Focus RS blitzes Germans!

It’s official. Well, as far as we are concerned it is. The Ford Focus RS is Australia’s new hot hatch king.

Tested back-to-back by motoring.com.au against the brilliant Audi RS 3 Sportback and Mercedes-AMG A45, the Blue Oval’s amazing new compact performance flagship blew them away on both road and track.

All three cars were put to the test lapping the Norwell Motorplex on the Gold Coast in the hands of Luke Youlden, motoring.com.au’s resident high-performance road tester and accomplished professional motor racing driver.

Against the stopwatch on the 2km track the result wasn’t even close. The Focus stopped the clocks at 62.83 sec, the Audi managed a best of 63.97 sec and the AMG 64.52 sec.

So that means not only is the RS cheaper by around $25,000 compared to the two Germans, it’s also significantly faster.

Now if your outrage and disbelief at the prospect of a relatively humble Ford Focus toppling Audi and Benz is rising, then let us throw some fuel on the fire with Luke’s candid assessment after he’d finished hot lapping these three cars.

“Coming from a race driver I would take the Focus any day,” Youlden declared. “To me it’s a no-brainer.

“Look, the interior refinement of the Audi and the Benz is superior to the Focus, but in terms of driving and dynamics it is head and shoulders above those two other cars.

“It is a lot firmer, a lot more responsive in the initial turn, it holds its line better. It does tend to tuck in the rear with that torque vectoring it’s got, whereas the other two just tend to plant all their weight on that outside front tyre and understeer way too much.”

There are plenty of intricacies and details that relate to this result – and a whole road driving experience as well.

For all of that you are going to have to read our comparison test here and watch out for our video tests, including a fair dinkum crack at the RS’s controversial drift mode on the Norwell skid pan.

And one final word from Luke, just in case you haven’t got the message yet.

“The simple fact is the Focus feels like a race car where the other two feel like luxury sports cars and that’s quite a significant leap.

“The Focus is just more focused.”