All in all, this might be a nice starting point for a bigger project, if you're willing to spend the right amount of cash to make it happen. The original Focus RS was the first truly performance-oriented Focus, and in fact the first RS Ford since the legendary Escort Cosworth. If you want to see the vehicle with your own eyes, you'll have to travel down to Austin, Texas. The auction is open for another five days, and right now the highest bid stands at $6,969. The seller has included some short videos of the vehicle, including a walkaround, a bit of track action, and some donuts to showcase the capabilities of this hot hatchback. Seeing that the Fox-body Mustang engine is only capable of slightly over 200 horsepower, it would be nice to see this Focus being upgraded with a big turbo or at least a supercharger, but that will be ultimately down to the new owner's plans with it. We also spotted a large, aftermarket aluminum fuel cell in the trunk, but there's still room for improvement with this car. It now has SVT front and rear bumpers, 17" SVT rims, and a very cool looking custom exhaust system poking out next to those wheels. It's nice to see that whoever built this did not neglect the exterior of the vehicle, which now boasts a strong SVT vibe.
2003 FORD FOCUS MANUAL
Power is being sent to the rear wheels via a Tremec five-speed manual transmission and a 3.73:1 limited-slip rear differential. With this new engine in place, the car was converted to RWD, which means you can proceed with doing as many burnouts as your tires can deal with. The original 2.0-liter engine was swapped out in favor of a Fox-body Mustang sourced 5.0-liter V8, which was rebuilt with several upgrades including a Ford Performance camshaft, GT cylinder heads, and a Cobra intake manifold to name just a few. This car was built at the plant in Hermosa, Mexico, and while the photo that pops up when decoding the VIN shows it painted in grey, green, and red, it has been resprayed into a very nice Ford Fury Orange. We looked up the VIN, to see how this thing started in life and there's a long list of recalls and complaints displayed next to it. While this is a 2003 model, work on its conversion was completed last year. The dashboard would constantly rattle as if screws were out of place unless I hit the top of the dashboard to. The car was poor in handling snow and rain. However, it was not the best in adverse weather conditions.
It still drove fine after 180,000 miles on it. But, if you can't afford to get a brand new RS, and you're keen on driving a Focus, and at the same time you're dreading the idea of dealing with an FWD vehicle, this might just be an excellent option for you. Overall, the Ford Focus was a reliable car. This is why it's really cool that Ford has upgraded the newer Focus RS to AWD. But at the end of the day, if your hot hatch only comes with FWD, chances are that you might get bored with it.
I've personally enjoyed cars like the Renault Clio RS197, the Megane RS275 Trophy, the Honda Civic Type R FN2, or the Alfa Romeo Giulietta QV. We've all had our hatchback phase at one point or another. This is the first thing that came to my mind when I stumbled across this orange 2003 Ford Focus. But more about that story some other day.
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