Ownership Verified: Nitrous Blue 2018 Focus RS

RdKetchup

Snow Mexican Surender Monkey
DONOR
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
5,376
Location
Montreal, Qc, Canada
Car(s)
FoRS, Japanese touring triple
My Legacy GT was a hoot to drive, but it was getting old (12!), rusty, and I felt an expensive year à la 2016 was looming on the horizon.

And a co-worker showed up a week ago with a Civic Type R he bought on impulse.

So, the desire to replace the venerable Subaru was back on, and again, I was faced with a dilemma.

Buy a semi-sporty, semi-luxurious car, like a used Lexus IS350 or something similar, but then I would lose the joy of rowing my own gears.

Civic Type R was out as well, since I have no desire to buy a FWD car ever again, not even one as well put together as the CTR.

VW Golf R could have worked, but I'm weary of long term reliability of German cars, and it just doesn't make me fizz.

I though of going back to another Subaru, with a WRX Sporttech, but a friend of mine bought one a year ago and he is less than impressed with it.

A Mustang GT was tempting, but a RWD car in our climate would be awesome 8 months a year, and varying from average to unlivable the other 4 months depending on the road conditions.

So I was left with one choice, the Focus RS. But a quick look at the ford.ca website showed that they raised the price 10000$ between 2017 and 2018, putting the MSRP at over 60k$, more than a Mustang Bullit!

I decided to look at the online inventory, in case some dealers had deals, and to my surprise, there were quite a few with a 10000$ discount, in the only color I would consider, Nitrous Blue.

And then I found one with a 12000$ discount. And then I test drove it. And then I was able to negotiate an even better price.

And then it was mine.

So I'm replacing a Blue AWD manual wagon with a 4 cylinder turbo engine with a Blue AWD manual hatchback with a 4 cylinder turbo engine.

I lose 200cc, but I gain 70hp and an extra gear.

Proof pic:

IMG_20181110_1248333e5e675367f32b6e.jpg




IMG_20181110_124741f311285941edd10c.jpg



Morning after I got it, good thing I had it delivered with the winter tires on...

IMG_20181109_06334863627e8d92e52ddc.jpg


IMG_20181109_06340484d12d77cd025d3f.jpg
 
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Smart move, with Ford discontinuing the Focus altogether in N America, the RS is going to be one of the most desirable and sought after cars in its class. After you're done enjoying and driving it, you'll still command a great resale price when you sell.
 
Driving impressions after ~200km...

The ride is hard! I didn't notice it during the test drive and the drive home, but today I finally understood why all the reviews I've read complained about it. It's not worse than the ride of my Legacy on Koni Yellow's, so I can live with it.

The handling is amazing. The torque vectoring is just insane. I can' t wait to try it in the snow. This will be fun!

The power is nice, but it's not as big a difference from the Subaru as I was expecting.


But the biggest smile inducer so far is the noise. Maybe I'm really just a kid, but I find myself just stepping on the right pedal to hear the noise and than the pops when I let go :D

I know the engine sound is partially faked, I will need to try with the fake sound generator disconnected to see if I like it better "natural".



Edit:

So tonight I decided to disconnect the FENG (Fake ENGine noise module), and went for a ride. It was all a lie! That nice boxer rumble that I liked so much, all gone! :cry:

The pops are still there though.

But since I now know that the sound was fake, I can't go back to it. And the real sound of the engine is not that bad, and for everyday driving, the fake noise was a bit too loud, specially in Sport mode (that I use 99% of the time so far).


Back to tonight's ride... The temperature was cold, at exactly 0°, but the roads were dry. I did a little highway run turning around near my workplace in an exit I knew had nice esses (but that I'm only used to taking in the opposite direction). It starts with a 180° hairpin, that I took at a fun but reasonable pace since the concrete wall is not very far away. When I got to the first part of the esses, I went in at an ok speed, and then floored it. The back end just stepped out the perfect amount and I powered out of the turn counter-steering the whole way, laughing so loud by myself in the car :LOL:

And this was in Sport mode. On a dry road. After less than 300 km driven, so I'm pushing nowhere near what I would do on a car I'm more familiar with.
 
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Fake noise aside, it looks like you made the right choice. :D
Congrats
 
Redliner;n3554806 said:
Fake noise aside, it looks like you made the right choice. :D
Congrats

Yep, I'm just scared of 3 things :

- Losing my license.
- Fuel expenses.
- Tire expenses.

:LOL:
 
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Another one joins the hot hatch crowd! I approve!
 
Very yes. Ford hot hatch stamp of approval.

PMed you some mods my coworkers are doing. Theres a really good but pricey suspension kit out there I can find for you if youre interested in making the ride a bit more bearable.
 
CrzRsn;n3554822 said:
Very yes. Ford hot hatch stamp of approval.

PMed you some mods my coworkers are doing. Theres a really good but pricey suspension kit out there I can find for you if youre interested in making the ride a bit more bearable.

Thanks for the PM.

For the suspension, I don't plan on modifying it (I want to keep this car stock), but I'm still curious about that kit that actually improves the ride. That must be a first in the history of aftermarket suspension kits :LOL:
 
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You could always do an exhaust on it to help with noise, not that you can do much with a 4t
 
RdKetchup;n3554830 said:
Thanks for the PM.

For the suspension, I don't plan on modifying it (I want to keep this car stock), but I'm still curious about that kit that actually improves the ride. That must be a first in the history of aftermarket suspension kits :lol:

No it isn't. :p I went the cheap route and only got new springs, but my 1-series needed aftermarket solutions to soften the ride. Welcome to the blue hatchback with harsh suspension -club. :mrgreen:
 
RdKetchup;n3554830 said:
For the suspension, I don't plan on modifying it (I want to keep this car stock), but I'm still curious about that kit that actually improves the ride. That must be a first in the history of aftermarket suspension kits :lol:

The two kits my coworker is considering are:

DSCsports: https://www.dscsport.com/product/ford-focus-rs-tractive-dscsport-kit/
and
Litchfield: http://www.litchfieldmotors.com/ford/focus-rs#handling

Supposedly both make the care a lot better. The DSC is a really extreme kit that gos as far as replacing the whole suspension controller module. I'd be a bit weary of doing something like that, but they seem to know what they're doing as they do a lot of Porsche Cup cars.
 
CrzRsn;n3554849 said:
The two kits my coworker is considering are:

DSCsports: https://www.dscsport.com/product/ford-focus-rs-tractive-dscsport-kit/
and
Litchfield: http://www.litchfieldmotors.com/ford/focus-rs#handling

Supposedly both make the care a lot better. The DSC is a really extreme kit that gos as far as replacing the whole suspension controller module. I'd be a bit weary of doing something like that, but they seem to know what they're doing as they do a lot of Porsche Cup cars.

Some of the SS guys are looking at getting DSC to do a kit similar to the Camaro and Vette options they offer. From what I have read on the forums from the P car owners have been very happy with their solution.
 
Congrats! The car is an absolute hoot to drive and is on my short list of cars to own.
 
IMG_20181116_1805260688757d30ed9114.jpg


I can now confirm that the AWD system is awesome in the snow :burnrubber::driving:
 
What snow tires did those ship with?
 
CrzRsn;n3554905 said:
What snow tires did those ship with?

18" Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4.
 
Is the ride as reviewers say it is?
 
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