SVT has done it again.
Give a group of car guys some authority and amazing things can happen. Ford's Special Vehicle Engineering team has wowed us in the past with its thorough re-working of the Contour; it even gave us a twinge of respect for a Mustang, so we expected great things with the Focus.
In stark contrast to the parts bin approach Nissan took with the SE-R, SVT pored over every detail of the Focus, making more than 200 unique parts just for this car. The SVT engine is almost entirely new, sharing the block, crank and little else with the standard Zetec. Gone are the ZX3's spindly connecting rods, restrictive head and close-coupled cat. Compression is up, variable intake cam timing is on board; we get a two-stage intake manifold and a real tri-y header with the catalyst tucked under the oil pan. The new engine still has the torquey bottom-end of the base engine, but now rewards redline chasers as well. The compact Getrag six-speed transmission shifts beautifully and should be very strong, but the gear ratios seem poorly chosen; all the gears, including first, are too tall--sixth is superfluous.
As is typical with SVT cars, most of the effort went into performance goodies with only subtle tweaks to the body. A tiny lip spoiler, black headlight surrounds and a tastefully re-designed bumper will go unnoticed by most people. Perfect. Those in the know will spot it instantly. They'll be the ones noticing the giant 11.4-inch front and 11.0-inch rear discs tucked in clean and simple five-spoke, 17-inch wheels. They'll notice the same grippy 215/45-R17 Continental ContiSportContacts that adorn the SE-R, and they'll probably notice the edges are heavily fretted if you're using your SVT as intended.
The SVT Focus takes hard driving very well. That is, if you don't get stuck with the winter package, which includes traction control--our test car was so equipped. Turning traction control off doesn't fully defeat the system. Acceleration times suffer as a result, and we suspect our skidpad numbers did too. Driven hard without electronic assist, the SVT Focus has remarkably sharp, precise steering, rotates surprisingly well if provoked, and is very rewarding in full attack mode. Those massive brakes give confidence and seem impossible to cook.
As is typical of SVT cars, the SVT Focus seems finished. There are few of the glaring shortcomings that hardcore enthusiasts spot in normal cars, few things calling out for aftermarket assistance.
Not like that will stop anybody.