FORD FOCUS ST

NO RS, BUT A HOT HATCH TO WARM THE HEART

- ASH WESTERMAN

HAVE YOU ever attended a christening and a wake on the same day? Okay, me neither, but I imagine the emotions involved may be a little like those felt here. The celebratory part is the local arrival of the $44,690 Ford Focus ST hot hatch, but its launch coincides almost exactly with news that the overlord of the semi-affordable hot-hatch segment, the Focus RS, has copped a bullet to the heart.

When Ford delivered the news that its revelatory, drift-capable allpaw hero would not be renewed in fourth-gen form, a few of us (okay, only me) whimpered like small girls. But it raises the question: is this new ST any sort of cut-price conciliation? After all, its 2.3-litre turbo four is a detuned version of the 257kW/440Nm unit that powered the previous $51K RS (and the 236kW/448Nm version in the Mustang High Performance). Here it makes 206kW and 420Nm – significantly higher than the previous Focus ST’s 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder’s outputs of 184kW and 360Nm.

But is it enough? Well, it’s ample for letting you know these outputs are being funnelled through the front wheels only – there’s angry axle tramp if you get wilful with the throttle on damp roads, and a bit of tweaking torque steer out of tight exits from the electronically controlled LSD. But the chassis tune and tyres, which we’ll get to in a second, are so capable you’ll almost certainly wish for a bit more.