeRS]

They can vary quite a bit car to car, having talked to a guy at prodrive. Some are neutral, some very understeery and some oversteery. A lot of it can be down to tyre wear I think.

[miker1]

I would say it's down to the tracking..

is your car toe in or toe out?

go to a specialist and get it tracked properly,, with RS cars i have found that if you hit a pot hole to hard it will through out the tracking due to the hard suspension...

[checkmate91]

Have you switched the traction contol off? Mine becomes quite oversteery when it's off. With it on, it's neutral, pulls gently to the left most of the time until the camber of the road falls to the right then it pulls gently to the right. My old Fiesta ST did this too, had a slight toe-out setting to the steering, I suspect the RS has the same, will probably establish this when the inside of the tyres wear out lol. Grip is amazing, even in the winter that we've had.

My RS is so much better than the ST it replaced. I was never happy with the handling of the ST, it was ok at slow speeds but at higher speeds very floaty and not at all confidence-inspiring in, for example, high speed bends or motorway exit roads.

Regards,
Andy

[Chapppers]

Right so we're talking about the mk2 here! Whoops

Edited by Chapppers on Wednesday 13th January 09:56

[CTE]

Yes, mine has the trait you describe where it always pulls gently to the left, but sometimes goes neutral or to the right when the road camber changes. I can certainly accept there is minimal or no castor or even positive castor, which is why it has very responsive steering (which is excellent). Tyre wear seems even and there are no sharp edges to the treads after 3000 or so miles. It still feels understeery with the traction off although I have not had the opportunity to push it somewhere safe ie a trackday.