2 DOOR MPS FTW!!
I would definately buy one of these....
Ford Australia are a bunch of fking KNOBS not to bring this to Aus..... Thats alright tho, ill be buyin a Mitsu Evo X instead..
Ford Performance Vehicles is saying no to Europe’s new 220kW Focus RS but is set to say yes to its own, locally built version. JEZ SPINKS reports.
Ford Focus RS
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Ford Performance Vehicles will snub Europe’s new Focus RS and instead build its own hot-hatch to create an expanded, four-vehicle line-up.
The second-generation Focus RS has just been launched by Ford of Europe at the 2008 British motor show, but FPV says it would prefer to create its own mega-hatch based on the next-generation Focus that will be built in Australia from 2011.
“I just can’t see a business case stacking up [for a new FPV model] when the mother car is an imported car,” says FPV boss Rod Barrett.
“The opportunity for FPV to expand and consider its expansion plans will be when other cars are built at Broadmeadows [Ford Australia’s Melbourne plant].
“[And] it would be remiss of us not to look at the Focus when it does hit Broadmeadows.”
The FPV Focus would be more powerful than the 166kW Focus XR5 Turbo currently offered by Ford Australia, though Australian driving enthusiasts will have to wait to see whether it would exceed the 220kW of the European Focus RS.
The car has the potential to be a more affordable rival to the likes of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Subaru Impreza WRX STI that both start from $60,000, though it's also likely to cost more than HSV's own imported, Astra-based hot-hatch, the $42,990 VXR.
An FPV small car makes sense considering the sales of large cars - such as the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore - in Australia are continuing to decline.
Barrett says a high-performance Focus small car complete a varied line-up that currently includes hotted-up versions of the Falcon sedan, Falcon ute, and Territory SUV.
“With those three vehicles [Falcon, Territory and Focus], we’re definitely not the Falcon GT car company,” he says. “Because then we’ll have a small car, a large car, a utility, and an SUV. With those variants, [FPV] is getting out there from where it is today.”
Barrett says the locally built Focus will also give FPV more flexibility in creating the hot-hatch it wants to build.