Saturday 22nd July 2017

Ford Focus RS at the 'ring: Time For Coffee?

A hot hatch with a Nordschleife lap time over eight minutes? Whatever next?!

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Let's be clear from the off: 8min 6secs is still a very, very fast time for a Ford Focus to lap the Nurburgring in. It's just that we're in bizarre situation now where it doesn't sound all that exceptional.

A few caveats to start: this is a production Focus RS tested by sportauto, rather than whatever cars the manufacturers use for their 'official' times. We also don't know what tyre the car is on, though you would have to assume the RS is using the optional Cup 2 (rather than the standard Super Sport), like the Leon and Golf used on their laps. And, well, is there an argument to be made that the Focus is less track focused than those cars?

Whatever the case, this is still a fantastic video to watch, mainly due to Christian Gebhardt's balls-out style. It's worth noting too just how little steering effort it needs and, while the tyres do squeal, the RS seems to stave off understeer pretty well. Your thoughts and comments are of course always welcome!

Surely they'll want to get under eight minutes, right? Perhaps the new Option Pack will do just that. Or an RS500...

Watch the video here.

[PetrolAholic]

I keep looking at these as a bit of a fun toy/mid life crisis. After owning so many nice cars in my time I've never actually owned a Ford but every time I see one I find myself wanting one.