Someone at the business across the street from my work had been driving around a tangerine scream facelifted 2015+ Focus ST for about a year, but remained all stock.

Shortly after the new year, I began seeing a white Focus RS parked at the same business... needless to say he upgraded, and I now stare at it every day. I know for sure it will be my next car.

 

Same. I hope to order one this summer.

2018 will be the last year so get in on it sooner rather than later...

 

I really dislike 1/4 ET and trap speed as a performance metric. I mean, I get why it's used, and it helps paint a bigger picture of everything, but lap times > 1/4 ET and trap speed

Can't tell for sure, but it looks overcast. Could be some moisture on the track.
I'm sure more than 90% of the drivers who get behind the wheel of those cars, shouldn't be getting behind the wheel of those cars.

 

 

What would you prefer Costco.. 0-30?
Every time I hear someone disparage the 0-60 metric, it seems like hipster rhetoric.

 

1/4 and MPH.

0-60 is weighted too heavily by gearing and traction. People split hairs by a few tenths of a second, but the car that's faster 0-60 can end up losing by carlengths at 1/4 mile.

 

Co-worker bought on a couple weeks back; said he tried to get one when they first came out, but the mark-ups were ridiculous. Loves it though, and is ready to do some exhaust mods.
Granted, but that's why you have instructors who keep you in check. Or should at least. During my drive, I remember being told to watch my speed through a short chicane b/c it was possible to get the ass out.

Mine on my final lap was when he let me open the Superleggera up and start hitting the brake zones a little later to really grasp what the car could do. He said their goal was to let people get a taste of 5 or 6/10th of what a supercar would do. Enough to display their performance, but still within' immediate control. There was only one straight at the time, so you could only get the cars up so fast unless you could come out of the last turn ridiculously fast which of course, they avoided. The new track on the outside definitely has more speed involved last I saw the layout.

 

One of the redditors who commented on that SpeedVegas crash said they knew 'exactly' who the instructor was. So it could be very possible that a loose cannon instructor may be to blame.

I can also see a hot headed bro trying a bit too hard to thrash these cars and just went way over his head. No matter the instructor, the student/tourist still has full throttle/brake control (unlike other instructor cars) so with the power these cars have it does seem like a potential risk to basically put newbs into these situations.

One way is to try to design the track in a way to limit top speed and have as much crash protection as you can around risky run off areas.....but if you said they made layouts a bit more speed then that could've been a contributing factor. All in all a big tragedy.

 

This was the layout they had when I went using the Infield course going counter-clockwise. Beyond the main straight, there wasn't a whole lot of room to get the cars up to speed.


TMK, this is the current layout outside the track.

 

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

Looking at the photos from the highway....seems like the crash occured at one of those turns at the end of that long straight....either the top one or the bottom one in the pic you posted. Not surprised if the driver started braking way too late....

 

Lets use the 0-60 data on those hot hatches.. why would I want an RS3, when the S3 is only a few tenths slower to 60??
You're not realizing that the distance between 4.1 and 4.5 seconds zero to sixty is a bus length.. 0 to 60 mph is 26.8223 m/s.. punch in the delta and that's 32 ft.
0-60 is a measure of acceleration, how quick the car is. Every tenth is roughly half a car length.

When they did the head 2 head of the tesla vs hellcat (before ludicrous), tesla was only 5 tenths faster to 60 mph. That's a fucking school bus length (40 ft).
And you know what.. it still won the 1/4 mile even though it trapped ~12 mph slower.
Of course they're going to try to shave as much off as possible, that's the driver equation.

It's not all marketing. You're more likely to stoplight race a car to get over than you are to live your life a 1/4 mile at a time.
So it's all relative, but it doesn't make it irrelevant.. so go take that bourgeois hipster burrshiett talk elsewhere..
Although, in your case, redneck asian and all.. 1/4 mile at a time might apply... waiting for you to trade in the BRZ for Camaro

Yeah, but after watching Canada's Worst Drivers on Netflix, I've come to realize... no matter how good the instructor... the driver can and will remain shit.
Also, I'm super scared to go back to Canada..

 

If you guys haven't watched CWD.. I highly recommend it.

 

They used a Camaro SS in the subsequent season..

 

Isn't that why a lot of companies race the Ring. Isn't that track like the baseline of performance. I get they won't run a Caravan SE out there but for the cars we actually care about.

 

All the tests tell a story.. it's marketing and a performance metric.
Above all.. it's so fanbois can pull their dicks out..

GTRFTMFW!!

V8RICERCUCKBOI!

 

Really? I guess I didn't realize it will be a limited production run. For only about 2 years? Uh oh...

That's what I'm worried about. In the past two weeks, I have passed by two different Ford dealers that had an RS sitting in the prime spot of the lot. One had a black RS and the other had a white RS. If they are still asking for above sticker, that will be a problem.

 

RS is usually the swan song of that generation of Focus. The new one will drop for MY19 so I'm sure the RS isn't long for this world though it has yet to be seen if they will launch the next gen with a ST and RS models on offer right away. Given what has happened in the past, I'm guessing the answer is no, not right away but we'll see. The run was 3 model years though, MY16. MY17, and MY18.

I think a lot of dealerships are doing sticker price now, at least around here. I'm going to try and go through Costco purchase to try and get a better deal out of it. Costco deals off the invoice price but the crappy part is that there's not a whole lot of margin between invoice and MSRP for the RS like there is with something like a F150. We'll see what happens though.

 

Back when the WRXs were still 5-speeds, the WRX was faster 0-60 than the STI, because the STI's short gearing required it to shift to 3rd to hit 60mph.

I completely understand why 0-60 is used, and how to quantify the difference. I simply said I don't like it it's an arbitrary statline, whenever people mention it in real-life I always get this "be all, end all" vibe from them.

Not gonna lie, I toyed around with the idea of a new Camaro 1LE... the cycle would be complete

 

Prices are pretty good on used 1LEs..



I really like the new Camaro refresh mang.. trade brah..

 

I mean.. if your 0-60 is sub 3.. it pretty much is the be all end all

 

Chase is a race.. until the douche in the tesla hits the brakes / hazards..

 

I like the refresh a lot as well. I would pick up a used one once their prices drop some more, but my money is a little tied up. I'm not whipped, I swear... I'm not spending cause I don't want to Hoping to start a business, then that way I can buy even bigger and better toys once it takes off

Really though, can't remember the last mod I bought for my car.

You do have a point there

 

 

Local dealer where I bought my F150 shows 2 RS in stock. both at $40k, which is a $3k markup over sticker.

 

Is that really markup or is it optioned out? 36k is just starting right?

 

You can view the actual window sticker online. $37k MSRP. Listed on the dealer website for $40k.

 

Most will mark up to see if any suckers will pay that much. If a dealership is really not going to budge on it, I'll walk over to the Subaru dealership and buy a STi without reservation. Most are down to MSRP at this point, some are going just under too.

In other news, you can grab Golf R's for under invoice these days.

 

I wouldn't pay a markup for one. There are other options in that price bracket. If they won't take the markup off, I'm out. They have a couple GT350s too, with $10k adjustments on them.

 

Yup, exactly. The GT350 is unique in that there aren't others in that price and performance bracket but the RS definitely not unique in that range. Other option is just find another dealer who isn't marking things up.

 

The STi is badly due for a new engine and is it fair to say I'm a bit reluctant to own a VW? (Even though I've owned an Audi in the past and my family has one now.) Every time I've sat in the Golf R at the auto show, I'm not nearly as excited as sitting in my ST or an RS for that matter. Maybe if I drove it, it would be a different story. But I just don't prefer it.

That said, I've always been a Subaru fan but never owned one. Came close to buying an STi before choosing the ST. I'm sure you've heard my story before but if a dealer is not willing to let me test drive one (even while being super pushy at the same time), I'm not going to buy it.

So I know the RS is just right for me. Hoping I'll have that opportunity down the road.

 

Weird. It's a WRX, not a Corvette. I'm surprised you couldn't test it. And well said about the STi engine. It's ridiculous that the base WRX has a newer (arguably better) engine than the STi.

 

The Subaru dealerships think it's more of a Pagani than even a Corvette.

The crazy thing about the STi engine is that it hasn't even been updated 3-4 years after the WRX was revised.

 

ugh.. 3k isn't a lot when compared to others, but that's still pushing 10% of the sticker.

 

^^Could be dealer specific. I've read stories of people on reddit saying they've been treated like crap trying to test drive [insert 30-50k sporty cars here]...with the dealer thinking that their STi/Corvette/etc. car is a Ferrari.....apparently GM dealers can be a PITA about test driving Corvettes....

 

I'm a 30 year old white collar DINK and I couldn't get close to driving a corvette. The excuse is always "people want low mileage". It's not like I was planning on test driving all the way to El Paso

 

My buddy went to go check out a brand new S5 several years ago.. they wouldn't give him the time of day even though he had cash.. told absolutely no test drives unless he bought. Umm.. that's not a test drive asshole.
We went over to Porsche and they threw us the keys.. shiett..

 

Any kind of a markup on a new vehicle is ridiculous.

 

He decided to use his monies to go back to school.. learn to make more monies faster.

 

There was a chick in an Evo VIII when I was doing a lot of Autocross, that had to go to 3 dealers to find one that would let her test drive prior to purchase.

Got that runaround when we were SUV shopping. Avoiding mileage, on a Highlander?

 

Gotta keep the mileage low, because there can be only one Highlander.