Ford has employed all manner of electronics to try to tame the beastly motor, but it still suffers from significant torque steer when you really mash the throttle. That’s some serious grunt being fed to the front wheels, available only with a six-speed manual transmission. The ST, though, sports something special - a hot turbocharged 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine making 252 horsepower and 270 pounds-feet of torque. The regular Ford Focus has two powertrains: a boring 2.0-liter four-cylinder and a fuel-miser, turbocharged 1.0-liter three-cylinder. A blue-and-white combination would likely be more appealing and keeping with Ford’s traditional racing colors, as well. While I’m not opposed to stripes on a car, the black-and-red combination on my ST drew more disdain than praise from onlookers. My test car also sported some questionable bright-red stripes and mirror caps, which matched the red brake calipers. A roof spoiler sits atop the hatchback, and larger wheels and tires make the whole package look truly racy. The new updates to the Ford Focus bring the Fusion-style headlights and grille across the lineup, but the ST takes it a step further with a more aggressive front and rear treatment. (Compare the 20 models here.) With a new Volkswagen GTI - the Focus ST’s very clear target - also on the scene, are the Ford’s changes for 2015 enough to unseat the German king of hot hatches? The sporty ST model gets some suspension retuning as well. It found a cult following among American youth who had been more interested in the Honda Civic Si and Nissan Sentra SE-R than anything from an American brand.įor 2015, the whole Focus lineup has been revamped, with revised styling and better noise insulation. When it burst onto the scene in 2012, enthusiasts loved it: Here was a true European-style hot hatch with a powerful motor, sophisticated chassis, aggressively bolstered seats and a short-throw manual transmission. The Europeans have always done these well, which explains why the 2015 Ford Focus ST is such an entertaining car to drive. High-performance compact cars are fun for everyone they’re generally affordable, reasonably efficient, tight-handling and useful sports machines that value balance and cornering more than brute force, like a typical American sports car. Quicker and more extreme than most of its competitors, the new 2015 Ford Focus ST sacrifices some daily comfort for a wilder character.
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