Not so much a street race per se, but was adjacent for a few miles alongside a blue SVT and had to merge into his lane so I accelerated and gathered myself two cars ahead of him. I guess he thought I wanted to play because he followed me for awhile, revving at each opportunity. When we both got side by side prior to a red, he hollered over, "gorgeous car," and that began a quick conversation. Nice guy who obviously was enjoying his ride. The car sounded great and looked bone stock. Colleti (spelling-?) and the SVT boys have done a good job with it. As we neared another merge lane, he really goosed it and I just smooth sailed it a few hundred feet behind him, watching him turn off. As I pulled up to the red, there was a driver in a Dodge Durango who looked down at me and hollered, "you passed me on the interstate and I swear to God I thought I was being overtaken by a race car."
My face went and I said, "I didn't cut you off did I?" and he said, "nah, my wife and I was just commenting on how nice your car sounded. Looks great too. "
I would have liked to have not been so into the city when meeting up with the Focus. It would have been nice to show him what MY car sounded like near redline but will save that for when the roads are clear. Any encounter wouldn't have lasted long because it seemed to me the car sounded much faster than it was actually moving. Still, it looks very tossable and a fun car to tool around in. I would love to see a turbocharged AWD model come here...the RS300 from Europe is it?
Anyways, nice car and a great buy for $17K. It would be a tough choice taking the Si over that I think. I'd probably wait for MY '02 to see if the lst year Focus SVT mimics the ZX3 in recalls. Ford is really having a hard time with the 2000's.

 

sounds like you had a fun day!

yeah, my friend bought a focus for a beater car. i tell him everyday, "SELL IT!" i really don't trust that car. i just don't want him to get hurt, even if the chances are low. there are enough hazards on the road to worry about, without having to worry about the car you're driving!

i wish i had more friendly encounters like you had!

 

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i though SVT Foci only come in one color, that being silver.

oops, just saw the SVT page they come in Silver, Red, Blue and Black. My bad!

 

Nice gti

 

d00d, you have a BOV and a DV on your car at the same time, whats up with that???

 

Um, what's wrong with the Focus? It's the safest car in it's class and scored a double 5 star safety rating and scored extremely high in the IIHS crash test. Your friend couldn't be in a safer car in reality. As far as the SVT Focus goes, they are faster than they sound. They have something that we don't have, and that's torque. It's still a dinky 2.0 litre I4, but the difference is that over 80% of the available torque is available right at 2000rpms if what I read was currect. I actually took one for a spin before deciding on my S2000, and they handle extremely well, and they are pretty quick, even off the line. On the highway, it's a different story since we have 240hp@(some ungodly rpm ) vs. their 170hp.



[QUOTE]Originally posted by nHobbes
[B]sounds like you had a fun day!

 

Well, you know that we have about 80% of our peak torque available down 2000-2500 rpm, right? The only difference is we get a big hit at 6000 rpm while the Focus SVT is rolling off at that point.

The ass-dyno - it lies.

UL

 

Jackson Racing is coming out with a SC for the SVT Focus. With exhaust, and intake supposed to be around 240. I'm sure that would make a really fun pocket rocket. In interviewing Oscar Jackson, he said that he thought the Ford people already did the chassis quite nicely.