Focus ST

Make
Ford
Segment
Hatchback

Ford has been teasing us for a while, but it's finally here, the Focus ST. The production version of the ST looks familiar to anyone to saw the pre-production version at the Paris Motor Show, about a year ago. There's a 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine under the hood, which puts out 247 horsepower and 265lb-ft of torque, and is mated to a six-speed manual transmission. Power is sent to the front wheels, and while this is a lot of power for them to handle, Ford has a solution.

Ford's torque vectoring system incorporates the Focus's electronic power assisted steering and torque steer compensation system to deal all this power. As Ford told us, repeatedly, over the last year, this Focus is a global vehicle and all 40 of the markets where Ford sells cars will be getting the same ST. Unless you want an ST wagon and live anywhere other than Europe, in which case you're out of luck. Ford just couldn't resist the temptation to keep something exclusive to Europe, and this time the ST wagon got the nod. Tough luck, US wagon fans.