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

It’s truthful to say I could possibly 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 after I say that, at first look, I used to be slightly sceptical of this Focus ST, and notably 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 elements mostly swapped first. The difficulty is, 99% of us aren’t F1 engineers. We haven’t the foggiest thought what to purchase and, extra importantly, easy methods 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 perfect?” or “What ought to I do about tyre pressures?”. As you’ll 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 trip peak for various eventualities—akin to highway, bumpy highway, GP monitor, Nürburgring, and many others.—however it even lists optimum tyre pressures, each cold and hot, together with easy methods to set them.

All very spectacular, however this automotive isn’t an all-out monitor particular, and historical past exhibits that tuning a automotive to such excessive lengths can destroy 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 will have different choices; should 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 assist in a manner few different OEM seats do. The driving place is sweet 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 pieces. 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 frequent 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 reasonably angry-sounding 2.3 Ecoboost engine to life, accompanied by a flash of the ST emblem on the all-digital dashboard and a notification confirming you will have a seatbelt on, which you will need to clear to see the complete show. That slight annoyance is definitely forgiven, nonetheless. One factor Ford does higher than some other model is lane steering. That’s to not say the system itself is stellar, however 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 highway, the Focus hints at its monitor roots with a touch stiffer trip. But, it doesn’t sacrifice consolation. Because the 30 mph restrict provides solution to a 60, accelerating permits the adjustable suspension to really showcase its price, retaining all 4 corners involved with the highway, even on probably the most quintessentially British of roads.

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

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

In conclusion, the “Quick Ford” mantra has all the time been about delivering extraordinary worth when it comes to 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.