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How much power can a hot hatch's front wheels handle?
We've spent much of 2009 being astonished by how well the Focus RS copes with 300bhp piling through its front tyres (find out what Jeremy thinks of the fast Ford) but German tuning firm Loder1899 - no idea, sorry - reckons this is a pitiful amount of horsepowering.
So the Loder boys have tuned Ford's double-hot hatch to a meaty 345bhp, courtesy of a fatter, louder exhaust and bigger air filter. They've dropped the RS over an inch on its springs and fitted a shiny new set of 20-inch alloys for good measure.
No word on performance yet, but if - and it's a very big if - the RS can somehow stick all that power to the tarmac, we reckon it'll be cracking the 0-60mph run in something close to five seconds flat. Which is frankly a bit silly, especially if you happen to encounter, say, a corner at some point.
So what do you reckon? Have we reached the limits of front-drive power? Or will we, in a couple of years' time, be merrily toasting the 500bhp Leon Cupra RRRR?
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What do you think?
Want to comment on this?
The_Monk commented on this article
at 12:47 pm on 29 October 2009
You know - it's a tangent and everything - but I'd still love to see if Lotus will do another FWD like the old Elan. That was a fantastic machine. The whole FWD/BHP war takes the piss a bit. You can only understeer so much. FWD cars should be about control and balance .
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J4KE.H4M commented on this article
at 01:09 pm on 29 October 2009
under steer isnt the word. u will simply go strait on no matter how much u turn the wheel. give it bloody lambo style 4 wheel drive. or at least RWD. YAY 2nd comment Hakuna Matata!!!
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Twister commented on this article
at 01:17 pm on 29 October 2009
How stupid do you have to be to put so much power into a front wheel drive car, I think they should give the RS four-wheel drive and a million BHP
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AshHorne commented on this article
at 01:22 pm on 29 October 2009
There's only so far that technology can bend the laws of physics. I bet this won't handle as well as the factory-spec RS, and those front tyres will need changing at least once a week. That said, most of the time in the real world, you won't be flooring it anyway. So it might be quite nice cruising around at normal speeds with the knowledge that you have one of the most powerful FWD cars on the roads today.
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star69 commented on this article
at 02:25 pm on 29 October 2009
As being on the cover of the Duel DVD, we'll see what the lambo does to it:)
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