Ford to show hot Focus RS with 'drift mode'

Show Caption Hide Caption Ford unveils the focus RS ahead of NY auto show Ford is unveiling the first-ever global RS model ahead of the start of the New York Auto Show. The new RS will be produced in the automaker's Saarlouis, Germany plant starting late this year. The Focus RS is the fourth high-performance vehicle Ford

Ford will display the high-performance 2016 Focus RS at the New York auto show next week as the automaker continues to globalize its high-performance models by bringing a European-oriented car to the U.S.

"Customers have begged for the Focus RS to come to the United States for years," said Raj Nair, group vice president of Ford's global product development.

Ford's had so much success in regional markets with go-fast vehicles that it's decided to wrap them into a lineup of high-performance models that it can market worldwide. The sub-brand has no jazzy name — Ford Performance — but nonetheless is very real. It plans more than a dozen high-performance cars over the next few years.

The Focus RS, not yet priced and due at U.S. dealers next spring, is fitted with a new Ford all-wheel-drive system and a 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder gasoline engine with what Ford promises will be "well in excess of 315 horsepower."

The automaker says the RS hatchback "pioneers" the new AWD system, suggesting that other Fords could get it, too.

RS has the most-powerful braking system Ford ever has sold, the car company brags, sporting the Brembo brand front brakes that are a favorite among driving enthusiasts.

The AWD system lets the driver select among four drive modes: normal, sport, track and — in the latest corporate recognition of what once was a rogue sport — a special drift mode.

Drifting, a sport that began in Japan in the 1970s but didn't hit the U.S. until the 1990s, rewards a driver's ability to hang out the tail of a car in continuous, controlled, tire-smoking oversteer while not degenerating into an uncontrolled sideways slide.

That's a tough line to walk in any case, and it's especially hard to do with AWD, so Ford has baked-in some settings that make it possible.

In addition to picking drift mode, the driver can use a switch alongside the gear lever to choose settings for shock-absorber control, stability control, steering and engine response, as well as exhaust sound.

Launch control — a feature that makes the hot-rod set salivate — configures the car's chassis and powertrain systems for the fastest possible acceleration. Set launch control, floor the throttle, pop the clutch. The car uses the AWD and other systems to dump the most-possible torque to the wheels without so much wheel-spin that the car loses traction.