IMHO, it doesn't look like that big of a change from the current Focus. It could be worse, but I don't think I like this very much...

News about next gen. Focus RS from England
 

According to insiders, the new Focus Cosworth would see it based on the next Focus (due to be unveiled in May) and powered by either a turbo-charged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine or a new version of the Volvo V50's 225bhp turbocharged five-cylinder unit. But Capito hinted that the new powerplant would have to be able to rev freely to 7,000rpm and beyond.

Source: Autoexpress

i really like it, especially if it had a 5 cyl

I wasn't rolling my eyes about it being a chick car. I was rolling my eyes at the Neanderthal's comments :)

http://www.fordeurope.net/2005focuscosworth.jpg Meet New Focus Cossie


ord's legendary Cosworth is back! And the big news for blue oval fans is that the name will be used on flagship versions of hot Fiestas and Focuses all developed by the company's new performance division - Team RS.

Jost Capito, the German boss of the newly formed Team RS division, has exclusively revealed the first details of the new Focus Cosworth, allowing us to bring you these exclusive pictures and giving us an exciting taster of the supercar-chasing hatch, which is due for launch next year.

Capito revealed that the RS and ST brands will also be expanded to cover other Ford products. And although these will be the top-sellers, it's the Cosworth models which will be the true 'hero' cars. He told us that some within Ford thought that Cosworth should become a luxury sporting brand. "This was wrong," he said. "The Cosworth should be even more ex-treme than the RS Focus. It should be lightweight, stripped out, have more performance and be more extreme. Maybe it wouldn't even have air-conditioning."

Capito - whose past experience includes working on BMW's M3 and Porsche's 911 - also told Auto Express that a future Focus Cosworth is unlikely to be front-wheel drive. "Would a Cos-worth ever be front-drive? A Cosworth would have to deliver 225bhp-plus. When you see what we had to do with the front differential on the RS Focus to make it work properly, that power would be too much for the front wheels.

"There's a limit on front-wheel drive. But it depends on how the power is deployed. You can take it off with the traction control system - so in theory you could have a 300bhp front-drive car. But what's the point? The driver would not feel the power. For real performance we need 220-240bhp - that's hard in a front-drive car like the RS."

According to insiders, the new Focus Cosworth would see it based on the next Focus (due to be unveiled in May) and powered by either a turbo-charged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine or a new version of the Volvo V50's 225bhp turbocharged five-cylinder unit. But Capito hinted that the new powerplant would have to be able to rev freely to 7,000rpm and beyond.

This car would also use the same basic 4x4 chassis as the new V50 T5 AWD. But the Cossie - which won't appear until late next year at the earliest - would be much lighter and more raw than the baby Volvo. Expect minimal noise insulation, lightweight race-style seats, a quick-shifting six-speed manual transmission and suspension and braking components directly inspired by Ford's WRC Focus cars. On the outside, it will take its cue from today's RS, although stylists want the Cosworth's trademark wing to return. And the chassis will also be honed for driving pleasure by Team RS engineers on UK roads - unlike the RS Focus.

Said Capito: "Not enough of the chassis work on the Focus RS was done in the UK on B-roads. It was set up for German roads and the Nürburg-ring race circuit - it is fantastic there. Yet some drivers really wanted a beast of a car - and why not? But we rec-ognise that the majority of Ford's performance car customers are in the UK.

"If the new car can be made to handle well on UK B-roads and motorways, it should work on any roads. Every change we make to the chassis during development will be tested on B-roads and motorways."

By establishing the Cosworth brand, Capito says that the next-generation Focus RS can be less extreme. His team has already sat down to define Ford's three performance brands - ST, RS and Cosworth. "We had to agree what an ST is, what an RS is and what a potential Cosworth is. We thought of analogies with animals - an ST is a dolphin, an RS is a shark and a Cosworth would be a white shark." He describes how this will translate: "An RS will be for driving fun and track day use. And it should be a surprising car that might only be on sale for 18 months or so." Capito hinted the next RS wouldn't have a turbo engine and would be able to rev up to 8,500rpm - like key rival, the Honda Civic Type R.

But Capito pretty much ruled out an RS Mondeo, which would be too big for B-road driving. However, the next-generation Mondeo (due in late 2005) will have the option of four-wheel drive, so a stripped-out Mondeo Cosworth, inspired by touring cars, is possible.

Capito's team will also be developing ST versions of the Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo. "I want the ST brand to be better known," he said. "I want the ST experience to be consistent, like VW's GTI brand. It should be a great compromise between sporting handling and everyday use."

Capito wouldn't say, but it's thought the next Focus ST will have a light-pressure turbo engine delivering around 180bhp - enabling it to challenge the MkV Golf GTI. At last, it seems that Ford is finally back in the fast car game and fighting for supremacy. Hilton Holloway

The current Focus is a great car(minus the recalls). I have one at my work. Its the company car and its got around 110k. Still runs like its new from the factory. Its a smart alternative to the Civic. Ive driven both Civic and Focus, and the Focus seems more fun to drive. More torque and better(tighter)handling. Yeah, it is just a Ford, but its a Ford with potential.

maybe ford is coming to their senses?

Agree. ;)

http://www.forddesktops.com/images/new_focus_2.jpg
http://www.forddesktops.com/images/new_focus_3.jpg

Source: Autoweek.nl

http://www.forddesktops.com/images/new_focus_1.jpg

http://www.forddesktops.com/images/new_focus_4.jpg

http://www.forddesktops.com/images/new_focus_5.jpg


http://www.forddesktops.com/images/new_focus_6.jpg

not bad, i can dig it.

well done

This is the Euro one though right? Not the US version?

Good question. If it is the Euro version, I hope our's will be very similar.

Correct. Though even currently, changes are subtle between the EUro and USA spec Focus.

Ford unveils new Focus concept aimed at Chinese, Asia Pacific markets - - Source: Autoweek

Ford used this week’s Auto China 2004 auto show in Beijing as a stage to reveal an all-new Focus four-door concept aimed specifically at the Chinese and Asia Pacific markets.

Calling it "a teaser version of what will become the most sophisticated Focus to date," Mark Schulz, executive vice president for Ford’s Asia Pacific and Africa operations, said the car has been designed to meet the needs of the emerging Chinese market. Ford says the concept will move to production sometime later this year.

"Our customers in all parts of China drive a challenging road," Schulz said. "They deserve products precisely tuned to their environment. It takes the latest technology to compete in China, and that's what we aim to deliver."



The Focus concept, reportedly based on the same small-car platform that underpins the Mazda3, Volvo S40 and Ford’s European Focus C-Max, features a more athletic stance than the present Focus as well as greater interior and trunk space, according to Ford.

It is still unclear whether the Focus concept’s design unveiled in Beijing will be employed worldwide in the future. The U.S. market Focus is not scheduled to undergo a redesign until the 2007 model year.



http://www.autoweek.com/weekart/2004/0614/focusmain.jpg

http://www.autoweek.com/weekart/2004...nceptfront.jpg

http://www.autoweek.com/weekart/2004...onceptrear.jpg

Looks damn good bu the back looks exactly like a civic!

:yes:

:nono: :rolleyes:

Looks like a mondeo

http://media5.motorcities.com/02HPB410211752A.jpeg
http://media5.motorcities.com/02HPB410211752B.jpeg

Yeah, it looks ALOT like the Mondeo. And while I'm on that subject, I really like that car. Can someone tell me why the hell we don't have it here. I'd appreciate it.

We had it, it was called the Contour...we still have it, it is now called the X-type :P

[QUOTE=Zoot]We had it, it was called the Contour...we still have it, it is now called the X-type :P[/QUO
Okay. I knew the X-Type shared parts, but I didn't know it was the Contour also.

As the article says, we'll get the new Focus soon. Aint sure how close it will look to the Asian Focus but...

The svt contour used to be a sweet car, wish they keep up with it. This focus looks like it would be a nice replacement.

Sporty new Focus for Ford - - Source: Autocar Mag


The sporty profile of the three-door Ford Focus, which will underpin hot ST and RS performance models, has been scooped for the first time by Autocar. With new sheetmetal from the A-pillar backwards, Ford Europe design chief Chris Bird has penned an arcing rear roofline that incorporates a prominent roof spoiler to smooth the airflow over the steeply raked rear window.

Bird’s design cleverly gives the three- and five-door bodystyles a distinct look, even though they use the same rear hatch pressing, a technique commonly employed to keep tooling costs down.

The rakish three-door will be a strong basis for new, sportier ST and RS models. The ST model, due in December 2005, will supersede the limp-wristed ST170 with a car powered by the same turbocharged 212bhp 2.0-litre powertrain as the much-loved Focus RS. Drive will be to the front wheels only and a five-door version will be offered, too. It should finally give the ST a real chance of challenging Renault’s Mιgane 225 and Honda’s Civic Type-R.

It was a profitable outing for Autocar’s spy photographers – they also caught prototypes of both five-door and estate body styles testing. First to be launched are the two hatches, which will be revealed at September’s Paris show.

Both hatchbacks arrive in UK dealers next January with a choice of five engines: 100bhp 1.6, 115bhp 1.8 and 135bhp 2.0 petrols, and 110bhp 1.6 and 135bhp 2.0 diesels. The latter diesel, codenamed DW10, is jointly developed with Peugeot-Citrφen and replaces today’s TDCi unit.

The four-door and estate models will be launched in spring 2005, probably after a Geneva show reveal, when the 80bhp 1.4 entry-level Focus will be shown. Each of the new Focus family shares the hatchback’s 2640mm wheelbase and employs a longer rear overhang to boost carrying capacity.

Because the new Focus grows in size, the estate is expected to offer more luggage space than today’s load-lugger.



http://www.autocarmagazine.com/Car/F.../306444333.jpg

http://www.autocarmagazine.com/Car/F...3064443010.jpg

profile looks like a prius

:phil2::yes:

https://www.channel4.com/4car/media/...cus-Saloon.jpg
https://www.channel4.com/4car/media/...cus-Estate.jpg
https://www.channel4.com/4car/media/...cus-3-door.jpg

Source: channel 4

Heat Is On As Ford Unleashes New V6 Focus - - VBy Chris Thorp - - Source: AutoExpress



Anyone who reckons fast Fords are a thing of the past had better think again. Exclusive spy shots in the current issue of Auto Express magazine mark the first outing of the hot ST version of the new Focus. And it will offer better performance than ever before - because this is the first Focus to get a V6 powerplant.

With an incredible 217bhp on tap, it's no surprise blue oval drivers are doing lots of high-speed testing, and our snapper took these pictures as the Focus ST did a hot lap of Germany's Nürburgring.

Seen in the magazine in five-door form, the ST will get swollen wheelarches and larger alloys to set it apart from lesser variants, while a roof spoiler and twin exhausts add definition to the rear.

The ST is the latest part of the Focus range to come into Auto Express's view. In Issue 806, we brought you the world exclusive first undisguised look at the next-generation five-door. We followed that two weeks later (Issue 808) with pictures of the three-door coupé cabrio.

The biggest news with the ST is the power hike. Ford has shunned the 2.0-litre four-cylinder unit used in the current 168bhp Focus ST170 in favour of the Mondeo's more potent 217bhp 2.5-litre V6. Given the extra two cylinders and additional muscle, expect the 0-60mph time to fall below seven seconds.

So why does Ford think it needs to inject some more zest into the new ST? A source told us: "We are trying to establish the brand. The current ST170 is a little understated. The next version will be more of a performance model."

As with the forthcoming hot Fiesta, this Focus will simply be badged ST, dropping the power denomination from the title. Both three and five-door versions will be available, although the ST badge won't appear on the estate.

With the standard three and five-door versions of the Focus ready to go on sale in the UK in January, the hot hatch isn't likely to appear until the end of 2005. But the story won't end there.

It's highly likely that a diesel ST will join the line-up, as well as a breathtaking RS flagship. Official details are still sketchy, but our insider added: "If an RS was to appear, it wouldn't be before summer 2006. We have the three-door, five-door, estate, saloon and ST versions to launch and promote first."

I bet we don't get it here.

*hates on marketing people*

I would not be surprised if this V6 version will be the next Focus SVT here. Why not?

asian focus is hot

huh? if it were going to go to only one country it would be here! Everywhere else loves smaller, more fuel efficiant 4 bangers

It's not so much a matter of why not as it is my continual disappointment that Ford's best cars are left overseas.

As far as the focus is concerned, we only missed the RS version. And from what I'm hearing/reading, we will not miss it next time. What other Fords did we not get? The Mondeo? See X-Type :)

THe Ka and Street Ka could never sell well here due to their size. Ditto for the Fiesta. The Fusion? It's OK but nothing extraordinary. No need to discuss the Galaxy with the Freestar here.

Now the Focus C-Max might have had a little bit of an interest here, but it's still too small for the category.

http://premium.uploadit.org/ascariss/ford-focus-01.jpg

http://premium.uploadit.org/ascariss/ford-focus-02.jpg

Source: http://ewanskelly.site.voila.fr via carspyshots.tk

Next Gen. Ford Focus RS News **Spied (page 2)**
 

Focus RS mk2 is a monster - -Source: Autocarmagazine


Ford is preparing an all-new Focus RS offering a spectacular 280bhp, four-wheel drive, an active differential and a driving experience to rival the supreme performance of Mitsubishi’s latest Evo VIII MR. And it will look something like the car in our artist’s impressions on these pages. A Blue Oval alternative to the Mitsubishi, Subaru’s Impreza STi and the VW Golf R32, this latest RS, based on the all-new Focus that debuts this September, could be on sale by late 2007.

But despite the sell-out success of the last RS Focus, it is far from certain that this ambitious car will get the go-ahead. Ford’s challenge is not so much conceiving the car, but finding a way to make it at a profit.

The previous Focus RS retailed for £19,995, and lost the company several thousand on every one of the 4501 sold, a loss the company was prepared to stomach in order to burnish the reputation of the Focus and re-establish the credentials of the RS brand. But this time, a loss-maker will not be tolerated, and Ford has to find a way of making this complicated car efficiently enough to be able to sell it profitably. And although the essential specification of the car is clear, plenty of key technical questions remain, among them the choice of power unit. The 212bhp Duratec engine of the previous Focus RS has been reserved for the next-generation ST, and is not a suitable basis for providing the necessary 280bhp. But there are two other options, both of them drawn from other corners of the vast Ford organisation: a 276bhp 2261cc direct injection turbocharged Mazda engine, as shown in Mazda’s 6 MPS concept in 2003, or an upgraded version of the 2.5 T five-cylinder used in the Volvo S60 R, which produces 256bhp in its present form.

Of the two, the Mazda engine is the most likely. It is already being used in the current-generation Focus ZX4 ST in the US, where it has been relabeled Duratec. At the moment, the engine is restricted to 276bhp for the Japanese market, due to a gentlemen’s agreement to stick to this limit. But it’s undoubtedly capable of producing more power.

The Volvo unit offers the novelty of five cylinders, and it’s compact. If it carries a small weight penalty, it should have less of a bearing on the car’s handling balance thanks to the four-wheel drive system.

And four-wheel drive represents the major advance over the previous RS. Its output of 212bhp was reckoned to be close to the limit for a front-drive chassis, making an all-wheel drive solution essential. For reasons of cost, it will have D C to be based on existing hardware within the Ford empire, which is to be found at Volvo, as the Swedish company is developing a system for the S40 and V50 that will appear later this year. These two cars are of the same mechanical family as the new Focus, sharing the same C1 Global Shared Technologies set, which is why this Haldex system will be the starting point. However, it will need significant modification to suit the more extreme handling required for the RS, which will almost certainly employ an active centre differential, similar to the Mitsubishi Evo MR’s.

A major objective for this RS will be to align its specification and road behaviour more closely with the World Rally Championship Focus, to better capitalise on the publicity it gains. This is also why Team RS, the Ford division headed by Jost Capito and charged with developing RS and ST models, was formed back in 2003 with the merging of Motorsport and Special Vehicle engineering departments within Ford.

Team RS’s biggest challenge is undoubtedly finding a way to build the car at the company’s Saarlouis plant with minimum disruption to mainstream Focus production, and with limited costly reworking of the car. The assembly and IT systems in place during production of the previous RS required it to be deliberately fitted with the wrong parts in order to fool the factory computers into thinking that it had been built correctly. The bulky Sparco seats of the old car could not be installed by the robots, for instance, but in order to satisfy the assembly line computers that this process had occurred, the robot had to be allowed to install slave front seats, only for these to be manually removed in a dedicated finishing area. And the RS’s extra width meant that special slave wheels had to be made to allow it to run down the production line tracks.

Logistical challenges like these only added to the old model’s costs, and Ford will be looking to Team RS to come up with a more effective solution. The last car was also developed with major input from Prodrive, which was also charged with finding a way to build it. This time, it’s reckoned that more work will be done in-house – the alleged £30 million spent with Prodrive on the 4500 cars built last time made the economics near-impossible. Instead, the Banbury-based company could act as consultants to the project.

But the new car will not be short of features despite its greater complexity, and we can expect the products of WRC suppliers Brembo (brakes), Sparco (seats), OZ (wheels), Sachs Racing (dampers), Garrett Technologies (turbocharger) and AP Racing (clutch) to feature once again. The RS will also get a lightly modified interior, hopefully not as garish as the blue-splashed cabin of the old car.

Ford will be hoping to offer all this for usefully less than £30,000. And this time, perhaps, the RS Focus may be offered in colours besides blue.



http://www.autocarmagazine.com/Car/F...k/57443380.jpg

http://www.autocarmagazine.com/Car/F...k/57443403.jpg

What the hell are they talking about? What ZX4 ST in the US? What am I missing?