2024 Ford Focus ST Edition | PH Review
For the very last time, the ST is available with a Track Pack. Get it while you can
It’s hard to think of many other ways the Focus ST Edition could be more of a throwback. Burly petrol engine? Check. Manual gearbox? Check. Two-way adjustable coilovers? Check. It would be no surprise to learn that it came with a CD player and standard-fit Magic Tree air freshener. The ST was already one of the last remaining old-school hot hatches before Ford Performance went to the trouble of renewing its relationship with KW Automotive, but the welcome return of its trick suspension - not to mention the 19-inch flow-form alloys and chunkier Brembo brakes that complete the Track Pack - is very much the icing on what is already a traditional Bakewell tart of a car.
Equally, and much less appealingly, the Edition could be said to be among the last nails knocked into the Focus coffin as Ford considers its future without another combustive household name. At some point next year, it will cease building its huge-selling model, and that will be it for hatchbacks like the ST. And while we’re not here to dwell on that prospect, it’s hard not to drive the Edition without fixating on its preordained demise. It’s like watching Oliver Reed in Gladiator.
Aesthetically speaking, and not unlike Britain's thirstiest thespian in his final film, the ST has arguably seen better days. The Focus has always ebbed and flowed from a design perspective, but the relative blandness of its current look is in stark contrast to the supremely progressive, every-line-in-its-place perfection of the original. Thanks to the coilovers, the Edition is at least 10mm lower than standard (with an additional 20mm available to a spanner wielder) which helps. But with Ford understandably disinclined to break out the magic markers one last time, the outgoing ST is only ever adequate to look at. Even in Azura Blue.
But that’s okay, because it’s more than adequate to drive. Granted, we’ve been here before - Ford boasts about the same 50 per cent increase in spring rates it proclaimed last time, and there are 12 compression and 16 rebound settings to get ultimately get to grips with if you don’t like the midway factory setting - although that fact hardly detracts from the result. The Edition isn’t sufficiently stiff to make your head nod incessantly, but certainly you’ll notice the much more abrupt vertical control in town, and the implacable sense of being magnetised to the road while levitating just above it when you're not.
To call this permanent attack posture engaging rather undersells it: the Focus turns in so all-of-piece and with so little heed for entry speed that you tend to drive it in a state of semi-fixation, not necessarily nailing it everywhere, but certainly alive to what it’s doing at a mechanical level. To drive it back-to-back with the latest Golf GTI (as we did, purely by chance) is like being invited to sign your name with a watercolour brush after whitewashing a toilet block. The extent to with it earns and then validates your concentration is the Edition’s core achievement.
It is so good at this in fact, that you start to wonder if the car around the improved chassis is still earning its spurs. Chief among its demerits (and really it’s more of a ‘wouldn’t it be nice’) is the comparative stodginess of the 2.3-litre Ecoboost unit in its familiar 280hp guise. It’s fine, of course, and never less than willing thanks to its brawny mid-range, yet the coilovers heighten the ST’s ability to the extent that you often want more from it: more revs, more noise, more speed, more everything. This is probably less the engine’s fault than it is Ford’s; hard not to reflect on the good old days when its efforts in the chassis department would have been matched under the bonnet.
Nevertheless, even as it is, we’re still talking about one of the last truly enjoyable, do-it-all driver’s cars. Mostly for its overriding sense of control: you’re in it, all the time. Not marshalled by a dual-clutch gearbox or a damper setting or a prescriptive e-diff. Which makes it doubly pleasing that the ST is good enough to reward thoughtful driving - there’s no pressing need to smash it everywhere, as some breathed-on hot hatches insist you do. It is only the underlying sophistication of the suspension and the never-say-die Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres that encourage you to carry increasingly improbable amounts of speed into corners.
The quintessential coilover poise is so pronounced that you’ll occasionally want for more clarity in the steering on the way in - and certainly a bit less fight on the way out - but, again, that’s probably nitpicking. Among hatchbacks, only a Honda Civic Type R rivals the Edition for cornering finesse, and that’s without devoting a weekend to seeing if you can improve on the ride and handling compromise that the car arrives with. Or driving it on a track. Both of which you’d definitely want to do.
But even if neither of those things are your cup of tea, the flagship ST still deserves a place very near the top of your shortlist. One, because the latest version gets the upgraded and much more usable 13.2-inch Sync4 touchscreen atop a better looking dash, with newer, nicer sports seats to boot. And two, because there’s precious little else to choose from. The quicker, cooler Civic, you won’t need reminding, is £50k - which is too much even allowing for its USP-worthy engine. Shamefully, at £42,905, the latest Edition is fully £7k more expensive than it was in 2021, and now commands a £4k premium over the starting price of a new Golf GTI. Luckily for it, until the Clubsport arrives, that seems like a small price to pay for the myriad ways the Focus is plainly superior.
SPECIFICATION | 2024 FORD FOCUS ST EDITION
Engine: 2,261cc, turbocharged four-cyl
Transmission: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 280@5,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 310@3,000-4,000rpm
0-62mph: 5.7 secs
Top speed: 155mph
Weight: 1,623kg
MPG: 34.9
CO2: 185g/km
Price: £42.905
The civic mentioned maybe £50k sticker price but they are knocking £3k off before you even take a sip of the machine prepared coffee they give you at the dealerships. Used start around £42k for low miles. Everyone who had to have one has, and there are deals to be done…
Sadly, it's all irrelevant though because, regardless of how good this car is, it just serves as a reminder of what a monumental cock-up Ford have made of things over the last few years. Killing off some of the best-selling cars around, all-but eliminating affordable performance derivatives and just generally making themselves look inept.
For a manufacturer with such a stunning back-catalogue, it's a pretty poor show.
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