Ford is coming correct with the 2016 Focus RS. The old RevoKnuckle suspension system was fine for mitigating torque steer on the previous front-wheel drive, but with the new car they've added a potent all-wheel drive system. And it won't just stay on the RS, either.
In an interview with Car and Driver, Ford Europe VP of product development Joe Bakaj said that due to the massive costs involved with engineering the clever torque vectoring all-wheel drive system, we are likely to see it on future Ford performance cars.
"If you look at the thread of the presentation and what we've used these fast Fords for in the past, a lot of mainstream technologies that we use today came from these vehicles," Joe Bakaj, Ford of Europe's VP of product development told us. "And I can see this as one of those technologies of the future."
Most excellent. After all, the RS doesn't just use some wimpy front-biased all-wheel drive system that only sends a bit of power to the rears when it's raining out. The system features twin electronically controlled clutch packs on each side of the rear drive unit, and torque can be distributed from front to back or side to side. Up to 70 percent of power can go to the rear axle, and up to 100 percent of that power can go to just one wheel. Read more about how it works here.
Car and Driver also thinks they've figured out where the system comes from; it's very similar to the one used on the performance versions of former corporate cousin Land Rover's Range Rover Evoque. On the Evoque, the system comes from GKN Driveline in Sweden; Ford has said they worked with GKN on the Focus RS.
So Jason's renders of future RS models may be, uh, less than official, but we will likely get that system on later cars. What would you like to see? I'm still holding out for a potent, Audi-esque Lincoln sedan, personally.