Ford Focus RS

Provided by Independent.ie

It didn't take long, 20 seconds in fact, between getting into the powerful Ford Focus RS and beginning to receive waves, thumbs-up and a lot of appreciative glances.

Not that the RS goes out of its way to look fast and very souped up. It's basically a pretty standard-looking five-door Focus, which has been strengthened, and given some quite discreet mouldings and spoiler, to go with its 2.3litre, 350bhp EcoBoost turbo-charged petrol engine and all-wheel drive with dynamic torque vectoring. That is the power behind four preset drive modes - normal, sport, track and drift.

The package gives you a vehicle that will rocket you to 100kmh in 4.7 seconds and onwards to a max of 266kmh or 165mph in old money. And this is one with confident sureness that undoubtedly makes the Focus RS the king of the hot hatches. The six-speed manual box is precise and has a great range.

Despite its name and heritage, this is not a family car. The back is dark and rather oppressive behind the full leather shell seats, and the ride - even in normal modes - is bone-shuddering hard. It is also expensive. While the new S starts at €52,600; the aforementioned seats cost another €2,000, Sony Navigation is €1,000 and a number of other items like painting the brake calipers (€150), power-fold heated side mirrors (€100) and door edge protectors (€150) soon put the test car just short of €57,000.

This is the second pretty expensive Ford I have tested this year - coming after the much-desired Mustang, both as a coupe and convertible. At the end of the last year there was the high-end Vignale version of the Mondeo; while sitting in my garage this weekend, waiting for a lot of bank holiday motoring, is the Edge , the new American-style SUV from Ford, which again is packing a hefty price tag, this time €62,000.

The latest Focus RS is the third generation and comes 14 years after Mark 1 and apparently is the 30th RS model overall. RS stands for Rallye Sport, and while Ford doesn't actually rally the Focus, the three extra driving modes put you on the way to feeling that you would stand a chance in hurtling down to Monte Carlo. The responses of throttle, steering damping, AWD system, stability control and even exhaust noise are successively hardened and ramped up. The drift mode is rather frightening for the uninitiated as it totally unsettles the tail. It does what it says, and would be a great way of using up your tyres.

That's not to take away anything from the driving dynamics of the Focus RS. They are absolutely superb and the car gobbles speed and corners like our dog Sam does his dinner, not leaving even a tiny bit for the competition.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise because across its model range, you have to say, Ford cars handle better than nearly all its competitors.

Perhaps my days with the likes of the Focus RS are numbered, at least with my partner and dog on board. This is not a car for the faint-hearted or for those who believe speed is the ultimate goal. Our graveyards are filling up with the latter. It is a car to be respected and has the power and equipment to keep you safe.

Yet for a week it was good to get all the kudos, whether it was from the barista in Insomnia or the envious glances from fellow motorists. The Focus RS made me feel good and look good. That's worth something, if not nearly €57,000.