What's all this about?
Ford has tuned up the Focus RS.
You what?! It's only been on sale five minutes!
Fear not, it's not exactly an all-new model. This is the Mountune version.
Ah, I see. Is this rather like what Ford did to the Fiesta ST, before it unleashed the ST200?
You're bang on the money. Once more, Ford has left its rivals red-faced by offering a Focus RS Mountune kit - consisting of a high-performance air filter, bespoke alloy crossover duct with high-performance silicon hoses, an upgraded air recirculation valve and a remapped ECU - for the price of just £899 fitted (by a Ford dealer), with the work taking one-and-a-half hours and preserving the three-year/60,000-mile manufacturer's warranty. That means a Focus RS Mountune can be yours from slightly less than £31,000. It's outrageous value.
What does the Mountune kit do for the RS?
It takes the peak outputs of its 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbocharged EcoBoost engine from 350hp and 470Nm to 375hp and 510Nm. OK, these maximums are only available on a time-limited (12-second) overboost phase, but they're enough to trim the 0-62mph time to 4.5 seconds, while the top speed is unaffected at 165mph. All this means two things: one, the Focus mega hatch is now more powerful than an Audi RS 3 Sportback, with only Mercedes-AMG's bonkers 381hp A 45 packing more horses than the Ford; and two, it can get to 62mph from rest in less time than it takes a Porsche 911 Carrera, which costs twice as much.
Crikey! Sounds appealing! Anything else to add?
We'll let Tyrone Johnson, vehicle engineering manager for Ford Performance, close this out by stating: "Ford has a proud history of working with Mountune to unleash even more power from our hot hatchbacks for dedicated performance enthusiasts. Boosting power to 375hp launches the already class-leading Focus RS even further ahead of the field."
Matt Robinson - 8 Aug 2016