Aaron Brzozowski
At long last, Ford’s “Rebirth of an Icon” multi-part documentary about the gestation of the 2016 Ford Focus RS has reached its dramatic conclusion, putting the end cap on a two-and-a-half year long journey of design, engineering, and development. You can watch the final, eighth instalment of the series above.
In this episode, Ford VP of Global Product Development Raj Nair travels to Grattan Raceway in Michigan for a second sign-off drive, after the last – taking place in Lommel, Belgium during Episode 7 – revealed some issues that required mending from the team. Notably, Mr. Nair felt that the 2016 Ford Focus RS needed to have more loud, characteristic pops and burbles from the exhaust when the throttle is let up, and that steering feel was lacking in the car’s Normal mode, while braking feel was muted in moderate to heavy braking situations.
So, this episode, Raj Nair joins Ford Performance Director Dave Pericak and the team at one of America’s most technical, challenging road courses to see if these issues are sorted, or if the 2016 Ford Focus RS must be pushed back and production delayed.
Check it out.
