We’ve been paying a lot of attention to the Focus RS’ drift mode but let’s face it, you’re probably not going to take it onto the track every day so it’s going to double up as your daily driver. While not as exciting as drifting or hooning it down the track, you’ll still like how polished it is as an on road vehicle.
Before we get to how it handles on the road, let’s talk about the Focus RS’ interior. If you’re lucky enough to be in Europe you’ll have the chance to order your RS with optional lightweight seats, for everyone else, you’ll have to keep an eye out for Ford’s future Performance catalogue. Once seated, you’ll be treated to a fairly quite ride. Fairly quiet because you’ll still hear a bit of that 350hp roaring away but still quite enough for a conversation at normal decibels. The Focus RS is also a perfect for grocery runs with foldable rear seats for more trunk space.
During your runs to the store in Normal mode you’ll notice that the suspension, while still quite firm is compliant enough to not jar every bone in your body when going over bumps. When you’re just cruising down the highway the Focus RS will turn into a FWD by disengaging the rear clutches until something interesting comes along. By then, the sensors monitoring the car at a hundred times per second would have changed it back to AWD. If you’re feeling a need for a bit more speed and there’s an open curvy road ahead of you, then by all means, go into Sport mode and you’ll feel the RS sharpen and stiffen up a bit.
For those of you who do not think Sport mode is enough for your daily drive, tough. You’ll have to reign in those urges because that’s what track days are for and Ford doesn’t recommend Track or Drift mode for public roads.
