Ford Focus ST set for Australia

An all-new ST is also on the way as the successor to the XR5 Turbo, although the full-house RS500 is no chance Down Under as it is a European sellout. 

The all-new ST is previewed at this week's Paris Motor Show, almost glowing under lights with its outrageous Tangerine Scream bodywork, although it is not coming to showrooms until 2012.  It is set to take the local place of the XR5 turbo although there is little detail yet from Broadmeadows. 

"The thing we're looking at now is another Focus ST, which is the XR5 here in Australia," says says Beth Donovan, vice-president of marketing and sales for Ford Australia.

She says Ford Australia has enough supplies of the XR5 for 2011, until the ST takes over as one of the first One Ford global products.  "The XR5 is under-stated, where the RS is overt. I think if we have an opportunity to have vehicles that enhance our brand, then those opportunities expand where we are with One Ford," Donovan says.

The basics of the ST are impressive - a new four-cylinder EcoBoost engine with 10 per cent more power and torque but 20 per cent lower emissions - with a new chassis, 19-inch alloy wheels, bigger brakes and a six-speed close-ratio gearbox. The engine replaces the Volvo- designed five-cylinder turbo in the XR5 and comes with 186 kiloWatts.

Work on the car is shared between engineers at Team RS in Europe and SVT in the USA, who are upgrading the basic Focus with lowered suspension and a bolder body kit.

“The new Focus ST will be our first true global performance says Jost Capito, director of global performance vehicles.  Like the ST and RS models before it, the Focus ST will be the result of painstaking tuning around the curves of the Nürburgring, along high- speed German autobahns, and down classic British B-roads."