I really dig the fenders on this car. Jalopnik Story Full size CHICAGO AUTO SHOW Ford TrackSTer: An Incredible 500 Horsepower Focus With A Stupid Name Travis Okulski For the last few years, Ken Block has been destroying the tires on Fords like it was his job. And that's pretty much because it is his job. Now Kenneth Blockington III Esquire has helped modify a Focus ST for road use. It looks pretty damn fantasmic. Yes. Fantasmic. Dubbed the Focus TrackSTer (GET IT? TRACK and ST?), the car is meant to combine on-road dynamic with on-track awesomeness. The goal of the project, which was built in conjunction with fifteen52 and Ken Block, is to double the output of the Focus ST. That means it's supposed to have 504 horsepower. It appears that all of that power will be going straight to the front wheels, which there are just two of. Holy possibility of torque steer Batman! The TrackSTer also gets a variable suspension, fade-free brakes, fenders from the Focus Chinese Touring Car racer (the best part of the car, methinks), huge wheels, and a delightful shade of blue paint. The result is the hot hatch of my dreams. And I certainly prefer it to Shelby's Focus ST that was shown at the Detroit Auto Show. This thing is in a different league. When will it go on sale? Probably never. How much will it cost? I assume many, many American dollars. But that doesn't matter, since it won't be built anyway.
Car looks pretty cool, but Jalopnik tries way too hard to be hip and trendy when they write their articles. They are painful to read. When I go on that site it's just to look at the pictures. The things they cover usually appeal to me, but the corresponding text is usually awful.
because ford proved with the new RS that fwd did just as well as awd recently against mitsu and subaru.
Oh, I suppose if it's only a track car that makes sense. Whenever I look at cars, I always think about practicality. Comes with the territory of getting really old, I guess.
depends where you live, remember you dont "need" AWD you just want it, and there is not a huge portion of the U.S. that 'needs" AWD. I agree with you to a point, i came to subaru because i was sick of waiting for ford to get off their ass and get us a real focus. glad i didnt wait, took over 7 years of talking just to get a turbo one from factoy. i guess i dont follow other domestic brands, but ford is horrible with prototypes and never making them (or allowing them here)
The single best comment came over from Jalopnik: "A 500hp FWD track car. That's like telling me I've earned an all-expense-paid vacation with Scarlett Johansson on her "red" week. You can take it for a spin, but it'll be messy."
Normally I would read a line like this in an article about a 500hp FWD track car and know it was sarcasm. But the whole article is oozing with Ken Blocktard fanboy tool-speak that I am now certain the writer of that article actually thinks fwd torque steer is neato. Also, I agree with the sentiment above about Jalopniks quality as of late. There's been a lot of what feels like "forced enthusiasm" about all things cars, even when the story is about a boring or otherwise 'meh' car.
Now I haven't heard anything about the driving of this but many articles have said that the torque steer in the RS and other models has been close to nonexistent. It's a big power increase but maybe they do have the torque steer issue "fixed"
Interesting. So, they have figured out a way to build a sub 3000 lb car with a majority of its weight over the front axle...which also is the axle that does the steering...and also the axle to which 500 horsepower is being applied. Physics isn't on your side on this one.
I said I haven't seen it in this car, but they did it with 300. Also, minimal torque steer, not NONE.
I had a 2013 st before I got my sti.....it was a blast and quick to spool almost no lag....but its a toy compared to the sti. The recaros in the st were phenomenal tho....I wish I could have kept em
