Most liked posts in thread: 2016 Ford Focus RS - Maybe coming to the US

Poooof JCW market gone. MINI needs to come in with 300 HP car or the market will pass them buy. All because a BMW will NEVER allow a MINI to have as much HP of any BMW PERIOD.

If you want that much power you will have to buy a BMW or an even better idea leave the brand.

 

Never mind the power, the looks kill it. Maybe with enough decals it will look cool. :ihih:

 

The RS will look like the current FoST, with some slight cosmetic changes. Ford has historically brought out the RS towards the end of the models life cycle. It's like what MINI does with the GP.

 

I love my MINI and it's not going anywhere.

But we just drove the ST to DC and back and I have to say it is the best road trip car I've ever driven. Quite for the kind of car it is. Suspension is a great balance. Power and 29 mpg over the entire trip including all the stop and go in DC.

Just sayn'.

 

And I read yesterday the new Mazdaspeed 3 is going to be 300HP plus and possibly AWD.
And MINI just finished third in a comparison between the Golf and Honda Civic. WTF is this world coming too....

The only thing that might hurt the RS and the 3 is weight--they're not exactly light to begin with, and AWD wont' help that. I tried to find out if the 2nd generation RS shed weight from the stock Focus but couldn't find anything, I'm hoping the third generation RS will manage to come in significantly lighter than the stock Focus, otherwise it's not exactly going to be a featherweight (which is why I'd rather have a Fiesta RS but that's just me).

 

Where did you see this? Was it a comparison between base level Golf, Civic, and a Justa, or GTI, SI, and S?

 

Was it the article that was discussed here...

http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/minis-other-media/22198-motor-trend-compares-four-fun-sporty-runabouts-under-30-000-a.html#axzz3BhGcWVyM

 

That is ^^ exactly what I said when I took an F56 for a hard test drive.

Its not a MINI if it does not have "Go-cart" handling.
It's just a small BMW full of Nanny stuff and Tech garbage.

 

That's the article, read it while I was waiting for a haircut. The "spitting out the mouthpiece" line was classic....Forgot the WRX was in it.

I googled for it earlier and couldn't find it, but found this from 2006:

page 5 - 2006 Honda Civic Si vs. 2006 Mini Cooper S vs. 2006 Volkswagen GTI - Road & Track

My, how times change...

 

But even that article had the R53 losing to the SI and the GTI.

 

Thanks for the link to the good old days.

I didn't see the R53 as losing. Depends what you want in a car, back road bomber says what I wanted when I bought mine. As I've gotten older & more crotchety comfort figures in more that in the past. That being said I still want to bomb around on the back roads. :yesnod:

 

Of course

 

Not sure if agree with that 2007 savior analogy. Wonder what the author of that quote would think now..?

 

Of course I read the whole article and not just one of three reviewer's comments. They are dead on about the R53 JCW being the better car for hard core enthusiast and I'm sure it would have came out on top if they stopped the test at the track. Depending on which flavor of kool aid you drink, you could pull comments out of that article to justify your preference.

So the R53 was too raw for all around use and the F56 is too watered down, does that mean the R56 was just right?

 

That's the way I read it when I was first shopping. But I'm glad I went with the R53 instead. It's just more fun and compared to my WRX it's more refined.

 

BMW is watering down everything to appeal to the mass market. The problem is they didn't read history. Almost every time a well done nitch player has tried to go main stream they lost what got them there to start with, along with those people.

 

If they were to follow the Porsche example they would keep Cooper the nitch car like the 911. Then have the other models go after the sales to support it. Porsche makes its money on the Panamera and SUV.

 

Wonder what dealer mark up is going to be?