Dear British people – if Ford’s hottest hatch isn’t hot enough for you, there are aftermarket companies ready to up the performance more to your liking. Indeed, the Ford Focus RS delivers 350 horsepower in its stock form, and while that is more than enough power for the street, no one can be faulted for desiring even more power from Ford’s AWD hot hatch. For those in search of more, Mountune has been boosting the performance of the new Ford Focus RS for a while now, and they have a new performance kit, and an update to their previous tune.
As mentioned, Mountune has released two new performance upgrades for the Ford Focus RS: M400R and M400X. The two new tunes claim significant increases in performance while maintaining the standard turbocharger with the addition of a few bolt-on engine modifications.
The M400R tune is a simple firmware update to the old M400 tune, and adds more functions such as an adjustable RPM limit, a valet mode, full-time launch control, and support for full-throttle gear changes–otherwise known as ‘no-lift shifts’ or ‘flat-foot shifts’. The M400R tune is available at no cost to current owners of the M400 tune, but will cost £495 ($646.44 USD) for new buyers.
In order to maintain the warranty of the Ford Focus RS, Mountune recommends several supporting bolt-on modifications in order to safely run the M400R remap tune. Bolt-ons include an induction kit, an uprated turbo recirculation valve, a larger air-to-air intercooler, and a three-inch sports exhaust. Other recommended modifications–although not strictly necessary for the M400R tune, Mountune suggests forged pistons, stronger bearings, uprated conrods, stronger head studs, and a baffled engine sump. All for the sake of long-term reliability.
Mountune offers two packages which include all of the above mentioned engine upgrades. The supporting bolt-ons will cost $5,432.69 USD (£4,160), while the strengthened internals will retail for $6,203.19 USD (£4,750). Both of those prices include installation costs and the M400R engine remap tuning. With all of the supporting modifications installed, Mountune’s M400R remap tune claims performance increases of 50 horsepower and 88.5 lb-ft of torque (50bhp and 120Nm) for a total of 400 horsepower and 413 lb-ft (395bhp and 560Nm). That’ll wake things up.
For the Focus RS owner seeking even more performance, Mountune is also offering a new M400X tune. The new tune includes all of the same functionality updates as the M400R tune, as well as identical performance figures, but the M400X tune will develop peak power and torque for a longer period of time than the M400R tune.
With the increased power band from the M400X tune, Mountune says that there’s more stress on the engine, and strongly advises that customers opt for both of the supporting engine upgrade packages. Mountune also suggests that customers fit narrower-gapped spark plugs. In addition to the $11,633.37 (£8,910) for the supporting engine modifications, the M400X remap tune costs $532.05 (£407.50) installed.
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You know what would be really awesome? granted this will probably never happen but it would be awesome anyway. If Ford Performance included Mountune, Roush and Steeda all under the same umbrella and if their parts could be attained at local Ford performance authorized dealers and if installed by those dealers, the cars would keep their warranties.
To be honest, Ford has some great engines when it comes to performance. The Ecoboost platform including the 2.0L, 2.3L, 2.7L 3.0L and the 3.5L, not to mention the Modular V8 platform which includes engines such as the 5.0L Coyote, My not so favorite 5.2L Voodoo V8 and the new 5.2L Predator V8. Ford also has a couple of nice transmission options including the 10R80 10-speed auto (including the modular 10-speed powertrain), the all new Tremec 7-speed Dual Clutch Transmission, and the old relics that we know as the manual transmissions including the Tremec 6-speed in the GT350 and the rumor of the all new upcoming 7-speed manual. Ford also has a promising new platform out called the CD6 Modular platform. What if, Ford were to take all of this great stuff that they have and finally put it all together and make a crazy cool new lineup that incorporates coupes, sedans, crossovers, SUVS, hybrids, electric cars and trucks. I’m sure many of you out there have read my previous posts (exhausting as some of them may be because they can be a bit lengthy at times) but seriously. What if Ford did something really really stinking cool outside of just the mustang.
Contrary to someones popular belief (Clearly not the belief of those at Dodge, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes Benz, Lexus, BMW, Jaguar and countless others) The four-door sedan IS NOT going out of style. Yes SUVs hold a commanding spot in the market because of what they can do but sedans are still valuable. The problem is certain companies (i.e Ford & Chevy) make BORING SEDANS!!!!!!! Well, at least here in the United States. Ford & GM had awesome sedans in Australia up until last year or so with the Ford Falcon and GM’s Holden HSV lineup. GM did try to bring some of that excitement here but failed to fully execute on what could have been a serious game changing play for the Chevy lineup. Meanwhile Dodge is going bonkers by itself literally bursting at the seams with raw unapologetic muscle cars with obscene amounts of hoonigan and testosterone (i mean horsepower and torque). Do I expect Ford to answer back with a Boss 429-style V8 big block powered car, no i don’t. I expect Ford to do it better and i feel like Ford’s CD6 platform is just the ticket. If Ford were to take the CD6 platform and make a rear wheel drive based sedan slightly larger than a Fusion, but smaller than the Taurus, give it a bit of the Mustang’s treatment in styling, Offer a list of engines from a base 260hp 2.0L Ecoboost, a 350hp 2.3L Turbo, a 425hp 3.5L Ecoboost and a 485hp 5.0L and even a 5.2L predator V8 option at the top of the list, give the options of the 10-speed automatic, a 7-speed Dual Clutch or a 7-speed manual in certain trim levels, Rear wheel drive or all -wheel drive, other options such as Brembo brakes, recaro interiors, digital instrument clusters, large screen infotainment displays, B&O stereo options, track packs, Steeda options, Mountune options, Ford Performance/Roush options etc along with a hybrid option and do something simple as call it the Falcon Ford would have a winning sedan on their hands. The same thing goes for the next mustang. Even if the mustang looses some of it’s retro styling, which i kind of hope it does for something more modern and sleek somewhere between SN95 meets BMW M850i but still with enough aggressiveness and interior styling to know its a Mustang, the same rules would apply here even with different engine choices being a 2.0L Hybrid, a 2.3L 350hp, a 425hp 3.5L twin turbo V6, a 485hp 5.0, a 5.2L cross plane crank N/A and a supercharged 5.2L V8. The GT350 and GT500 names would finally get put to rest and the Mach 1 and SVT Cobra would join the ranks as well as the Mustang ST 2.0L Hybrid, the Mustang SVO 2.3L, the Mustang RS 3.5L and the Mustang GT 5.0L. Next in line would be a performance cross over slotting in below the Explorer with styling cues based on the mustang but about the size of Chevrolet’s new Blazer however this would also be rear wheel drive with engines up to a 5.0L V8 with a look that is similar to a Focus RS with cues from the Mustang. Above that would be the Explorer with an SRT Durango fighting 485hp 5.0L and a Trail hawk fighting 5.2L Predator V8. Being that all of these would be on the Performance oriented CD6 platform, all of these vehicles would have performance and styling upgrades from Roush, Steeda, Ford Performance and Mountune that would be factory warrantied as long as they were installed at an authorized Ford Performance dealership or facility. Of course, some of this stuff would spill over into other Ford vehicles, Ford’s new Bronco & Ranger would get some love from those brands as well as some different engine options and equipment. The new Ranger & bronco should both receive the 350hp 2.3L Turbo as a base engine but there should be other options such as the 400hp 3.0L V6 which would be slightly nostalgic for the Ranger. It’s sister vehicle, the bronco should share these engines as well as the 10-speed auto and the upcoming 7-speed manual and Powerstroke 3.0L Diesel setup. Above that should be the F150 series pickup, which should receive different engine options such as a base 3.5L 425hp twin turbo V6 and a 495hp 5.0L V8 as well as a Roush/Ford Performance collaborated Ford F150 Lightning pickup. The Expedition needs and urban performance edition SUV with parts from Roush, Ford Performance and Steeda. Although these guys don’t usually mess with Power Stroke V8 vehicles. I think it’s high time that Ford Roush and Steeda got together (once Ford releases the next Gen V8 Power Stroke, and offer upgrades such as tuners, intakes, intercoolers, down pipes, exhausts, suspension upgrades, Brake upgrades, cosmetic upgrades, ETC.
Another cool thing would be to drop the Escape and the Edge, along with the Fiesta, Fusion, Focus & C-Max. I would also say if Ford is planning on a pickup smaller than the Ranger, the CD6 platform would be a great place to bring us a Falcon UTE. Along with all of this, replacing the Edge with the Everest and the Escape with the new “Baby Bronco” Ecoboost engines,optional Hybrid 10-speed autos, Hybrid AWD systems, etc. could be the way ford could rejuvinate their lineup wthout having too many more setbacks to me, it just makes sense.