http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/04/12/report-ford-focus-rs-still-on-the-table/
I love the focus and would love to see an awd with 300bhp even more.
ok you will never see a frount wheel drive car have 300 bhp sue to the weak cv shafts. the torque produced by one of those engines woild snap them in half! also it wuld just blow up the u joints in the cv shaft. and all that shrapnal from that will blow out a tire take out your brakes and all in the frount end so you will end up getting in a wreck so thats why there going back to rear wheel drive. so they can produce 300 bhp+!!
no kidding....your seeing almost 300 hp all the time now a days. all kinds of fwd cars with way more hp than they deserve...
Not to mention this is an awd, something i have been boning over in a focus not to mention if this was to become a production car in the us this would do great competition with that Cobolt SS.
Hmm... 300 horse (or in that neighbourhood) FWD cars... can we say Caddy STS (300 horse V8), Acura 3.5RL (300 horse V6), Volvo S80 (315 horse V8), Volvo S60/V70R (300 horse turbo 5), Dodge Calibre SRT4 (300 horse turbo 4), Toyota Avalon (280 horse V6), Chevy Impala SS/Monte Carlo SS (303 horse V8), Pontiac GXP (or whatever the new Bonneville is called - 300 horse V8) to name but a few
Then there's the original Olds Toronado (big block 455 V8) and countless modified ricemobiles that put out well over 300 horses to the front wheels.
News flash: 300 horses driving the front wheels is fairly common.
I'd like to see the Focus RS as well, but considering that Ford won't even give us the newest version of the Focus (that has been on sale overseas for three or four years) I wouldn't hold my breath...
*edit* I noticed after reading that article that the car will use the Volvo S60R engine. So Ford already has the chassis, they have the drivetrain, so development work is alreday done. It would make sense to build that car to compete with WRX's, EVO's, SRT4's and Cobalt SS's. The fact that it would make sense pretty much guarantees that Ford won't do it.
What about the cadillac northstar? They are rated at 295 bhp and FWD:flame: They dont destroy cv shafts
:shoothead
Its a shame. Our American car manufactures started the world on wheels. They gave us elegance and grace in the 30's and 40's. In the 50's we got power and chrome and most of all wings! In the 60's they changed it all up with factory 10 second street cars. In the 70's they still gave us heavy bodied cars, all right wheel drive and enough potential to be as bad ass as cars from the prevois decade. In the 80's (dont nock the 80's) We got amazing cars yet again, turbocoupes, Grand nationals, turbo trans ams, and 1 gazillion turbo cars from chrysler. You still had rear drive monte carlo's and grand prix's the beuatifull cutlass and regal's. We had our beloved fox cat birds and the mustang was in full swing. there was a hint of something to come though.
In the 90's (silence please).....
We lost the rear drive GM's, lost the Caprice and Impalla SS. Lost all the Turbo Dodges. Lost the Supercoupe, let alone the entire MN12 platform. Minivans took over and dads where uncool. The mustang was still alive and was actually gaining power. The F bodys had it all going on. But we are tired of them, wanting something else.
About this time we realize that we are getting the shaft. Other countr's have Power houses that we dont' have. You all have your favorite ones. I know I do.
To get back to why I ranted about this in the first place, all of these auto manufactures that are building these bad ass rides over sea's are owned by one of the big three......
We are starting to see a change but its just not what we want.
the colbalt ss only gets 20hp more then a regular, and that is with a super.
Torque is much higher, and the potential is even greater than a non-SS.
Guess again, bucko - the "regular" Cobalt (LS and LT versions) have a 145 horsepower 2.2-liter NA Ecotech engine. The SS has a 2.0-liter 205 horse supercharged Ecotech engine. Don't know how that Utah math works, but from here that looks like a quite respectable 60-horse difference over the regular models, from a smaller engine, at that. And as Shawn said, the torque is even higher.
Of course, there's an NA 171-horse 2.4 liter "base" SS version, but since you said "that is with a super" you can't possibly be talking about that one...:hick:
ls to ss is a whole new car. suspenion brakes. like a gt to a 4banger same car but not really only things a few same things.