The phrases “Quick Ford” can conjure quite a lot of opinions from the automotive fanatic, each good and dangerous. You both suppose they’re the salt of the earth—a efficiency automotive for the widespread man—or a thug’s automotive for performing unimpressive stunts in your native McDonald’s automotive park.

It’s truthful to say I may very well be accused of leaning towards the latter, being a totally paid-up member of the Golf GTI membership. So maybe the Ford Efficiency division can forgive me once I say that, at first look, I used to be a bit of sceptical of this Focus ST, and significantly the suggestion of a “Monitor Pack”.

Anybody who has had a monitor automotive or taken their automotive on a monitor day will simply get sucked into the world of aftermarket upgrades. Wheels, tyres, brakes, and suspension are the components mostly swapped first. The difficulty is, 99% of us aren’t F1 engineers. We haven’t the foggiest concept what to purchase and, extra importantly, learn how to set it up. It’s a recurring theme on monitor day boards and social media teams, the place folks ask questions like, “Which coilovers are the very best?” or “What ought to I do about tyre pressures?”. As you could have already gathered, the plethora of solutions solely compounds the confusion.

This brings us again to the Focus ST’s “Monitor Pack”. It seems that Ford has been maintaining a tally of these teams as a result of the contents of the £3,000 Monitor Pack learn straight from the playbook: wheels, tyres, brakes, and suspension, all upgraded for circuit use. The automobile sits on a set of 19-inch Ford Efficiency wheels shod in Pirelli P Zeros. Brembo has created a bigger entrance brake setup, with 363mm discs and gargantuan calipers. And the suspension is a full-height, two-way damping adjustable coilover system developed by KW.

Blimey, it’s a severe little bit of equipment. And it solely will get extra spectacular when you open the glove field—actually! As a result of in there you’ll discover the suspension device equipment, full with Ford’s cheat sheet to essentially maximise all that adjustment. Not solely does it assist you arrange the shock absorbers and experience peak for various situations—comparable to street, bumpy street, GP monitor, Nürburgring, and so forth.—nevertheless it even lists optimum tyre pressures, each cold and hot, together with learn how to set them.

All very spectacular, however this automotive isn’t an all-out monitor particular, and historical past reveals that tuning a automotive to such excessive lengths can wreck its day-to-day usability. Simply ask anybody who’s fitted coilovers to their day by day driver in pursuit of faster lap occasions. If you wish to spend £40,000 on a monitor automotive, you’ve gotten different choices; in the event you’re spending it on this, you’ll need it to be a jack-of-all-trades.

Leaping into the recent seat, preliminary impressions are beneficial. The seats, the identical ones discovered within the Puma ST and different efficiency Fords, present consolation and help in a manner few different OEM seats do. The driving place is nice too, providing a broad vary of changes, and the cabin feels notably spacious in comparison with a few of its rivals. The centre of the sprint is dominated by a 13.2-inch touchscreen, which, annoyingly, controls almost all the things. Fortunately, Ford has retained bodily buttons elsewhere, together with on the chunky (a tad too chunky, in my view) ST steering wheel. Some glimmers of widespread sense, like a bodily button for parking that instantly prompts the navigation system to search out you a close-by automotive park, are welcome. The cup holders’ seemingly limitless adjustment and depth imply that spillage while hot-lapping Silverstone is lastly a factor of the previous.

The push-button begin brings a quite angry-sounding 2.3 Ecoboost engine to life, accompanied by a flash of the ST brand on the all-digital dashboard and a notification confirming you’ve gotten a seatbelt on, which you should clear to see the total show. That slight annoyance is definitely forgiven, nevertheless. One factor Ford does higher than another model is lane steering. That’s to not say the system itself is stellar, nevertheless it remembers that you simply turned it off as soon as and doesn’t require you to take action each time you begin the automotive. Thanks!

Exiting onto my pothole-ridden village street, the Focus hints at its monitor roots with a touch stiffer experience. But, it doesn’t sacrifice consolation. Because the 30 mph restrict provides option to a 60, accelerating permits the adjustable suspension to really showcase its value, retaining all 4 corners involved with the street, even on essentially the most quintessentially British of roads.

The Focus continues to impress. The ability supply is VW-level clean, and whereas the engine’s sound may not be essentially the most inspiring, the pops and crackles on the overrun amuse my interior little one. However there’s nothing infantile about its composure; the chassis shows unimaginable depth in its skills. I’ll say, nevertheless, that I’m not an enormous fan of the Pirellis it comes with. I think this explicit set of P Zeros has been heat-cycled by many an excited journalist, so I received’t be too harsh. But, I sensed the tyres tapping out lengthy earlier than the Focus may show its full dynamic vary.

As sizzling hatches evolve into “hyper-hatches,” the added lap-time prowess can typically take away a few of the enjoyable. It’s a troublesome balancing act for any producer, as slower Nürburgring lap occasions may very well be perceived as unfavorable press. Nonetheless, the Monitor Pack manages to mature the automotive’s chassis with out shedding the enjoyable issue. Mid-corner lift-off oversteer is aplenty, but superior damping and the LSD present sufficient grip and composure to problem vehicles nicely above its worth level.

In conclusion, the “Quick Ford” mantra has all the time been about delivering extraordinary worth by way of efficiency, a real ‘energy to the folks’ ethos. As Ford and different producers ramp up their EV manufacturing, one can’t assist however wonder if Quick Fords will ever be as compelling as this once more. If that is certainly the final hurrah for the ICE-powered, everyman efficiency automotive, it’s a becoming swansong.