Following the car’s first public appearance at the 2008 British Motor Show, more official images of the Ford Focus RS have surfaced online. Until now, the Focus RS has only been seen in a neon lime green, but the latest shots show the RS in a much more subdued blue.
Although the car shown at the British Motor Show was billed as a concept, the car has moved to a production version of the second-generation Focus RS for 2009. “The time is right for Ford to deliver a new high performance model for the legions of loyal Ford RS customers around Europe,” said Jost Capito, head of Team RS, which sadly sounds like there are no current plans to bring the hot hatch Stateside anytime soon. The Euro-based Focus will be sold in the U.S. early next decade.
It’s not clear why Ford won’t offer the model in America. It would certainly make a good rival to the Mazdaspeed 3, Dodge Caliber SRT4, Chevy Cobalt SS, and others.
The car will have enough juice to run with the cars mentioned above — rated at 295 horsepower and 302 pound-feet of torque, it trumps them all. The engine responsible for these numbers is the Duratec turbocharged 2.5-liter inline five cylinder borrowed from Volvo ’s parts bin. No official numbers have been release, but iMotorMag.com specualtes the RS will make the sprint from 0-62 in 5.9 seconds. The first-generation RS, launched in 2002 in Europe, used a 2.0-liter inline four with 212hp and about 230lb-ft of torque, which many thought was the limit of a front wheel drive platform back then.
Ford of Europe already offers a Focus ST, which uses the same 2.5L engine to generate 225 hp.
