Ford: Focus RS is world's best hot hatch

Is the Ford Focus RS the world's best hot hatch?

We've driven it on road and track and it's an exceedingly fast car, easy to drive and very engaging. But until we compare it back-to-back with its most direct rivals, including the WRX STI and Golf R, it's tricky to definitively say it's numero uno.

But the man responsible for guiding the Focus RS project, Ford Performance chief engineer Tyrone Johnson, has done the comparisons and told motoring.com.au it's unbeatable.

"In my opinion and [based on] the comparisons we've done in the segment, it's the best," he told motoring.com.au in Spain this week during the Focus RS international launch.

Priced at $50,990 and due Down Under mid-year, the manual-only Focus RS is fitted with a clever new AWD system that makes it drive like few others and even has a drift mode – and it's expected to sell like hot cakes in Australia,

We asked Johnson which vehicles it was benchmarked and tested against and he shot back: "What do you include as a hot hatch?"

Volkswagen Golf R, Subaru WRX STI chiefly.

"What else?" he quizzed.

OK, how about the Audi RS 3 and Mercedes-AMG A 45, vehicles that have considerably more power than the Focus RS – and also cost a lot more?

"Yes. To all those the answer is yes. You gotta go above those to find something better [than Focus RS]," he stated.

For the record, while the RS slams down 257kW and 440Nm from its 2.3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, the A 45 is the reigning hot hatch performance king, with a 2.0-litre turbo engine producing 280kW/475Nm and a 0-100km/h claim of 4.2 seconds – half a second quicker than the Focus RS -- while the RS 3 runs a 270kW/465Nm 2.5-litre turbo five and is just one tenth slower.

Johnson concedes that in a straight line the Germans are quicker but says it's not all about straight-line speed: "It depends on what you're talking about. With 0-100km/h [in] 4.7 seconds, we're slower than Mercedes. But in other areas we're quicker," he observes.

Johnson says one of the reasons the Focus RS is so affordable compared to the Audi and Mercedes is that the company didn't have to develop a bespoke engine – it borrowed the Mustang's 2.3-litre unit.

So if the Focus RS is the best hot hatch money can buy today, it must be a Nurburgring champion too right? Johnson doesn't deny this, saying that plenty of testing was undertaken on the world's most famous road circuit, but he won't come clean on the time.

"We have a time. It's a great time," he says, but draws short of revealing it.

Johnson observed that the optional Michelin Cup tyres took around 12 seconds off the Nurburgring lap time compared with the regular tyres.

But he said 'Ring lap times were not a priority and insisted the RS was as quick as Germany's finest hot hatches around the infamous 21km road circuit.

"It wasn't important for us. It wasn’t a design target for us. But we're not slower than the others," he claimed.

"It's a quick car. We don't have to hide from anybody else. We're not slower than anybody else, but that's not the objective. We tried to develop the whole car so that people end up with smiles."