all you, brotha. i'm not driving to a race, car show, etc in 100*+ weather and no A/C. nope. no sweaty shirts for me LOL and a radio is necessary for me during the 3.5hr drive i have to some of the tracks.
i have a Civic to daily, but i don't enjoy it. i take the Evo out to track events and the occasional local car meet, etc.

 

Just curious,

I was in a Mazda/Ford dealer helping my son look for an economical car. The sales guy was explaining the benefits of some traction control for winter driving, and I mentioned I had experience with a very capable AWC in my Evo.

He mentioned that a customer had ordered a Focus RS and traded an Evo X. I was just curious if others in this forum were considering the same thing.

Kevin

 

No.

 

Never been a hatch back fan, or a Ford fan.

 

Wouldn't even consider it.

 

Probably not but won't knock it until I drive one

 

there will not be an evo to compare it too, since there will be no 2016 evo. it will out run a 15 evo in a straight line. I'm sure it will be faster around a track as well. stock vs stock. it handles better as well, this TQ-vectoring with the brakes is effective, and cheap vs EVOs diffs.


but they are both imports. as the RS will be built in Saarlouis Germany. we already know the engine. its the mazdaspeed3's MZR, beefed up I'm sure. we know what that engine can do in its current state. it always been held back by the FWD.


the Japanese specs for the new sti FA are out: sub 300, less power then it has now, but it drops 120 kilos, 240 bls.


the 2017 sti will not have more power. nor the golf R, or the civic R.


there will be nothing in the USA off the lot that will be faster then the RS, in its niche.


..well see what happens after the first round of recalls, i don't think they know like Mitsubishi understood from the 4g how we beat on engines. I don't know if they are ready for the world of pain that awaits the first RS cars.


just remember if you gonna get one, wait one year!!! and get the model that fixes all the bugs from the first one.

 

I test drove an st 3 times trying to convince myself to like it. Each time I liked it less. The fact that I will never be able to test drive an rs makes it an easy choice. Hell no.

 

In all reality it should be better than the Evo in most ways.

The Evo hasn't had any updates since 2008 and the RS is a brand new 2016 model car. If it doesn't beat an 8 year old car, there is a problem.

 

I think the Focus RS is a smart choice if the owner plans to leave it stock (or just do Ford authorized stuff that maintains the warranty). But anyone who plans on being an early adopter for track use, better have deep pockets.

 

I think the car is probably quite good but I have tried over and over to like the seating position and dimensions of the Focus and just can't do it. Great car, technically, but I think it fails in some design areas and execution that leave it in the 'meh' list for me.

 

This is a valid point. The RS doesn't have the history of being heavily modified and beat on. But we don't know how much abuse the drivetrain can sustain so I don't want to judge.

But for people who don't plan on going mod crazy this shouldn't really be much of an issue.

The evo uses brakes to induce yaw movement (unless you disable it by hold the ASC button down for 5 seconds). The focus rs's awd system is interesting. I think the fact that it's setup to be able to send up to 70% of the torque to the rear is an advantage. But I don't know how good or effective the rear active differential is, though it seems to operate very similar to the AYC unity.

It's a full time fwd system that engages the rear wheels when it detects slip. I don't know if it will have an option to enter a full time awd mode for racing purposes? But that setup might cause some delays and issues when pushing the limits and breaking grip. But it also might not. Definitely good for MPGs, but we'll see if it impacts performance.

I also seen several mentions that it monitors the center and rear differential temperatures when controlling it. Hopefully temperature won't be an issue at the track.

it used to be near impossible to test drive the evo until you were at the point of signing the dotted lines. I'm sure after a bit you will be able to test drive one.


Other things:
The evo has better brakes (slightly). I don't know why they didn't fit larger rotors on that car given they are already using 19" wheels.

Weight wise it's probably a wash. So the power benefit of the focus beats the evo for acceleration. I assume weight distribution is probably similar.

suspension I'd bet is a wash too.

So yeah, the focus isn't a bad platform at all. Stock vs stock it will probably win most challenges. The most interesting comparisons will be if they take them onto slippery surfaces (wet, snowy...). That will be the true test of awd performance.

Anyway, were I shopping for a car right now, the focus rs would be high on my list.

 

With what I have read the rs will be a great car. If i had to get rid of the evo it would probably be replaced with an rs.

 

Well said...

 

It is hard to say no if people shopping for AWD performance 4 doors. Big aftermarket support for Ford too. But it is hard to say without even looking at one or test drive.