Hold onto your hot hats everyone, the fire breathing 2012 Ford Focus ST is arriving in South Africa in November. At the same time, Ford will introduce its new 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder, EcoBoost engine into the Focus model range. The little EcoBoost engine (with a block no larger than an A4 sheet of paper), produces 91 kW and 169 Nm of torque and has recently won the much coveted 2012 World Engine of the Year Award.
It’s the newest Focus ST hot hatch that we’re really waiting for though. The ST (short for Sport Technologies) will also be powered by a Ford EcoBoost engine, but never fear, because the 2012 ST will produce 180 kW and 360 Nm of torque from a turbocharged, 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder engine. The new, smaller, but more powerful engine, brings with it a decent power hike over the outgoing 5-cylinder unit (166 kW and 320 Nm), with even more fuel economy.
It achieves this through a combination of high pressure direct injection, low-inertia turbocharging, and Twin-independent Variable Cam Timing (Ti-VCT), as well as redesigned intake and exhaust systems. The vehicle has been under development with Ford Team RS and Ford US’s Special Vehicles Team, or ‘SVT’, which has been responsible for many a fast and fruity Mustang.
The Focus ST has been developed under Ford’s global ‘One Ford’ approach. “It’s the same car everywhere, from the engine to the suspension to the styling – right down to the tyres,” said Dieter Schwarz, head of Ford Team RS. “Now, you will be able to drive a Focus ST in Beijing and it will be the same dynamic experience as driving one in Los Angeles, London or Rome.”
With that new, huge, trapezoidal front grille and Ford’s signature colour called ‘Tangerine Scream’, we expect this much loved hot hatch to make a big impression when it arrives in November.
