Going to school in the 2014 Ford Focus ST

Posted by hpayne on April 24, 2014

ST Octane Academy. Ford performance school, founded 2014.

Classroom: Miller Motorsports Park, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Spring semester curriculum: Racing 101, Professor Ken Block.

Course description: Students will master handbrake turns and high-G handling in a Ford Focus hot hatch, then apply in an urban autocross and 2.2-mile race course environment.

If all schools were this much fun, we would never leave.

The academy is open to buyers of Ford STs — the sport models of the popular Focus and Fiesta sedans. Tuition is free. Room and board extra. The school is both a perk for ST buyers and an opportunity to bond with their new steeds in an extreme track environment. As an embedded journalist, my participation in the academy was a chance to explore the limits of the 2014 Focus ST — the turbocharged, 252-horsepower Tasmanian Devil that has been terrorizing imports since its introduction as a 2013 model.

Like the SVT (Special Vehicle Team) badge that graces muscle-bound Mustang Cobras and F-150 trucks, ST (Sport Technologies) brings performance to Ford’s compact lineup. It’s a savvy move for a number of reasons: 1) It adds a sports halo to the Ford brand, 2) lures top engineering talent to the company, and 3) attracts motor head missionaries that will proselytize Ford to the unanointed.

“This car is a gateway drug,” said new convert Matt Anderson, a professor at West Virginia University who attended the academy after buying an ST. “I loved it so much I wanted to learn more about racing it.”

Bored with his Volvo, Anderson’s eye wandered last year to the asphalt-chewing, hot hatch Mazdaspeed3. But while cruising Mazda owner forums, Anderson found online missionaries recommending the Focus ST.

“I had never considered a Ford before,” he said. “I knew Ford by the stereotype of not very good quality. But the Focus was cheaper than the Mazda so I thought I would try it. When I test-drove it, it blew me away.”

That’s music to a marketing chief’s ears.

The 2014 ST is one focused Focus. It takes the base model’s natural athleticism to the Kronk Boxing Gym. This muscular bantamweight can dance around a ring and deliver a serious punch. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

Standing on four soft 235/40R-18 tires and nearly half-an-inch lower to the ground than a stock Focus, the ST looks ready to pick a fight. Like a gym rat in a sleeveless neon T-shirt, the Ford advertises its toned bod with color options like Tangerine Scream, Performance Blue and Race Red. Though the ST’s face bears the Ford family’s Aston Martin-like features, the corners of its mouth are unsmiling. Its headlights seem to narrow. Its big, meshed maw snarls.

 ‘Hoon-Stick’ tricks

Under the hood, the snarl gains volume. Ford has equipped the ST with a 2.0-liter Ecoboost engine that spits out a staggering 252 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque. The ST may be a bantamweight, but outside of the 263-horsepower Mazda it outmuscles everything in its class, including the 200-horsepower Honda Civic SI and the 210-horsepower Volkswagen GTI. Indeed, at $29,000, the fully loaded Focus invites comparisons to $35,000, all-wheel-drive, 300-horsepower gorillas like the Subaru WRX and Golf R.

But at the ST Academy, it’s the Focus that’s looking over its shoulder — at its playful, 197-horsepower, little brother Fiesta ST.

Inspired by rally race driver, gymkhana stunt sensation and all-around cool dude Ken Block, the ST Academy is not your typical weekend race school. At Miller Motorsports Park (not uncoincidentally, home to founder Larry Miller’s collection of historic Ford GT40s), Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division has put together a program that is part racing school, part Autocross meet, part Dukes of Hazzard stunt film. The sum of the parts is adrenaline-pumping fun.

Car and driver get their first test in Miller’s paddock doing trick, hand-brake turns. The academy STs come with a vertical, hydraulic handbrake the size of a 2×4 (Block dubs it a “Hoon-Stick”) that can spin a car on a dime (a standard handbrake is less precise). Aim the Focus ST at a parallel parking space, punch the accelerator, yank the brake stalk while disengaging the clutch, and the pocket rocket rotates effortlessly into its parking spot.

Stop. Grin. Rinse. Repeat. Note to Ford: Make the Hoon-Stick an ST option.

The addictive fun continues with a 180-degree maneuver, right-out-of-a-cop-show car chase. And then a reverse 180. And now you understand why owner Anderson says the ST is a gateway drug.

The only complication is that sibling Fiesta ST, with its shorter wheelbase and lighter chassis, does these tricks better (maybe that’s what Ford is up to in inviting Focus owners to the academy — they’ll go home and add a 25-grand Fiesta ST to their garage).

The Fiesta’s nimbleness becomes more pronounced on the academy’s tight autocross course where students must employ the 180, negotiate slaloms and navigate figure-eight turns. Here the Focus ST’s raw edges show as the car blusters about, its 252 horses stampeding the front-wheel drive system, the car’s 3,223 pounds pitching through the slalom. If the Fiesta is a pirouetting matador, the Focus is a raging bull.

But once liberated from the tight parking lot, the Focus really shines.

Eager to tackle Miller’s 2.2-mile East course, the Focus ST roars out of the pits, its prodigious power causing brief torque steer. At speed the Ecoboost engine is a gem — exhibiting no turbo lag while offering power throughout the rev range. Where the overpowered front tires loudly protest in the autocross, the car is easy to rotate through Miller’s long radius corners.

Inside the cockpit, I could tell you the ST sports excellent ergonomics, instrumentation, yada yada — but frankly I didn’t notice. What will matter to its speed-hungry owners is its driveability. Are the seats bolstered? Absolutely. The partial-leather Recaros hold you like a glove under high-G but don’t leave bruises afterward. The shifter? Intuitive. Its throws are short, allowing you to maximize revs in the 2-liter motor as you leap from corner to corner.

“The Focus is so exciting, you can’t help but fall in love,” Anderson said. If all drivers were as well trained at Octane Academy graduates, our roads would be a lot safer. As long as they don’t do too many 180 degree-handbrake turns on Eight Mile.

2014 Ford Focus ST

Vehicle type: Front-engine, front-wheel-drive, five-passenger sedan
Price: $24,495 base ($29,780 as tested)
Power plant: 2.0-liter, direct-injection, turbocharged inline 4-cylinder engine
Power: 252 horsepower, 270 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Performance: 0-60 mph, 6.3 seconds (Car & Driver); 148 mph top speed
Weight: 3,223 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA 23 mpg city/32 mpg highway/26 mpg combined
Report card

Highs: Head-turning hot hatch; Turbo-riffic
Lows: Torque steer; Chassis could use a diet
Overall:★★★★

 

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