Road Test: Ford Focus XR5 Turbo

By Feann Torr - 3/Aug/2006

There used to be a time when the phrase "hot hatch" referred to a relatively quick compact vehicle with an engine the size of a shoe box and a three spoke steering wheel - and maybe a bucket seat or two. Today, however, the lines are becoming increasingly blurred.

Would you like a supermini hot hatch like the Renault Clio Sport or 207 GTI, or perhaps a more accommodating option like the Holden Astra SRi Turbo? Or maybe you had a promotion at work and are looking for something in the prestige performance hatch range like the BMW 130i or the all-paw Audi S3?

Today there are more hot hatches on the market than at any time in the history of the automobile, and I reckon that's something to cheer about, as these perky performance vehicles are an absolute hoot to drive, simple to park and easy on the hip pocket, which brings me to the vehicle in question, the Ford Focus XR5 Turbo. 

This vehicle resides somewhere in the middle of the current hot hatch playing field. It's not the most expensive, and it's not the smallest, but it does fulfill all the requirements of a modern day hot hatch: it's quick, looks good, has a manual gearbox, a fettled chassis and of course a rear hatchback.

Intriguingly, the butch-looking Focus is powered by a 2.5-litre 5-cylinder engine, arguably the most unorthodox engine type of any of the performance hatches available today, and anything that stands out in the crowded new car marketplace is definite plus. The fact that the engine is a real rip-snorter is an added bonus, and together with a range of other performance-inspired features the XR5 Turbo would appear to be one of the more impressive hot hatches on paper.

But specifications, statistics and raw numbers can be bandied about until the cows come home - the true test of a car's mettle is on the road, not on paper. So without further ado, let's have a closer look at Ford's latest XR model in the turbocharged hot hatch entrant:

Drive: 4/5

The Ford Focus XR5 Turbo may not be the lightest or the fastest hot hatch on the market, but it's one of the most rewarding to drive

Before I get to its sporting prowess, it must be said that the XR5 Turbo has a remarkably well damped ride (and in spite of its massive 18-inch wheels shod with low profile tyres). Every day commuting is relatively relaxed when cruising along, and because of the car's large glut of torque low in the rev range, you can whap the shifter into sixth gear and trundle along sipping fuel as though it's price is spiraling out of control.

Indeed, it's not unbearable to live with and can be quite frugal when driven thoughtfully, and in actuality it rides relatively smoothly over notches in the road, which is strange because when you hit the bends in the road with a bit of speed the suspension loads up pretty quickly; the shockers do their thing and keep the chassis from bending too far and body roll is minimal at best.

Thanks to it's 4362mm length and 1840mm width, it's small-ish size means it's also a lot easier to pilot through peak hour traffic than a dirty great big Falcon XR6 Turbo, with which it shares it's naming convention and forced induction nature. The sports steering wheel is nicely contoured and comfortable to use, while the steering response is immediate and makes nicking from lane-to-lane a piece of cake, while the short distances between the gates means the 6-speed gearbox doesn't hamper its runabout ability. And again, the strong low end means you don't have to change gears if you don't want to -- just leave it in fourth gear and let the torque do the work.

I could point to rearward vision as one of the car's less impressive urban driving characteristics, due to the thick rear pillars, but it's main competitor (the Holden Astra SRi Turbo) has a dinky little peephole that makes the Focus feel like a conservatory.

We tested the first generation Ford Focus hot hatch back in 2003, the ST 170, and it's not surprising the new XR5 Turbo is a lot quicker. It's got more cubes on its side (2.0- vs 2.5-litres) and a neat little doodad you may have heard of called a turbocharger, which improves the engine's overall power and torque levels, particularly the midrange. And I've got to say it: this Volvo-sourced engine is a real fire cracker, giving the vehicle a highly respectable turn of speed, and the way the torque hits low in the rev range is utterly addictive and makes reaching high speeds much too easy.

The driving position is conducive to hard driving, and may be a little highly perched for some, but gives a expansive view of the road ahead which is reassuring, and all told we put more roughly 1000 kilometres on the Focus XR5 Turbo's odometer, and away from the commuter crush we split the driving between coastal and alpine roads, and came away thoroughly impressed.

Built in Germany, the XR5 Focus doesn't feel light on it's feet like the 1090kg Renault Clio Sport Cup does, yet it has a very stable feel when you begin to step your driving up from 'cruise' to 'cor-blimey', and dial in higher levels of throttle through a corner. It is able to hold a considerably speedy line through a corner without wavering, as the suspension loads up very quickly and everything becomes nicely rigid allowing you to feel your way through a corner. It features a lowered ride height (dropped 15mm over the normal Focus range), 30% stiffer front and rear springs, revised damper settings and an extra cross-member in the engine bay, all of which add to the car's discernible 'tied to the road' feel, as it tracks it's way through tight corners with a cheerful willingness. And the level of grip is enormous. Even the car's somewhat boofy kerb weight of 1437kg rarely troubled the impressively sticky 225/40 R18 tyres fitted to all four 18-inch alloy rims. It just hugs the road.

There were the odd times when I raced into a corner with a little too much ostentation, and the car did understeer rather fretfully as momentum and weight pushed the outside front wheel wide (as I tried to somewhat unsuccessfully wrestle the car tightly into the corner), but this by no means detracts from the car's cornering ability. It just highlights how foolish humans can be when excited...

The responsive steering has a very direct feel - feedback is decent too - and this ensures that the car doesn't push its nose wide and understeer too much, and you can just keep dialing in the steering lock on the nicely chunky mid sized wheel and the car diligently responds nine times out of 10. I feel that the steering wheel could be a little bit smaller for such a sporty vehicle, but it feels good nevertheless.

For something that's certainly no feather weight in the hot hatch class, the XR5 Turbo can generate very high corner speeds, though methinks the Holden Astra SRi Turbo is the quicker of the two mid corner, despite being only marginally lighter - the Holden weighs 36kg less than the Ford. Where the Ford makes up ground is in its ability to punch harder out of corners thanks to it's sensational 5-cylinder powerplant.

The 5-cylinder engine sounds great when you turn it over, emitting a low rumble that's more akin to a V6 than an L4, building steadily until its reaches its crescendo at around 6000rpm, and the unique noise the engine adds to the fascination of this car. It's quite hard to explain, so I'll leave you with the "you just have to hear it" cliche. Generating 166kW of power, the inline 5-cylinder engine also has an audible turbo wind up whistle, which again adds to the driving experience. Best of all is the performance; the Focus XR5 Turbo feels a lots quicker than its claimed 6.8 second 0-100km/h sprint time, particularly when coupled with the 6-speed M66 Getrag gearbox that can be snapped in and out of gates like a light switch.

Taking off from standstill - as with any performance car - is always a lot of fun, but the engine's supreme torque delivery means that mid gear roll ons are where the real party takes place. The turbo boost starts building before 2000rpm it gives the engine a very strong feel, and as you sink the boot in, the XR5 gives you a nice turbocharged push in the guts that continually reminds you of the engine's capabilities. The torque hit is enticing and even the Recaro seats do a good job of hugging your body and suit the cars personality perfectly.

Ford's lovingly engineered 2.5-litre turbo motor will spin up to 7000rpm before the rev limiter cuts in, and even though the boost isn't cranking quite as much as this high rev range, the engine still feels strong all the way to the rev limit and gives you no incentive to shift early.

The brakes are more than up to the task of slowing the 1.4 tonne hot hatch from high speeds, and combined with the high surface area of the ultra-wide tyres (and a positive front-to-rear weight balance) they help to provide the XR5 with the ability to dive deeply into corners and pull up rapidly and with certainty. Yeah, they're very good, and with features like ABS and DSC (dynamic stability control) backing up the brakes, measuring 320mm up front and 280mm at the rear, the XR5 is rarely flustered when decelerating. I also like the fact that the big discs fill out the 18-inch alloy wheels rather nicely: there's nothing worse than seeing a car with big wheels, only to be undermined by puny disc brakes.

I remember that one of the first things that impressed me about the combination of the chassis and powertrain is that driving the XR5 Turbo hard is intuitive. It's easy to get the hang of and with the smooth-but-strong power delivery it works like a well-oiled machine should - smoothly and reliably. The gear change, the throttle control, even the turbo is fairly smooth to kick in, and this allows you - in turn - to drive smoothly, and milking the vehicle for all it's performance worth is delightfully simple. My hat goes off the German boffins at Ford Europe; this vehicle is the epitome of user-friendliness, and plenty quick to boot.

Engine: 4.5/5

While the chassis leaves nothing to be desired - it's responsive, exhibits precious little body roll, brakes faithfully and has scads of grip - it's the engine that really makes this vehicle what it is: something a little bit special.

It's not a 6-cylinder, yet it's not a 4-banger either. The XR5 Turbo's propulsion system has it's own unique identity that emits a glorious warble that builds steadily in tandem with the revs, which the Ford white coats have termed a "sound symposer". As was once said by a writer on this very same Motoring Channel, "it diverts some of the induction noise from the engine into the cabin, and the result is very cool".

The 5-cylinder engine, which first saw duty in Ford's Scandinavian Volvo car range, gets an air-to-air intercooler and a Kühnle, Kausch & Kopp Warner turbo system that develops 0.65 bar, or 9.5 psi. It may not sound like much, but bear in mind than most of its rivals are powered by 2.0-litre engines, so it doesn't need to be overly boosted. That said, the engine's electronic brain does allow a bit more boost pressure than the indicated 0.7 bar as the turbo gage sometimes rises just above this mark when you really pushing it, which will please the enthusiasts out there.

Compared to it's main competitors, the VW Golf GTI and the Holden Astra SRi Turbo, the Ford makes considerably more power - 166kW @ 6000rpm. Then again, it's got a 25% bigger engine, but it's only a thousand bucks more than the Holden and a good four grand cheaper than the Volkswagen. That's a pretty good kilowatt per dollar ratio.

The engine's characteristics are very pleasing, with a huge surge of torque flooding the front wheels at 1600rpm, where 320Nm of torque peaks. It's forte is without doubt its ability to develop big torque low in the rev range, and combined with rising kilowatts the midrange is perhaps even more sumptuous. Another neat feature of the engine is it's ability to keep cooking as the revs rise. Some 4-cylinder turbo engines tend to exhibit a sharp drop in torque when the engine spins up to its redline, where the XR5's turbo mill is big enough to maintain a decent output as it revs towards 7000rpm.

The gearbox is also a very nice piece of work, a 6-speed model made by Getrag and codenamed the M66. The shift distance between gates is minimal and the shift quality is good, and not too heavy allowing you to really flick it through the gears. I tell you though, if Ford decided to dump a dual clutch gearbox in this thing like the Golf GTI's DSG (or if you could somehow jury rig a DSG gearboxes to the 5-cylinder engine) this thing would be notoriously rapid. As it is though, the 6-cog transmission is a slick shifter and gives a great deal of control over the car's engine.

Driven with gusto, the engine can drink quite a lot of fuel, but on long distance journeys the Ford Focus XR5 Turbo is surprisingly efficient. Ford claims combined cycle consumption of 7.1L/100km, which sounds a bit optimistic to me. Somewhere around 7.5L/100km would be closer to the mark from our experience with highway driving.

Exterior: 4/5

Ford's turbocharged XR5 communicates a suitably sporty image, building on the standard Focus' modern shape and adding all the best aero and cosmetic body parts. First and foremost the XR5 Turbo sits on 18-inch wheels. This large size often looks rather large on Commodore-sized sports sedans, but poking out of each corner on something that's a 70cm shorter they look truly gargantuan, and help to convey to all and sundry that this is Focus with a very serious side.

As well as the new five spoke design on the big alloy wheels, the Focus XR5 Turbo gets an entirely new body kit to give it the ground-hugging stance that not only looks good, but improves it's aerodynamic efficiency ever so slightly. At the front the car features a deeper front apron with a gaping front air dam through which the engine's front-mounted intercooler is sometimes visible. The grille, and below it the front air dam, feature an egg-crate pattern, the latter of which is flanked by small fog lights that feature chrome trim around their angular nacelles. Combined with the sleek headlight clusters, the Focus XR5 Turbo's face is one of determination, and though I think the Astra SRi Turbo may have a touch more European style, the Ford displays a more stoic character.

Side skirts emphasise the Focus' already flared wheel arches and at the rear of the car the two major points of interest are the twin exhaust pipes and the slotted aero spoiler, rounding off the XR5's impressive exterior styling with aplomb.

In Europe the turbocharged small car is called the Focus ST, but because it takes the XR moniker from the larger Ford Falcon models, the Focus gets plenty more street cred in Australia, and I witnessed this in person - I got a nod from an XR6 Turbo driver at the traffic lights in Portland! It may not sound like a big deal, but the move to rename the car in Australia was a clever one by Ford, and seeing the XR5 Turbo lettering on the side of the Ford Focus is quite a treat, bringing it into the hallowed XR family.

Interior: 3.5/5

Ford's XR5 Turbo offers up a very good interior for the $35,990 asking price, featuring a well equipped safety package, a great stereo and bona fide Recaro seats. The problem is that if it wanted to match up to the car's on road performance, it'd need some serious innovation, of which it has little. And there's no cruise control, which is baffling.

The standard price doesn't include leather either (cow hide is $2000 extra) which is a shame, but not a travesty. All in all, the interior is very well equipped for a hatchback, and makes a good flagship model for the Focus range, featuring a rather flashy-looking 8-speaker Sony stereo complete with tweeters and midrange satellites in the rear and a 6 stack CD system. Other standard features include electric windows and mirrors, air conditioning, remote central locking and steering column-mounted audio controls and as I mentioned in the preview, "in addition to the bold speedometer and tachometer, there's also the sporty ancillary gauges (turbo boost pressure, oil temp, oil pressure) so drivers can tell how much punishment the powertrain is taking."

According to an unnamed colleague of mine (last name Maniatis, first name Peter) air vents are apparently a contentious issue in these performance cars. Why? He wouldn't elaborate, but he did mention that some people like the Alpha Romeo and Mazda-style circles, and some people like square old fashioned ones like Saab's. So what about the XR5 Focus? Ovals. And they kind of look like mouths, like there's these four art deco mouths stuck to the dash and with above average dash plastics molded quite nicely around them they look almost organic and I think they work in a strange way. I didn't look at them and think "Oh yes, I need that," but at the same time they don't offend the eye and are something a little left of centre.

Without leather it's not the most prestigious looking interior, but this is easy to forget about it when you're hacking along a sweeping corner, as even the cloth Recaro sports seats provide good lateral support. The XR5 Turbo is a very nice car to drive, that much is evident already, and one of the things that helps this is the seating position. Obviously it's adjustable so you can fiddle around with it, but in most positions it provides a good view of road ahead. The downward sloping bonnet provides a commanding view and everything is well within reach, except the handbrake which is annoyingly positioned. One of the prices Australian drivers pay when driving European imports I suppose...

At 4362mm length and 1840mm width, the Focus XR5 Turbo provides good amounts of room for both front occupants, and decent rear seat room for a vehicle of this size. Granted, you wouldn't want to be sitting in the rear seats on an interstate sojourn, but on a trips that take less than an hour adults won't be sore after emerging from the rear pews.

Safety systems are just above par for the hot hatch class, and with features like six airbags, including curtain airbags that protect the rear passengers as well as the fronts, the Ford Focus XR5 Turbo leaves little to chance. Dynamic stability control (DSC), electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD), ABS and electronic brake assist (EBA) do their utmost to make sure the airbags never have to inflate, rounding out a solid safety package.

Overall: 4/5

There's something about the Ford Focus XR5 Turbo that just makes you want to drive it more and more, and I have no qualms in saying this is the best hot hatch I've yet driven, though the difference between the current crop of pocket rockets, like the SRi and GTI, is tenuous. They're all really good performers, but this one gets my vote as the dominator because it has a completely unique 'feel' that sets it apart from its rivals, and a lot of it has to do with the 5-cylinder engine.

Any gear, any speed, the engine just cranks and rarely gets bogged down. There's plenty of audio backup too, from the way the turbo whistles to the exhaust's throaty baritone burble. Like a lusty V8 sports saloon, this is the kind of vehicle that really stirs the soul when driven, and the scope for tuning this engine is almost limitless.

All of the current hot hatches vying for new buyers have their pros and cons, but I reckon this one's the best. It's a real occasion every time you get into the car; the engine rumble, the surge of low end torque, and way it powers out of corners are hard to top. Little things count too, like the way the turbo dials are angled towards the driver, spasmodically bouncing around as you prod and poke the throttle. It all adds up to a very stimulating drive that's got me all hot and bothered just writing about it, and with its stylised interior and strong complement of safety features, it makes for good value at just under $36,000.