VIDEO: Ford Focus RS falls short of record with 8:26 Nürburgring lap time
Click above to watch the video after the jump
Point to point, the Ford Focus RS is touted as the fastest vehicle the company has ever made. It reportedly lapped Ford's Lommel test track in Belgium, where we had the chance to sample the second-fiddle Focus ST, faster than the Ford GT supercar. But it's still wasn't fast enough to set a new Nurburgring lap record for its class.
As promised, Ford took its latest hot hatch around the 'Ring in pursuit of the front-drive record currently held by the track-focused Renaultsport Megane R26.R, which set a blistering time of 8 minutes, 17 seconds. Ford's time? 8 minutes, 26 seconds. The session, which you can watch in the pair of videos after the jump, was held in conjunction with German car mag Sport-Auto, whose editor-in-chief Horst von Saurma-Jeltsch, a noted master of the Nordschleife, performed the driving duties. And while the Focus RS may have come up some nine seconds slower than the Renault, you can bet Ford will give it another shot or two before claiming defeat.
Gallery: 2009 Ford Focus RS (green)
[Source: CarScoop]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
TigerMil 3:01PM (8/10/2009)
Eh...the RS was down a few hundred horsepower to make the record....LOL.
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83gtragtop 3:08PM (8/10/2009)
The Renault has 230hp, much rather have the Focus then that ugly Renault though.
geo.stewart 3:19PM (8/10/2009)
I'll take the Ford RS anyday everyday, esp over the renault.
Arumage 3:26PM (8/10/2009)
The R26.R was stripped of basically all creatures comforts including the rear seats, air conditioning, etc. I would imagine doing the same in the Focus RS would definitely shave some time off.
jay tee 3:29PM (8/10/2009)
So the R26.R is a stripper model with R-compounds, and it did the Ring in 8:17, and the RS has 300bhp, good tires, Revo-Knuckle, and a helical differential, and it did it in 8:26. My $22k, 260hp, turbocharged American-built FWD coupe, equipped with cruddy tires and nothing really special about it, does it in 8:22. Am I missing something here?
83gtragtop 3:35PM (8/10/2009)
@Jay Tee
You're not missing anything. You're Cobalt SS can lap faster then the Focus RS, only problem is that it's a cruddy Cobalt.
skine 3:47PM (8/10/2009)
are you missing something ...yeah about 320 lbs and some build quality
the cobalt ss is down 40 hp (on paper) im sure that lil ecotec is making more than 260 but its also 320 lbs lighter ..the Focus RS is 3300 lbs ..no lightweight ..the cobalt is 2926
jay tee 4:14PM (8/10/2009)
I'm also missing the massive hole in my wallet that I would have had if I bought either the R26.R or the RS. They both start at ~23k Pounds, where the Cobalt starts at $23k USD. It also doesn't have any sort of advanced suspension (it's actually not that great, IMO), or a helical differential. Yet it splits the difference between a car with plastic windows, R-compounds, a great differential, and a roll cage, and another with an excellent differential, more power, trick front suspension, and better tires. Regardless of quality or refinement (and I agree, the Cobalt is a relative POS in that respect, but I didn't buy it for its fancy materials), there is no real reason for the RS to be slower than a car that costs that much less with equipment that different. For that money, you might as well start looking at something that at least partially drives the correct wheels.
BigMcLargeHuge 4:23PM (8/10/2009)
I don't think the Cobalt SS is making more than 260PS. It's 0-60 and 1/4-mile times aren't quite good enough to say it gets real-world peak numbers over 260+.
But the little car can handle. It has outrun a lot of cars it is 'slower' than in 0-60 on the track.
tankd0g 4:24PM (8/10/2009)
Or up a few hundred pounds.
Valentino Amoro 4:39PM (8/10/2009)
To be honest, Ford's claim of this beating the Ford GT around some teeny track in Belgium is marketing crap. Conviniently, the Ford GT is no more in production.
Furthermore, as someone pointed out, the Cobalt IS a faster car, and splits the rawness of the Renault (which is a track car in that configuration) with the quality of the Ford.
For the price, the Cobalt SS is impossible to beat. Also, keep in mind that car with a simple chip is worth 300+HP and 320 pounds feet of torque.
That said, I dont fancy the interior of the Cobalt, but if you're more of a racer that is the car for you.
Personally, I dont care for hot hatches! They sell is Europe as nicer cars are just out of the reach of folks there.For ex, a Nissan 370 is very expensive. Here in the US, I will take an RWD 370Z or spec racing 'Stang, thank you!
Nozferat 4:58PM (8/10/2009)
Jay Tee...
yes you are...the Clio and Megane have set the standard for hot hatch and FWD cars for the longest time now.
In every way fathomable, they are both better cars than the Ford....dynamically they are far ahead...and have been rated at the top for a number of years now.
I'll take the funky Renaults over this afterthought of a car anyday.
zamafir 5:24PM (8/10/2009)
No surprise here, the R26.R has beaten the RS in every review i've seen published. The RS is a lot like the R32, a little slower to sixty, about the same on the track, lots more creature comforts than the R26.R.
the4thheat 10:32PM (8/11/2009)
God it pisses me off when people randomly cite prices of cars from England in pounds then proclaim how much more money those cars are. ALL the cars in England cost more money-the prices are pretty much the same numerically except in pounds for almost all the cars. So when the exchange rate was almost 2:1 the cars were almost twice as expensive.
For example in England the Scion xD is the Toyota Urban Cruiser...which stars at 14520 pounds. In the USA the Scion xD starts at $15320 so they're almost the same numerically. You can't just take the price in pounds then run it through the exchange rate since that totally ignores the differing taxes on cars. It's as idiotic as assuming that it'll cost the same amount of money to drive 100 miles in England as it does in the USA when gas costs more money there too.
If your stupid Cobalt SS was sold in England it'd be more expensive too, quit being a moron.
Yaroukh 3:08PM (8/10/2009)
Actually they were supposed to make the attempt by the April. The fact that we hear about the attempt only now makes me wonder whether it is exactly Ford's 'official' attempt. One would expect a real test-driver to be sitting behind the wheel. Not a journalist.
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katshot 3:10PM (8/10/2009)
Of course they'll try it again. 'Ring times are so silly. I can't believe anyone truly pays attention to them, let alone holds them in such high regard that they would consider utilizing them as a sole means of comparing vehicles.
Come people, wake up, you're being manipulated by the OEMs (and many other supposed industry professionals)
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MajorGeek 3:19PM (8/10/2009)
Yeah.... its an auto enthusiast website... You can find a forum for discussing rose pruning somewhere i'm sure! I'm curious who, besides your own imagination, decided it was a sole means of comparing vehicles?
Yaroukh 3:20PM (8/10/2009)
Are we also being manipulated while we're watching F1?
/thinking about a foil hat
nrb 3:41PM (8/10/2009)
Well katshot, I'm probably the only one that voted you up. I also believe that this whole Nürburgring lap time thing as just gotten out of hand.
Lemon 4:07PM (8/10/2009)
I'm not sure why everyone is rating katshot so low; he brings up a valid point. Sure, the lap times give you a general idea how well a car may perform, but arguing over a couple seconds on an 8 minute lap is ridiculous, especially when you are varying so many track conditions, not to mention the driver!
Laptimes are definitley used for marketing and do a very good job of building excitement for new performance cars. Its fun to see which cars can 'beat' others, but the times should be used loosely for comparisons and taken with a grain of salt.