After much anticipation, Ford have finally decided to show the new Focus RS live in Geneva, an event which managed to attract a lot of attention and discussion. The new looks of the car are being received very warmly by fans and critics alike, and from what it seems right now, the new Focus could enjoy a lot of success once it’s released on the market. At the same time, even though many people were expecting to find out new information about the car at the presentation, Ford decided to keep quiet about specific details related to the Focus RS.
So far, we still don’t know the official specifications of the car, and there have been some speculations about the reason going around. Some believe that Ford are strategically delaying the announcement, as they’re waiting for Honda to first give some details about the performance of their new Civic Type-R. After that, rumors claim, Ford are going to run their own specification tests in a way that presents the results in a more favorable light compared to Honda.
The only detail that was revealed about the Focus RS was the vague claim that it makes “well in excess of 315 hp”, which doesn’t really say much, given the class the car is in. That’s not really anything surprising, so it still remains to be seen exactly what kind of performance the new Focus RS is going to deliver.
Another detail that has been mentioned is that the front brakes of the new model are Brembos, and it’s actually “the most powerful RS brake system” right now. However, critics have pointed out that this is actually a very vague statement without much meaning to it, as sheer power is not something that defines the performance of a braking system too well on its own.
At least we got plenty of pictures to look at, so that’s something for the fans – those who were interested to see how the new Focus RS has changed in its appearance will have plenty of material to go over. It does seem quite modernized, and yet still has its characteristic appearance that defined the model in the first place, so Ford’s designers obviously know what they’re doing.
That won’t matter much if the car doesn’t matter to impress with its specifications though, so Ford should be very careful in making that announcement to ensure that they’re not only presenting the car in a favorable light, but in an honest one too. If it later turns out that people have been misled about what the Focus RS is capable of, this can backfire on Ford quite significantly.