Ford Focus ST
Road test - May 2007

by Kevin Fenix

This is, unquestionably, a driver’s car. When you start it up, you get a suitably satisfying burble from the twin exhausts, yet after that it remains smooth, quiet and refined. The five cylinder engine is an absolute jewel, giving a seamless flow of absolutely effortless power. It is ably assisted by the silky smooth gearchange and a set of well chosen ratios. The engine seems to have abundant power and torque, as you can use sixth gear around the suburbs with ease. It will run smoothly in sixth with as little as 1,000 rpm on the rev-counter. The steering has plenty of feel, without undue effort, which all contributes to that tremendous overall driving satisfaction.
The ST version has a firmer suspension, as befits a sports oriented coupe, which would be fine on most roads in the civilised world. In north Dublin and Fingal, however, it gives a rather harsh and uncomfortable ride, over the area’s notorious cratered and potholed road surfaces.
An exhilarating performance needs excellent brakes, if the experience is to be enjoyed to the full. The brakes on the ST seemed to be up to the job of stopping the car, but in many cases it did have an effect on the steering, which suddenly needed a lot more attention.
Overall, however, the Focus ST is a fun car to drive, giving tremendous pleasure to the person in the driver’s seat. Passengers may not find it so satisfying, as they will probably want to dump the driver at the earliest opportunity and get themselves into that driving seat !

The ST comes as standard with a set of 18 inches diameter alloy wheels, shod with 225/40 tyres. They put a lot of rubber on the road and give excellent grip, but in order to save weight and space, there is no spare tyre at all, just a plug-in electric compressor and a bottle of latex. I have absolutely no confidence in that system. On another test car, from a different manufacturer, shod with the same wheel/tyre combination, I had a blow-out on a trip from Dublin to Newcastle in north east England. As these tyres were not readily available in south west Scotland, I had to call on the recovery services of the AA, who arranged for the car to be put up on a transporter and taken from Creetown all the way to Newcastle.

Above left : No spare wheel
Above right : Just an air compressor and a bottle of latex.

Besides the complete lack of a spare wheel, the car comes without a jack or a wheelbrace, which may save weight and cost, initially, but it does leave you completely reliant on roadside recovery services. Even simple things like swopping wheels from front to rear, to even out wear, which would be a natural thing for an enthusiast to do, have to be left to a professional tyre shop, or you have to make a big investment in the necessary tools for the job. Ford may be able to sell the car cheaper, but you the proud new owner, is then faced with an unseen cost, in making an investment in the necessary tools and equipment. It is not an ideal situation by any means.

However you may wish to classify the five door version of the ST, the three door as tested, is very much a sports coupe. At the price it comes up against stiff competition from the Opel Astra opc. I am not going to do a comparison between the two here, but you can do that for yourself by referring to both roads tests, which are listed under Road tests/Coupe. Just click on the Coupe box and then click on the model under the list that appears.
The ST’s rear bench seat is designed to accommodate two people, although seat belts are provided for three. There are, however, only two adjustable head restraints. The centre section of the seat is soft enough to carry a person in reasonable comfort, but a third adult passenger would find shoulder room severely restricted for all three passengers and an adult of even average height, would find their head in contact with the roof lining. This latter problem is not limited to the centre rear seat, but as it is that little bit higher than the places on either side, the effect is more noticeable. Depending on the position of the two front seats, rear seat kneeroom should be acceptable, for all but the tallest passengers.
Visibility from the two rear seats is not too bad, as the side windows are reasonably large. Forwards visibility is almost completely obscured by the the size of the two front seats and their large head restraints. Sitting in the rear seat you notice just how large and substantial that B-post is, but it is sufficiently far forwards not to inhibit vision outwards through the side window.
On the test car black and grey were the dominating interior colours. The headlining and the upper sections of the facia, doors and roof pillars are all black, while the upholstery and the lower sections of the interior are grey. The seats are mainly grey, but the side bolsters, part of the headrests and a decorative panel at the top are blue, with some blue stitching to round off the job.

The driver’s space is set off with plenty of brushed silver trim to brighten up the dark surroundings. The handbrake, gearlever, audio controls, steering wheel, ventilation outlets and instruments all have silver highlights, which give a pleasant ambience to the surroundings. The seven analogue instruments are housed in two separate binnacles. The larger, is directly behind the steering wheel and houses the rev-counter and speedometer, with smaller engine temperature and fuel level gauges between the two main dials. Oil temperature, turbocharger boost pressure and oil pressure gauges are housed in a smaller binnacle, angled towards the driver, in the top centre of the facia. Audio seems to be such a big thing these days, that people are unwilling to go anywhere unless they are surrounded by noise. Ford place their system conveniently in the centre of the car, where it is both easy to see and easy to reach from either front seat. The heating/ventilating controls for the air conditioning are immediately below, and generally speaking, they to are easy to see and reach once you have familiarised yourself with the positioning of the various controls. While the steering wheel itself does not have controls for the audio, there is a stalk. low down on the left hand side, under the steering wheel that has these controls. Normally it is obscured by the steering wheel and being low down, it can get in the way of your left knee, when you operate the clutch pedal, if you have the steering wheel set low. It is one of those things you have to get to know thoroughly and then operate it by feel alone.
Coupes make ideal grand touring cars. To tour in the grand manner, you need to have adequate space for luggage. The Focus ST is well equipped in that area. The normal luggage boot offers 0.385 cubic metres of space, with all seats occupied. If only two are travelling and you do not mind loading to the roof, you will have 1.247 cubic metes of space at your disposal. If even that is not enough, you can carry a maximum of 75 kg on the roof, but a roofbox will completely destroy the sporty lines of the car, not to mention the aerodynamics. It also generates a lot of noise and increases the fuel consumption considerably.

Above left : Normal luggage space ------------------- Below right : Maximum luggage space

When it comes to grand touring, performance is obviously high on the list of priorities. Not that it is of much relevance, as there is practically nowhere, that you can legally exploit it, but top speed is claimed to be 245 kph or 152 mph, whichever measurement you prefer. Of more interest is the 0-100 kph acceleration time of 6.8 seconds. That is quick and puts the ST up there with some respected competition. However, do be careful who you engage in a stop lights grand prix, as while you may comfortably see off some highly respected open two seaters like the Mazda MX5, MGF, Mercedes-Benz SLK 200 and Toyota MR2, you could also be left choking in the exhaust fumes of some luxury saloons like the Lexus LS 460 and others.
In this latter case you will have to console yourself with the knowledge, that while your urban fuel consumption is 20 mpg (13.8 lt/100 km) the Lexus driver is burning the stuff at the rate of 18 mpg (14.9 lt/100 km).
Talking of fuel consumption, the ST is not all that impressive on the urban cycle, but once you get it out into the country, its thirst improves to a much more satisfying 41 mpg (6.8 lt/100 km), giving an average on the combined cycle of 30 mpg (9.3 lt/100 km).

Technical data