Since the RS brand's inception in 1969, Ford's performance models have always been groundbreaking. Remember the RS200? Ford took its Group B rally car and made it street legal. Then, the company set a record with the 1985 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth by selling the first street car with an engine that produced more than 100 horsepower per liter.

Only problem is, we've never been able to buy an RS in the United States. But that all changes with the 2017 Ford Focus RS. How excited are people for this car? Well, the company has already received 3700 orders even though the car won't hit show rooms until spring. So, pretty damn excited.

And there's good reason for all this fervor. Based on what we already knew the car entailed, the Focus RS seemed like a certain steal at $35,730: a 350-horsepower, 2.3-liter turbocharged EcoBoost engine; a sophisticated all-wheel-drive system with a torque-vectoring rear differential; four-piston 350mm Brembo brakes; Recaro seats; electronically adjustable shocks; and a mission to lap a track for 30 minutes without any performance loss.

Lee Brimble

Now, here's what we can finally confirm: As amazing as we expected the RS to be, it far exceeds every one of our expectations.

Ford held its first drives of the RS in Valencia, Spain last weekend. I spent two days driving the RS on mountain roads, took it for a bunch of hot laps on the Moto GP-friendly Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tomo, and even tried drifting around a specially setup skidpad. In all of these instances, the RS proved to be an absolute riot. Here's everything you need to know about Ford's new hot hatch.

How Ford Made the RS so Good

The Ford Focus RS vehicle engineer manager, Tyrone Johnson, was previously in charge of Ford Racing and was responsible for the carmaker's efforts in F1 and the World Rally Championships. His vision was key to the development of the RS, which took over two years to perfect. Little things like the exhaust were fully redesigned twice to eliminate the center muffler and make it as straight as possible, reducing backpressure, increasing power, and creating an angry, raspy, spitting sound that is unique to the RS.

Lee Brimble

Johnson and his team also insisted that everything you see on the car be functional. There are no cosmetic fender vents. Instead, the front grille was enlarged as much as possible to get air to the largest intercooler they could fit. The brake ducts on the front spoiler transfer air into little "jet tunnels" that feed lower control arm deflectors, guiding the air into the center of the brake rotors. The front spoiler, the roof spoiler, and a lower diffuser work together to give the RS zero lift.

The team knew the all-wheel-drive system would be critical to the performance of the car, so it really focused its efforts here. Initially they tried a Haldex unit, which provided great straight-line traction but tends to be dull at the limit and usually results in understeer. Ford said the team tried fitting larger rear tires to mechanically overdrive the rear wheels and counteract the limitations of the Haldex, but the driveline blew itself to pieces due to the different front and rear ratios and no real way to slip one of the ratios to even everything out.

This led Ford to work with the engineering company GKN on the Torque Vectoring Rear Drive Module (RDM), which looks like a rear differential with electronically controlled but hydraulically actuated clutches on each rear-wheel output. A dedicated computer monitors vehicle sensors 100 times per second and locks and unlocks the clutches given the situation. The clutches allow the Focus RS to transfer up to 100 percent of its available power to the left or right rear wheel within .06 seconds by fully opening one clutch and locking the other, or it can lock the rear axle solid when using launch control.

The Focus RS's Torque Vectoring Rear Drive Module (RDM) can transfer 100 percent of the car's available power to the left or right rear wheel within .06 seconds. Ford

The rear differential can also declutch both rear wheels to improve fuel economy. Keep in mind this is a real all-wheel-drive car. It's not a front-wheel-drive car that engages the rear wheels when it needs grip. Instead, the rear wheels decouple when the car realizes you won't be needing them for a while—like, say, for a few hours on the highway. When that happens, the clutches release, but they can be re-engaged within 400 milliseconds when you start turning, braking, or doing anything other than highway cruising.

GKN also supplied the front Power Distribution Unit, which allows up to 70 percent of the engine's torque to be applied to the rear wheels, and worked with Ford's vehicle dynamics engineers to create the RS's four driving modes. The car starts in Normal Mode, but with a push of the button you can select Sport, Track or Drift.

Driving Modes Are Really Important In This Car

During the engineering presentation, Ford emphasized that their high performance cars (Focus RS and GT350) would be able to hot lap a track for 30 minutes. Because of this, I expected a harsh ride on the street. Not so. Instead, the driving modes allow you to customize six different parameters to radically transform the nature of the car from a daily driver to a track-day weapon. The driving modes in the Focus RS are far more aggressive than the "sport" button you find in most cars.

Lee Brimble

You can also adjust the shocks independently of the Drive Mode by pressing a button on the end of the turn-signal stalk. Want to drive fast on a rough surface? Engage Track Mode and reset the shocks to Normal. Want to quietly slip though town in what feels like Sport Mode without waking the neighbors? Select Normal Mode, which quiets down the exhaust, and hit the shock button to put the suspension back into Sport. This sounds like a lot of work, but with dedicated buttons, it's easy. I was able to switch between drive modes, disable electronic stability control, and adjust the shocks all while lapping the track at 100 mph.

Normally, the exhaust exits through the passenger side tailpipe until you select Sport, Track, or Drift Mode. Do that, and a valve opens on the driver's side tailpipe, letting the exhaust out with a roar and causing the car to backfire, gurgle, and pop like a rally car every time you breathe off the gas. The noises are the result of a nifty tuning trick that lights fuel in the combustion chamber while the cylinder head's exhaust valve is open. Some might say it's cheating, but it definitely turns heads while driving down the street.

The shocks could be the most impressive part of the adjustments. Ford looked at using a magnetic shock fluid that firms up when charged with electricity, but the range of adjustment is pretty small with that technology. Instead, Ford used a new Tenneco design that's fitted with a little electronic valve in the shock piston much like the manual adjustment nobs on the top of racecar shocks. By changing the valving inside the piston, the shocks increase their dampening by 40 percent in Sport Mode.

Lee Brimble

Also worth celebrating is that you can put the electronic stability control into Sport Mode or fully disable the system while in any drive mode, which is rare these days. A lot of manufacturers let you turn it off, but the moment you get into trouble, the stability control rears its ugly little head. With the RS, you can go to the track, push the car's limits, and it will never interfere. This car truly was built for enthusiasts.

The Focus RS Is Much More Than a Sportier Focus ST

So how different is the Focus RS from the ST model? Significantly. The RS is not an ST with bolt-on upgrades. Instead, you get a reinforced chassis, AWD, substantially more power, and better steering and suspension. The two cars roll down the same assembly line, but even the basic unibody is different. The RS gets another piece of steel that connects the rear shock towers to the rear subframe mounts. Ford's engineers also added significant bracing to the front and rear subframes, which it says improves overall chassis stiffness by 23 percent over the base Focus. The roll bar also uses a more efficient design.

While the new RS shocks are electronically adjustable, they are very similar in valving and feel to the ST's when the car is Normal Mode. Engaging Sport Mode increases the dampening by 40 percent and substantially firms up the car's ride. The spring rates on the RS have been increased by 33 percent in the front and 38 percent in the rear over the ST, but the suspension bushings are borrowed directly from the ST parts bin.

The steering has been quickened from 2.5 turns lock-to-lock on the ST to two on the RS. The base feel of the steering wheel is slightly heavier than the ST in Normal Mode, but increases quite a bit when Sport is selected. Ford also spent a fair amount of time to improve the road feel of the steering, but I'm still not really a fan of electrically powered steering racks. I did feel more connected to the road than in an ST, but still, it's electric.

How the Focus RS Drives

Lee Brimble

Despite my personal feelings toward electric steering, the RS was a blast to rip through the mountain roads outside of Valencia. The car is incredibly predictable and easy to drive quickly along twisty canyon roads. The engine makes a significant amount of torque at low rpms, allowing you to accelerate in most gears without feeling the need to downshift and wind the motor up. A 50 kph (31 mph) pull to 100 kph (62 mph) in fourth gear takes five seconds. For those curious, the previous Focus RS from 2009 took 5.4 seconds.

The brakes on this car are phenomenal. They work well in a straight line, which is to be expected from massive Brembos, but the real confidence came when you needed to brake hard while entering a corner with the weight transferring to the outside. No matter how hard I braked at corner entry, the car continued to track where I pointed it and maintained its composure. Anyone with great driving roads near their house will love this car.

Lee Brimble

As fun as the RS is in the canyons, the track is where it really shines. The optional forged wheels with stickier Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires provide a seven percent larger footprint and are well worth the upgrade for anyone considering tracking the RS. I started out driving in Track Mode with the electronic stability control in Sport Mode and barely noticed it the first lap. On the second lap, I started to toss the car a little faster than I should have into the higher speed corners. Instead of rotating or feeling like it would spin when I reached the limit, the car's computers took over and did a little four-wheel-controlled drift that was incredibly stable. You could hardly tell the stability control was fixing your mistakes. On the third lap, I turned it off, and the car was so easy to drive I never went back.

On the occasion that I did overcook a tight corner, the car would understeer and fight to get back on the racing line, but that was my mistake for entering the corner at excessive speed. On the higher-speed corners, I could easily drive it over the limit and never once worried about leaving the track at speed. I could throw it into the corner, keep the gas pedal buried in the floor, and simply aim through the apex. The car's AWD system and torque-vectoring rear differential handled the rest.

After a few laps of Track Mode, I switched over to Drift Mode. At first, I didn't entirely get it. The car felt slightly more rear-wheel-drive biased then before, and the turn-in seemed crisper, but I didn't get crazy sideways until I committed to full throttle entering the corners. Once you do that, just dial in a little bit of counter steer and start laughing as the car holds its line through a high-speed drift.

Lee Brimble

At the track, the brakes continued to impress. The front Brembo calipers come with four 38mm pistons and clamp down on 350mm rotors, making them the largest brakes ever fitted to an RS model. I pushed them harder and harder every lap, and they only seemed to get better. The front tires, however, did start to get hot when I stopped driving smoothly and started having fun with Drift Mode, but that's to be expected when you intentionally overdrive a car.

I was also surprised by the suspension on my hot laps. I expected more body roll from a production car, but in Sport Mode it was firm and planted. I also jumped the car over the curbs—which were pretty smooth given the Moto GP nature of the track—but they never upset the car while exiting the corner. Other than a few understeer moments in the low-speed corners, I never felt like I was fighting the car, which made it crazy fun to drive fast around the track.

Lee Brimble

Launch Control takes a few buttons to engage the system, but it's nothing like the Contra-like cheat code other manufacturers use. You hit a button on the steering wheel and drill down through two menus to turn it on. Then you floor the car and let the needle bounce off the rev limiter. When you're ready to launch, just sidestep clutch and the car surges forward. First gear goes by lickety-split, and with a quick pull in second, you reach 60 mph in 4.7 seconds.

Launch Control takes a few buttons to engage the system, but it's nothing like the Contra-like cheat code other manufacturers use.

I have to say, though, that the skidpad had to be the most fun we got to have with the RS. Drift Mode was a good time on the track, but it really came alive here. Ford set up a circle of cones and cut us loose after some advice: Roll into the circle and give it some gas; tighten the steering wheel until the car feels like the rear tires want to break loose; then floor the gas pedal and aim through the edge of the circle. Suddenly, all four tires begin to smoke and you simply turn the wheel more to tighten the rotation. It's so addictive that I stayed in the circle for a few more laps than I was allotted. Now I know what Ken Block feels like when he pirouettes around those barrels in his Gymkhana videos.

Lee Brimble

Bottom Line: This Is The Best Enthusiast Deal Available

Other brands with all-wheel-drive performance cars like Subaru should be concerned. For another $500 over a WRX STI, the Focus RS gives you an extra 45 horsepower and a wide range of driving modes. You get Recaro seats, Brembo brakes, electronically adjustable shocks, and a car designed to lap a track for 30 minutes.

Lee Brimble

And the best part is that this all comes in a very practical 5-door hatch that you could comfortably drive around town with your mom or kids. There's even room for a good-size dog in the back.

If anything, you just have to watch out for Drift Mode. Spinning in circles with smoke pouring off all four corners is so much fun that you'll find any excuse to do it, and that could lead to being forever in debt to Michelin. It's best to try and avoid that.

Lee Brimble

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