Performance Review

Development reaches its crucial sign-off phase in this new episode

By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of Ford Motor Company

By now you surely know that the Focus RS is coming to North America for the first time as a 2016 model. Ford Performance’s hatch is bringing 350 horsepower, 350 lb-ft of torque, all-wheel drive, and Drift Mode along for the slide, and we cant’ wait to get behind the wheel. Until then, we hope you’ve been checking out Ford’s video series on the car’s development, as Episode 7 hit the web today.

Ford’s eight-part documentary, Rebirth of an Icon, follows the development of the 2016 Focus RS, and in this installment the prototype cars are tested and verified by the Ford Performance brass before the production specs are signed off on. In fact, Ford Motor Company’s group vice president and chief technical officer, Global Product Development makes the trip to Lommel, Belgium, to verify that the latest model lives up to the RS name.

You can watch the latest episode right here…

The previous episodes detailed the goals for the car; the design and crash testing of the vehicle; its preliminary road testing; some track testing by none other than Ken Block, cold-weather testing on a frozen lake in Sweden, and the performance tweaks leading up to the sign-off testing.

Next week the series will conclude with its final chapter:

• Episode 8: Final chapter—It’s time for the nail-biting management review

Stay tuned because we will share the final video here on the Front Page so you won’t miss the conclusion.

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