I am not trying to suggest that it is a horrible car, I am sure it is a fun car regardless. But let's face it, the only reason anyone would pay double the cost of a regular Focus (which looks virtually the same inside and out), is for the added performance. How quickly a car accelerates is a very important aspect of performance, obviously it is not the only aspect, but it is certainly a very important one. For example; if it was identical in every other way, but only had say 150 HP, would it still be as desirable? I don't think so, just ask Subaru BRZ or Toyota 86 owners.
So if Ford announced tomorrow, "gee sorry, turns out the Focus RS only makes 300 HP not 350 HP like we said", would that affect the car's desirability? I think it would still be a desirable car, but certainly to a lesser extent for many folks.
If Ford had advertised this car as having say 310 hp, it would still be a great car to get excited about. For example people are still excited about the Golf R, another sub $40K econo based performance car with awd, and even the recently departed EVO, or the STI, they are all still exciting, desirable, and fun cars. The thing is Ford led us to believe that this car would trump those other options in every performance aspect.
All three of those other AWD econo based hotrods have more or less the same power rating, weight, and drivetrain, and guess what, on average they all have very similar acceleration. So now Ford comes out with this new Focus RS option that has very similar weight and drivetrain, but trick new differentials to improve handling, and supposedly a significantly higher engine output (almost 20% more). Those specifications would lead one to believe that it will accelerate much faster, but apparently it doesn't, why?
So if all of these cars have very similar drive train and weight, and all have similar acceleration, occam's razor suggests that they all have very similar power output as well. 0-60 is heavily influenced by traction off the line, but trap speed not so much. Trap speed is a very good indicator of power output, and it is telling a very different story from what the specs, and this one chassis dyno are saying. Numbers are meaningless if they don't translate into real performance. I am raising this issue because I would like to see this car perform like it should based off its specifications. While it is good in many ways, it should be even better.
We will see, as these cars start showing up at drag strips and dyno days getting tested back to back against STI's, EVO's and Golf R's, the truth will become obvious to all. IMO it seems obvious right now that this car is not meeting spec's, but we will see. Just remember you heard it here first lol.