If you were to believe everything you've read about the new Focus RS, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Ford had basically reinvented the car.
It's good, we've worked that out. Very good, even. Incredibly good. But is it good enough to outdo a BMW M2?
More to the point, is it good enough to outdo a BMW M2 on Britain's most entertaining driver's roads? Here we are in Wales, with two blue supercar-fast yet (relatively) affordable cars and a mission to find a winner.
That's a recipe for many things. Fun being the obvious one.
If you were to believe everything you've read about the new Focus RS, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Ford had basically reinvented the car.
It's good, we've worked that out. Very good, even. Incredibly good. But is it good enough to outdo a BMW M2?
More to the point, is it good enough to outdo a BMW M2 on Britain's most entertaining driver's roads? Here we are in Wales, with two blue supercar-fast yet (relatively) affordable cars and a mission to find a winner.
That's a recipe for many things. Fun being the obvious one.
We must also accept a less pliant ride on roads whose lot is to endure the twin gorgons of Welsh weather and British highway maintenance, as well as a much faster and therefore less relaxed steering ratio.
The M2's 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine walks all over Ford's 2.3-litre four-pot. Make no mistake, the RS is a spitting, snarling thing with plenty of Kielder-esque crackle to it, but put it next to the effortlessly fast, assertive BMW unit and it comes over all small and shrill.
The M2 sounds better (if you can hear anything over the back tyres), and through quick, sweeping A-road corners it's the faster car.
BMW's Servotronic steering is in its element here, too. In the Focus, you have but two turns from lock to lock, and that makes it an exhausting proposition on this kind of road. In every element of its dynamics, on fast roads the M2 feels agile without limit, and thus neither stressed nor stressful to drive.
This is best summed up thus. The M2 is with you every step of the way: the RS will join you when you come out to play.
Which is what we went to Wales to do, of course. And the moment the roads morphed from big and wide, with fast, sweeping corners, to tight and narrow, with sharp, angry bends, the Ford stopped grumbling and woke up like a lion spotting its prey.
It demands commitment, and rewards it with a jaw-dropping combination of chassis and drivetrain brilliance. If you don't like four-wheel drive, take one of these to Mid-Wales – the road to Elan Valley will be your road to Damascus.
The faster you drive the RS, the better it gets. It's that simple. It's glued to the road in ways you didn't think possible. It steals your heart. Like some magical four-wheeled siren, it handles with such genius you fall helplessly in love.
By contrast, you merely admire the M2. You admire it a lot, to be fair, but it's nowhere near as engaging across full-on roads like these. Worse, far worse, when it detects a drift its instinct is to pour cold water on the fun. Do such a thing in the RS, and its stability control is more likely to jump in with you and make the drift better than ever.
Having explored the M2's limits on a racetrack, we can tell you that they're sky-high. But this is not a racetrack: it's Powys. And those run-off areas are full of sharp rocks and sheep. That makes the Focus RS the better car here.
So, back to the awkward question about whether we're comparing like for like. For ?44,070, you get the M2's awesome pace and vastly competent dynamics on everyday roads.
For ?30,000, the RS asks you to suffer a little in between joyous weekend visits to roads on which it is basically unbeatable.
Is it that simple? Yes and no. The M2 is a more complete everyday car, but wait a second… that's almost 50% more money they want for it. And what you get for it is second-best on the roads you love most.
For more money than the Focus RS, you could get a Mustang with the same engine. And were we to put that up against the M2 on these roads, it would be a bloodbath. The point is that hot hatches are cars of the people – and Ford has dialled right into that fact with this super-Focus. Whichever of them you buy, though, you get a brilliant car.
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BMW M2- Rating: 4.5/5
- Price: ?44,070
- 0-62mph: 4.5sec
- Top speed: 155mph
- Economy: 33.2mpg (combined)
- CO2 emissions: 199g/km
- Kerb weight: 1570kg
- Engine layout: 6 cyls, 2979cc, turbo, petrol
- Installation: Front, longitudinal, RWD
- Power: 365bhp at 6500rpm
- Torque: 369lb ft at 1450-4750rpm
- Power to weight: 232bhp per tonne
- Specific output: 122bhp per litre
- Gearbox: 6-spd manual
- Front suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar
- Rear suspension: Five-link, coil springs, anti-roll bar
- Brakes: 380mm ventilated discs (f), 370mm discs (r)
- Wheels: 9Jx19in (f), 10Jx19in (r)
- Tyres: 245/35 R19 (f), 265/35 R19 (r)
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FORD FOCUS RS
- Rating: 5/5
- Price: ?30,000
- 0-62mph: 4.7sec
- Top speed: 165mph
- Economy: 36.7mpg (combined)
- CO2 emissions: 175g/km
- Kerb weight: 1599kg
- Engine layout: 4 cyls, 2261cc, turbo, petrol
- Installation: Front, transverse, 4WD
- Power: 345bhp at 6000rpm
- Torque: 325lb ft at 2000-4500rpm
- Power to weight: 215bhp per tonne
- Specific output: 152bhp per litre
- Gearbox: 6-spd manual
- Front suspension: MacPherson struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar
- Rear suspension: Control blade, coil springs, anti-roll bar
- Brakes: 350mm ventilated discs (f), 302mm discs (r)
- Wheels: 8Jx19in
- Tyres: 235/35 R19
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