Ford Focus ST 2013

It combines power with precision, strength with agility, force with finesse. The high-output 2.0L EcoBoost® engine is built to give ST a signature sound and feel, while high-performance brakes and a uniquely tuned sport suspension help make it the street fighter that it is. This is a vehicle that’s been reworked in its entirety to forge a perfectly balanced blend of refined engineering and undiluted adrenaline.

“You see how you can play with the back end going on or off the throttle?” asks Jost Capito, who is clearly having fun. Inside Ford’s European proving ground near Lommel, Belgium, the director of Global Performance Vehicles is drifting through the corners of the handling track in his latest ­project, the Focus ST, adjusting the car’s angle of attack with the right pedal. We notice that when Capito gets back on the gas, the rear of the car comes back into line. In most front-wheel-drive cars, this move would provoke understeer. But the Focus ST is unlike most front-wheel-drive cars.

The Focus ST is also a work in progress. Ford invited us to Belgium to witness the late stages of the car’s development. What’s left to do at this point is the fine tuning, the detail work that separates a great car from one that’s merely good. Under the hood lies Ford’s direct-injected, 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, bookended by redesigned intake and exhaust systems. U.S.-market output figures have not been announced—it doesn’t go on sale here until late 2012—but the engine makes 247 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque in Europe. Tuned and tested by Ford’s American SVT and European RS teams and billed as the first truly global performance car from Ford, Europeans will still be treated to one variant that won’t make it to the US: a traditional wagon model. Destined to be sold in over 40 markets on six continents, the five-door Focus ST destined for America will be powered by a 2.0-liter EcoBoost, all-aluminum four-cylinder producing 250 horsepower (up from earlier estimates of 247 horsepower) and 250 lb-ft of torque according to Jamal Hameedi, SVT chief engineer (265 lb-ft of torque was previously suggested, Leftlane is awaiting confirmation on the change from Ford).

That power will be transmitted to the front wheels via a six-speed manual transmission – a transmission that Ford says received significant and special attention to deliver proper power delivery, along with ample oomph and fuel economy in sixth gear.

Handles Exceptionally

The unique sport suspension offers enhancements you can feel at every turn – not to mention enhanced Torque Vectoring Control laying rails around every corner.

The new ST’s tiller will be very close to that of the old car’s, says Capito. “I like a simple steering wheel. It’s something I have to keep the designers away from.”  The wheel is connected to a variable-ratio rack that is slower in the middle and quicker on the ends. (Common to Porsches, this is the only such application in Ford’s current lineup.) In between is electric power assist, which is the heart of the car’s torque-steer-compensation system. When the system senses an imbalance of torque to the front wheels, it reduces the steering assist in the direction the steering wheel would normally be yanked. The result, we’re told, is similar to that of the Revo­Knuckle strut from the previous Focus RS (a 300-hp Focus also never seen stateside) but without the extra cost and weight of  the advanced strut design.

The Global Performance Vehicle division’s mission dictates that every vehicle, including the Focus ST, must be profitable. So changes from the regular Focus are applied economically. The 12.6-inch front brake rotors, 1.7 inches larger in diameter, are gripped by new calipers, but the front suspension is largely unchanged with the exception of spring and damper tuning. At the rear, the main revision is how the ends of the anti-roll bar attach to the suspension. Instead of the standard Focus’s connection to the lower suspension links inboard of the coil springs, the ST links the bar directly to redesigned knuckles. The outboard connections improve the anti-roll bar’s effectiveness because the outer ends of the bar move more in concert with wheel motion.