Ford Focus ST review @ 1000 miles

Originally Posted by Shamu

Lol!

Where do I begin? Lighter cooling system, lightweight flywheel and clutch, 4 lb lithium battery, aluminum hat front rotors, abs pumps etc removed, all engine cosmetics pulled, AC system pulled, ventilation system gone, lighter pulley and belt setup, hoods pinned, horns pulled, lighter long tube headers, lighter engine mounts,lightweight vented hood, front crash bar lightened, stock PS removed and electric PS installed further back in car, all smog and excess cooling lines removed from engine, Wiper system removed, lower radiator support removed, gutted dash, doors, poly windshield.

Suspect my car is one of better front to rear weight distributions as I still only have rear roll bar.. CF hatch was to get weight off top of car to lower CG, titanium system to offset added weight of fueling, 30 gallon saddle fuel cell with 4 scavenger pumps mounted low and to rear. Rear Diff coolers, rear defuser system. As well as dry sump cell going in rear in future. big rear wheels and tires.

Rear of car has actually stayed weight neutral. Believe me I'm trying to get to 50/50.

Originally Posted by SS_Firehawk

Not defending Shamu's posts, but taking what he said out of context to better fit your argument, I really don't care for. RWD cars with the transmission mounted up front will always have a bias. Just because he reduced the weight of the rear does not mean he paid no attention to the front.

Regarding the ST, I think it would be an enjoyable vehicle, great to push the segment forward, but at the same time, it still has it's flaws that have made little or no headway from the last crop of hot hatches. The largest flaw being torque steer. 3200lbs is nearly as heavy as a Z, that is a failure and a complete result of cost cutting. I thought the current MS3 bumper was bad. bravo to Ford for finding a way to make it worse. I am happy they got the handling right.