Seemingly all cars that test new technology or new approaches have issues. Hell, the Evo MR used to have similar issues at the track; I raced with a guy who had to make his own transmission cooler duct out of tin foil at the track because the car would go into limp mode after 2 or so hot laps.

 

there is definitely something to be said for waiting a little while and letting the issues get sorted. Its why i waited till 2011 to pick up My MR.

 

Can't do that. There is no center diff. The front and rear axles would be locked together like a 4wd drive truck. The car would drive like ****.

 

I'm sure GKN and Ford is well aware of the RDU limitations through their own testing. It's improbable that neither did not invoke this "problem" in their shakedowns. Rather, Ford didn't consider it a problem because it wasn't the intended use for their part-time AWD system. Ford was aware there were issues. Because Ford said they were beefing up the RDU, while GKN later said it's the same physical unit as the Evoque. It's just the choice they made.

It's funny though that this issue pops up so quickly for Vorschlag's testing (as compared to previous track days). That one journalist did invoke shutdown and from Vorschalg's results I would have expected more in retrospect. Who knows, those journalist track day Focus RS RDU's might be trashed afterwards with the programming they had. I wonder if Ford backed off even more from what they previously had programmed into the unit - invoking shutdown more quickly in an effort to protect the RDU for the long term.

 

MITSUBISHI NEVER LEFT RACING:
Mitsubishi focused on road-derived Gr N R4 racing of Evo, and now R5 Lancer/Mirage.
Evo still dominates road based Gr N R4 rally class, which is most popular and clearly relevant to buying public who can actually buy the same car and with few mods (even without extensive safety cage and more) get same or even higher performance out of their showroom Evo (without homologation restrictions)...that is real Race it on Sunday, Sell in on Monday, approach.

AND Rest of the World Evo 8/9 had AYC which is Mitsubishi Torque Vectoring differential since 1996: the rest of the world AYC equipped Evos do not understeer like US Market specific non-AYC Evos with virtually open RS rear diff.

Its a revelation to me how fantastic my Evo AYC works on road, since 2000, in my own car...for 16 years already and many years backing E85 HKS7460 powered 395whp 365wt on Mustang dyno, with no issue whatsoever, ever.

What made Evo is everything it has been capable of doing, what nobody else packaged together thus far:
Win GrN rally on any surface since 1994 thru today
Win with GrN and/or R4 rally car overall the rally beating all WRC class cars (it happens including in 2016)
Make 600whp on stock block/stock gearbox etc and run 13xmph in quarter
Put down over 1000whp thru OEM trans and diffs
Continue to dominate open-class time attack world wide
Dominate hill climbs, including twin-charged monsters in Switzerland and UK, winning overall
Feature 4 doors, legroom, decent trunk, reliable and fast family transport

To name a few reasons why Evo is unique accomplishment, and in many ways still the car/platform to beat.

 

 

I side with Amby; Ford's racing pedigree is high, including rally. The RS is so nice, but the aftermarket has some interesting hurdles to overcome. Right now, it's cost prohibitive to buy and modify one correctly.

 

Yeah FORD's been around....New design...new obstacles.... Still totally disenchanted by all the marketing hype they displayed and their crappy US deployment. Like others have said the original envisionment of a mid 30's K price point vehicle to a over mark upped and hyped "track"car has jaded me. As we can see the true revealment is becoming apparent as aftermarket companies dissect and test.

I want other car companies to develop and innovate and learn from FORDS mistakes ... as they will. The RS seems to have provided the market with an appetite for such a vehicle. Too many people are still hungry .................and don't wanna bite yet.

As we can see the long lineage of Evo development is still a marvel in it's own right.

 

Why is their marketing campaign a problem? Clearly it worked. Seriously, why is Ford a "bad" company for successfully creating a high demand for a car? I'm sure Mitsubishi and Subaru would love to have similar success.

Anybody remember the stupid Eclipse commercials from the 90s?

 

LOL, and you got the same exact car as if you bought it in 08. They didn't make any changes.

 

Timing chain / oil squirter say what?

Also dodged the possibility blowing the engine because of a faulty fuel pump relay.

 

That's not true. They redesigned the timing chain and eradicated the diff pin issue starting with the 2011 models.

 

Oh come on now, this is a false statement.

I can think of a bunch of stuff just off the top of my head

- Updated TCU
- Updated TCU programming
- Full color dash screen
- Updated interior plastics
- Updated manifold
- Updated timing chain
- Updated block

That is just off the top of my head

 

How does the stock Focus ST do on the track with respect to oil temps etc?

 

Guess who wasted their money still "fixing" the diff pin issue cause the forums scared the **** out of them...

In my defense I was one of the first to get an '11 model...