Driving My Best Friends Ford Focus RS - A 400bhp Monster With ~ 600Nm

If you are a car guy like me, you probably have friends with the same passion. I want to write about my best friend, who owns a sick Ford Focus RS. Not only because he is my best friend but also because his car is straight up insane, and he let me drive it.
As you can see from the title the car is not stock. Most of the parts including the performance mods were from the previous owner, but my friend didn‘t stop there. He built up his car even crazier than it already was. So before I actually write about me driving this Monster, I want to share with you how it looked when he bought it and how it looks now. Enjoy !

Before

When I saw his RS standing in his yard I already had a big grin on my face. Not only because the car is awesome, but it was always a dream for him to own one and I was really happy for him. I looked at some parts of the car and I already saw it wasn‘t stock. It was pretty much a perfomance build from the previous owner including new rims, semi slicks, coilovers and alot of extras inside like a fire extinguisher, racing seatbelts and a device for monitoring your temperatures and other stuff. The engine has a remapped ECU, a new air cooler and a exhaust system bringing it up to a little bit more than 400bhp and around 600Nm. With the Ultimate Green it was pretty much the perfect Focus RS for me, but not for my best friend. He already knew what mods he wants to do next, even though he just got the car. Sure if you see the picture of the RS you might think it can‘t get any more insane. But it did get more insane, out of control insane and it‘s awesome.

After

You thought the Ultimate Green was already crazy ? Well take a look at this. This is how his Focus RS looks like right now. Abit too crazy for my taste but it still looks nice I think. Let‘s begin with the color. Honestly we don‘t even know the name of the color but it is a chameleon wrap/dip. It changes the color on how you look at it, so some parts look purple, but if you look at it in a different view it looks like turquoise/blueish. He also got new MB Design KV1 wheels with candy gold paint. The funny thing is he got them before the wrap so he didn‘t even knew if the wheels will fit the new color, but interestingly it does in my opinion. The best part for me has to be his exhaust system. A Mongoose catback exhaust which makes the RS sound like it looks. It is much louder than the older one, the backfiring is sometimes so loud and random that they jumpscare you.
Overall the RS is quite an attention grabber now, people will always look at it, espacially because of the color. Sure you may ask, why did he do this ? It was already perfect how he bought it ? He always wants to modify his cars, even if they are already built up, or else he gets bored and he wants a new car. Also he is not a track day guy, he mainly bought the car for cruising and roadtrips. I know that there are some people who will not like how it looks, but in the end the owner is happy with his decisions and overall it‘s a unique car.

Driving The RS

It was a normal sunny day, my best friend decided to come pick me up. We only wanted to pick up some drinks at the supermarket and just drive around like always. But this time it was different. I came to his car and we were talking about where we are going.
Suddenly out of nowhere he asked me if I would want to drive to the supermarket. First I didn‘t realise it and I just said “Yeah sure man”. Then I sat into the drivers seat and remembered: “Oh s**t this thing has actually 400bhp”. The most powerful car I drove before had 300, his previous car. So I was in the middle of an traffic free area, where children play and you have to drive at walking speeds and I had to manouver this Monster out of there. Well it wasn‘t actually hard, the clutch was easy and it even has a camera for reverse gear. The first feel from the car I had was that the driving position is high. If you drive a car with a low driving position like a Miata or my GT86 you will definetly notice the difference and it will disturb you abit. But apart from that the leather steering wheel felt awesome and the hardcore recaro seats did a great job hugging me in.
I finally made it out of the traffic free area and I was really careful on the throttle, even in low rpm‘s the growling of the five cylinders is just beautiful. I immediatly felt the performance coilovers and they were hard. The car had a great feel, the steering was sharp, but it still felt so “different”. The gearing was abit soft, I needed a few attempts for reverse gear for example, but it is also short to throw so you can change gears smooth and fast. When we drove out of our village I gave the car abit more than half of throttle. I already felt the boost wanting to smash everything and that the car was really pushing forward because of the torque. Combined with abit of wheel spin and torque steering I already knew, driving this thing at full throttle will be hard.
After some more villages and attempting to do backfires there was a straight road after a junction and I wanted to floor it. I was in third gear and after the turbo kicked in I had to hold the wheel with both hands controlling the wheel spin and the torque steering left and right. The sheer amount of power and speed was just too much for me, I couldn‘t handle it. I couldn‘t even shift into the next gear because the acceleration was pushing me in my seat and I literally could not reach the shifter. Also it was not possible for me to let go of one hand because I was too busy keeping the RS under control. So I had to let go of the throttle before shifting into the next gear. It was scary but really exciting at the same time. Every time accelerating the RS felt so suprising and challenging, you get some serious speed aswell. Also the sound it makes is unbelievable.
But to be honest I think the power combined with the torque is almost too much for normal driving on streets. Sure it is fun and fast, but the wheelspin is really insane, I already saw him spin his tires in fifth gear in rain. Also it takes a good amount of driving skills. The torque steering is very serious to handle and if you go full throttle and you are not used to the acceleration, you literally get shocked and frozen on the steering wheel, trying to handle the car.
After this wild ride I definetly have respect for cars with turbos. It was a unique experience and I honestly never had such a struggle to drive a car. It‘s not that it‘s bad handling or that it‘s too powerful. It was just too much for myself to handle. Because aside from the acceleration, the car felt really good to drive. It is loud, fast and it really drives like it looks, crazy. The amount of power and the looks combined give the Focus RS so much spice and fire. It is a very impressing car and even if it doesn‘t look like it anymore, the performance is still there. Maybe not as much as before, but still impressive enough to make higher class cars embarrassed.
I‘m thankful for making this experience, it was really showing me what power really means and I know now that his Focus RS is indeed a insane car.