Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Ford Focus RS announced for global launch

OK, hold on to your hats. This week is all about performance reveals in the automotive world, which appears to have gone completely cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

OK, hold on to your hats. This week is all about performance reveals in the automotive world, which appears to have gone completely cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

First on our parade of speedy sheetmetal is Ford’s Focus RS, confirmed to be coming to North America this time. The old RS was always at the top of the list any time I listed all the best cars we don’t get.

And this one’s even better. With somewhere north of 315 horsepower coming from the same 2.3-litre turbo four-banger as the Mustang Ecoboost, the RS has punch aplenty.

It’s also got all-wheel drive for added grip, with a clever system that can actually send 70 per cent of the power to the rear for more hoontastic handling — and it’ll pull more than one G on the skid pad.

Also, it’s manual-only and it comes in blue. Does some Ford engineer have a picture of me up on a board, because that’s spooky. Oh well, thanks guys! Can I have one for free?

Sadly no. Prices to be determined, but I’m guessing around the $40,000-45,000 mark, like the Golf R and Subaru STI.

Ferrari 488 GTB: From Maranello, with boost
Mark it on your calendars, the Ferrari 458 is going to be the last mainstream Ferrari with a naturally aspirated engine. From here on out the manufacturer is going forced induction to meet torque requirements and emissions standards.

It’s a very sad day indeed. Wait, 660 h.p. and 561 foot-pounds of torque? I might just be able to somehow pick up my shattered dreams and move on. Somehow.

Of course, the last mid-engined turbo Ferrari was the F40, a car that still haunts my dreams and waking moments, and is underlined twice on my bucket list of must-drive cars. This modern version, the 488GTB, will have many more amenities than the F40 (which had none, not even a radio) and still blast to 100 km/h in three seconds flat and look like a star-fighter with the wings clipped off.

It’s a brave, boosty new world, but I think Ferrari fans will live.

Porsche unhobbles the Cayman with GT4
Well, sort of. But say hello to the new GT4, which is basically a Porsche Cayman with a lot of the best bits of the 911 GT3. A 3.8-litre flat-six makes 385 h.p., there are big brakes and a giant wing and unlike the GT3 this one only comes as a stick shift.

If, like me, you are a family man, you’ve just immediately gone on eBay to see about selling your children off for medical experimentation. Drat. Looks like they don’t have a category for that. Just kidding honey! *nervous, forced laughter*

Anyway, this little two-seater looks awesome, with a 0-100 kilometres per hour time of slightly more than four seconds and a top speed approaching 300 km/h. Porsche says it’ll lap the Nürburgring in 7:40, the same time as the old 911 GT3 and, as the current Cayman GTS is so good, this ought to be even better for even more money.

But why doesn’t it have 400 h.p., same as the 911 Carrera S? I’m sure Porsche will claim that it’s to do with cooling or exhaust packaging, but I ain’t fooled — this car is going to be fantastic, but it’s also about what Porsche thought they could sell more than how fast they could make it go. Still, manual only? Sign me up.

Mazda MX-5 specs confirmed
Cheapest, lightest and least powerful of any of the cars we’ve just talked about, the new MX-5 is going to get a 155 h.p., 2.0-litre four-cylinder, which is actually a slight decrease in power over the old car.

As that’s the same power output of the current Mazda3, Mazda’s indicating that premium fuel is a recommendation, not a requirement. What’s more, 100 km/h is now 2,500 r.p.m., so this new car should be more efficient than ever.

But look at me nattering on about efficiency and premium fuel — if you’re a fan of any generation of the MX-5, you want to know if it’s still fun. I had a chance to drive one last week, and let me tell you: yes.

Oh dear Lord yes. It’s so wonderful, doctors should prescribe it as an anti-depressant when nothing else works.

And that was just the 1.5-litre JDM version I drove. The Canadian-spec cars are going to get the 155 h.p. 2.0-litre, as mentioned above, and 17-inch alloys, as well as a few other tweaks like that. Weight is down enough that the power-to-weight ratio is improved, but it’s the handling that has been improved the most. This fourth generation car should be within 10-20 kilograms or so of the original car and is actually 10 centimetres shorter in length.

twitter.com/brendan_mcaleer