Focus ST opinions

Lol - got a couple of mates still with Volvos, one a S60 T5 Manual, other an S80 T6. Neither chipped - my 2.0T would keep up with them both to about

100mph, then the T6 carried on rudely into its limiter, the T5 falls off as standard from about 140, mine terminated at 160 GPS, off top of speedo. (rev limiter in top...) Some of the owners club guys have had >170 from chipped T5s.

What's the new compact 2.5 like? Reckon the new C70 will be capable of

300+bhp without much effort?

It won't, because it'll suffer oversupply - there's discounts on offer already. Same with the Golf.

you sure? they seem to have sold out everywehre i've asked for a test drive but the oversupply i may be able to agree with the escos was limited as was the RS the ST seems to be the RSturbo of this generation and will sell by the bucketload that said, i seem to see either gti or tdi golfs and nothng else in the mk

5, perhaps it's where i live..............

Do the windows let in then?

No, it's because all other engines are s**te.

Sorry, but twenty grand is expensive for a three door front wheel drive hatchback, no matter how you look at it.

It's about right compared to the competition though. And they're common as hell, so other people must not think they're too expensive. And it's still £10k cheaper than the 1 series that offers the same performance. Is RWD really worth £10k, just to prove that you're a 'proper' driver?

It's £3,000 more than the Focus. And the Skoda... lets not even go there.

I'd want to be paid £3,000 to have a VW badge and not the other way around.

Not necessarily. Chances are many people in a Golf GTI are leasing them... They're "reasonable" to lease.

And people are stupid and automatically think the Golf GTI is the best car in the world, ever. :)

Once we get up to these sorts of power levels, "probably." Many people I know wouldn't get something with 200 bhp or so and FWD.

It's not 10k cheaper than an RX8 though is it?

200 bhp was once said by a Saab engineer to be the limit. Now I think they claim it's 300bhp.

Was watching a Top Gear rerun on UKTV the other day when they were comparing a couple of cars - one of them was a Merc. The comment about the Merc was "Problem is that it is German Engineering. Oh dear".

I preferred the diesel VFRIXYZQWERTYUIOP. Went like stink and did silly MPG.

I've pressed the pedal and the steering wheel has been ripped out of my hand and appears to want to make me crash.

I think the silly power special BMW Minis were responsible for that. Isn't one tuning house churning out 270BHP variants?

Not without some substantial mods! The 220bhp 2.5 Focus / V50 / S40 5 pot is a cheapened small turbo lightweight penny pinched unit which Mr Ford wanted to cut costs. Its all done by about 260/270bhp as far as earlish exploritory work has found. :-(

Tim.

The problem with the new 2.5 is that in making it compact, it's lost some of the strength of the old 2.3/2.4. Just take a look how close the cylinder bores are to each other to see what I mean. Running silly overboost would most likely blow a hole between two cylinders.

We've had one running at 300bhp on a testbest, but I wouldn't put money on it not going pop after a while. As Tim said, its safe limit is about

260/270bhp. It's not a costed-down version though - it costs just as much (if not more) to make, but it's just smaller.

We've had some fairly exotic experimental engines pass through our hands though, such as the 4.8 V10 that was kicking around in a S80 a couple of years ago (yes - a transverse V10). Stonkingly quick, with more than 500bhp while turbocharged, and with a glorious engine note. Volvo rejected it as it didn't leave enough space for a 'Volvo-spec' crumple zone.

We've got some 'interesting' projects on the go at the moment for PAG stuff though, but I'm afraid my lips are sealed for a while on that one!

Are/were the multitude of I5 engines Volvo use transversely or longitudinally installed? If so, a transverse V10 would surely be the same, except for the small matter of requiring a bonnet twice as long, surely?

Remind me what PAG stands for?

Yep - it was basically 2 2.4 I5s on a common crank. All current Volvo engines are transversely installed. The V10 fitted under the bonnet of a standard S80 :-)

Premier Automotive Group (Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Aston Martin)

You realise you've just caused Tim Kemp to mess all over his laptop...

I didn't realise the bore centres had changed, I thought it was just a packaging / auxilliaries thing? I expected the lower power output to be beacause of cooling issues...

Two T5 heads on a custom block?

as I'm on site - working, that's not happening...