Focus RS500 and Hirvonen tackle the 'Ring

The angriest Ford Focus to date -- the RS500 -- recently surfaced at the Leipzig motor show, but watching the thing in action is a whole different story.

Ford of Europe has now enabled us to do the latter by releasing a couple of vids of WRC star Mikko Hirvonen sampling the fleet-footed Focus on on public roads and caning it around the hallowed Nurburgring Nordschleife.

It's the second vid that's obviously the more entertaining of the two, but even the first one is worthy of watching as the Finnish rally ace shares his thoughts on the everyday driving characteristics of Ford's European performance flagship.

Things to take note of (especially in the second vid) include the delicious exhaust note of the 257kW 2.5-litre five-pot engine, which emits an almost V8-esque growl when under the hammer. Also take note of how balanced the car looks even when Hirvonen uses ample doses of kerb on a couple of the apexes.

Hirvonen himself concedes he's no 'Ring-meister, but he's clearly not dawdling around the track. Incidentally, Ford claims the RS500 is capable of lapping the perilous Nordschleife in around eight minutes, which is decidedly sharp for a hot-hatch.

The Focus RS500 transmits its massive 460Nm torque quota to the tarmac solely via the front wheels, but the Quaife helical limited-slip diff seems to do a reasonable job of keeping torque-steer and wheelspin in check (at least if Hirvonen's Nurburgring antics are anything to go by).

The RS500 accelerates to 160km/h in just 12.2sec and has a top whack of 265km/h, and you'll see at least 220 kays on the clock in the Nurburgring video.

As previously reported on the Carsales Network, just 500 examples of the stove-hot Ford will be built and sold in Europe, but none are earmarked for Australia, which means we have to content ourselves with the much tamer Focus XR5.

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