Battle of the bestsellers
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Ford has launched a red-blooded challenge to Volkswagens hot hatch champion. Nicholas Rufford and Andrew Frankel of The Sunday Times drove them head to head
Golf GTI
It has been like a feud simmering between two street fighters. For months Ford and Volkswagen have been circling each other and exchanging insults over Fords plans for a rival to the Golf GTI. Now they have moved in and started brawling.
Its quite a spectacle. The Ford Focus ST is a racy derivative of Britains bestselling car. It was launched last week after a big build-up backed by the American car makers marketing muscle.
Until now the two manufacturers have avoided each other by living in different parts of town: Ford in the blue-collar district and VW in the upmarket area. With the launch of the ST, Ford has marched into VWs neighbourhood and kicked the German where it hurts.
You can see why Ford wants a piece of the action. With sales of 23m since its launch in 1974 (1.6m of them GTIs), VWs Golf is one of the most successful cars of all time, outsold globally only by the Toyota Corolla. Independent of all other VW models, the Golf is a 10 billion industry keeping at least 40,000 people employed worldwide.
Nemesis follows hubris and Ford believes the GTI has had its day. Its new ST (ST stands for Sport Technologies) is quicker, more agile and more appealing to the smart set. So far the companys marketing men have talked a good fight and theyve worked the crowd brilliantly. The Focus ST is Fords most powerful production hatchback, they say. Its turbocharged 2.5 litre engine has 10% more horsepower than the Golfs and will push the car from 0 to 62mph in 6.5sec compared with 7.2sec in the Golf.
Ford has succeeded through advance press coverage in landing the first punch. Some car magazines have already described the Ford as a GTI-slayer. Well, I have a question. How can the GTI be slain when according to the same magazines it is already dead? Previously it was reported that the GTI had been slain by the Vauxhall Astra VXR and before that by the the Peugeot 306 GTi, the Honda Civic Type-R, Renault Clio Williams, and . . . you get the idea. Its been killed off half a dozen times but it keeps coming back.
The second line of attack by those trying to write off the Golf is to dismiss the recent version as no more than a tarted up Skoda. These days, the critics say, the Golf is indistinguishable under its skin from an Octavia, with which it shares a chassis and other components.
This is an interesting argument but it doesnt really stand scrutiny. After all, humans share 95% of their genes with chimpanzees. That doesnt mean a chimp would be as quick as Fernando Alonso in a Formula One car, or, for that matter, that Alonso would be as good at selling PG Tips.
All of this Im afraid is not nearly enough to finish off the Golf. Like most success stories it began humbly. Nearly 30 years ago Alfons Loewenberg, a VW engineer, and a group of co-workers modified a standard Golf in spare moments during their evenings and weekends. They convinced management to back their project and 5,000 were built. The gamble paid off.
The GTIs launch coincided with the sudden upward mobility of a generation of Europeans. If you were a young urban professional in the 1980s you could zoom around the city in your GTI pretending to be a high roller, getting paralytic on Friday nights and losing your Filofax and car keys. You could cram it with skiing gear and roar off to discover strange places like Verbier, a sort of Chelsea en Alp. As its owners lifestyles changed, so did the Golf. In its third incarnation it was bigger inside and loaded with safety equipment, ideal for baby seats and tots that had suddenly arrived. Admittedly, for a while it also became middle-aged and flabby.
VW realised the GTI had lost its edge and reinvented it for the next generation. The current Mark V has a 2 litre turbocharged engine that packs 200bhp less than the Focus but almost twice the power of the original. Its safer and a lot cleverer. It knows how to stop in the wet and get 35 miles out of a gallon of petrol. Instead of the dodgy stereo player with the Dire Straits cassette stuck in it that was standard in all Mark Is theres now a sophisticated hi-fi with a USB or iPod socket.
The car wont fall apart and will hardly ever go wrong. Owners of modern GTIs wont experience propping the bonnet open on a cold morning at Clapham Common to spray WD-40 on damp HT leads. In fact, most wont know where the bonnet catch is. It is a car for the digital-comfort-zone generation.
Of course, the Focus ST is technically every bit as good as the GTI and in some ways superior. By using a Volvo engine Ford has played VW at its own game of component sharing. Others may tell you that the Golfs dynamics are better, or its handling at speeds above 100mph is a tad more refined. After testing both cars I can say honestly apart from the fact that Ford supplied a demonstrator car in electric orange with matching interior which gave the disconcerting impression that I was driving a tangerine there was not much between them.
The difference is in brand image. Thats not to say image doesnt matter. Manufacturers spend millions of pounds in marketing and promotion including advertisements in this newspaper precisely because it does make a difference. Over decades Ford and VW have developed distinct followings.
The ST wouldnt look right outside a mossy vicarage. It goes with hisnhers dressing gowns and home Jacuzzis. It has a pumped up body with low-profile tyres and an aerofoil. Owning it would be like having Grant Mitchell on your drive. You could give the Golf to the valet parkers at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo and not be looked down upon, but you wouldnt get that reception in a souped-up Focus. Theres no sense of understated quality. Like the sharp suits advertised in lads mags, it wont wear in, itll wear out.
Im pleased to say, though, that after Andrew Frankel and I finished racing the two cars at Silverstone we put aside our differences and went for a bite to eat. I wanted to go to a country pub; he wanted a chicken korma. You see how it rubs off? We couldnt agree so we ended up in a Chinese. Neither of us liked it very much but it was cheap and there were lots of them around.
Nicholas Rufford
Vital statistics
Model Volkswagen Golf GTI
Engine type Four-cylinder, 1984cc turbo
Power/Torque 197bhp @ 5100rpm / 207 lb ft at 1800rpm
Transmission Six-speed manual
Fuel/CO2 35.3mpg (combined) / 192g/km
Performance 0-62mph: 7.2sec, 146mph
Price From 19,995
Verdict Always one step ahead of rivals
Rating Five stars
Focus ST
Its not exactly the colour youd choose but finding other flaws in this new Ford Focus ST is about as easy as dancing on wet concrete. The simple truth is that Ford has judged the ST somewhere close to perfection and positioned it quite beyond the reach of the Golf GTI.
This surprises me for two reasons. First, the Golf is a decent car. Having been critical for more than 10 years of how VW had used the GTI badge as a way of flogging slow, unsporting and unworthy Golfs, I found this current generation had returned the Golf GTI to its best form for at least two decades.
More significantly, perhaps, my expectations based on the first Ford ST the Fiesta werent high. The Fiesta ST is a car thats been tuned to be at its best on the race track which, in light of how such a car is typically used, is ludicrous. But the Focus ST is simply great everywhere.
Think about the proposition: for 17,495 you get a 2.5 litre turbo engine with five cylinders and 225bhp. The Golf has 2 litres, four cylinders, 200bhp. And still you cant buy one for less than 20 grand, even though its really only a fancier and pricier version of several other cars with the same platform, including the Skoda Octavia, Seat Altea and Leon.
The Golf needs 7.2sec to hit 62mph (Focus 6.5sec) and runs out of puff at 146mph (150mph). The Focus also not only develops more torque but does so at even lower revs, making it more flexible than the Golf, too.
But you can never prove one cars superiority over another with bald statistics alone were this the case the fast but flawed Vauxhall Astra VXR would likely beat both Focus and Golf, and we didnt consider it worthy of inclusion in this test.
What makes the Focus so mesmerisingly great to drive and what puts it clear of all rivals is not its performance, but the manner in which it is delivered. As you may have spotted from the photographs, my time with the ST coincided with that combination of rain and dark skies that characterises the British autumn. Throw in roads made lethal by wet leaves and you have as good an argument for parking a high performance sports car and watching telly instead as youll find.
Yet the Focus felt wondrously secure and reassuring in these conditions. Its engineers have coped better with putting huge power through wheels that also steer the car than any manufacturer I know.
And then theres the engine itself. Enthusiasts may be a little distressed to discover its been prised from under the bonnet of a Volvo but only until they sample its creamy power delivery and minimal turbo-lag. But best of all is the way it interacts with its deliciously quick, smooth and precise six-speed gearbox.
Which is why the whole car comes across as something of a paradox. Fords may no longer be built in Dagenham but its flared bodywork, 18in wheels and this particular colour scheme has essence of Essex all over it. Nonetheless, Ive just celebrated the big 40 so perhaps Im not best qualified to judge. In the eyes of many of those buying it, brought up on a TV diet of Pimp My Ride and bling wagons, its styling may look comparatively restrained, even sober.
No doubt Nick Rufford will be saying exactly the opposite but you only have to look at his dodgy taste in clothes to see hes the last person who should be giving out fashion tips. I can assure you the Focus ST is a car for connoisseurs those who will appreciate exquisite suspension damping, driveline fluency and progressive, faithful handling even more than they do raw power, outright grip and smack-in-the-mush looks. It even rides well and is more than refined enough for long journeys.
Im not blind to its problems. It burnt unleaded at 22mpg while I had it, which is far too much for such a car; its nothing like as well built as a Golf and, in certain circumstances when powering out of slow, wet, bumpy corners, the steering can tug disconcertingly as it struggles to transmit the power to the road.
But this is a car that in basic form comes with everything: big wheels, air-con, electric-you-name-it, Recaro seats, three extra instruments in a pod on top of the dash, and a leather wheel. Even if you spec it to the gills with ESP, full leather upholstery, electric seats and xenon headlamps, itll still cost you 500 less than the most meanly specified Golf. The leather alone on a Golf is 1,645.
So while I continue to like and admire the Golf there is no doubt in my mind that this day we are crowning a new hot hatch king. Think of Ronnies Corbett and Barker: one is a highly capable family entertainer, the other one of the outstanding talents of his time, capable of turning in exceptional performances in a wide range of roles. The Focus ST is all Barker look, it even dresses up in silly clothes.
Andrew Frankel
Vital statistics
Model Ford Focus ST
Engine type Five cylinders in line, 2522cc
Power/Torque 223bhp at 6100rpm / 228 lb ft at 1600rpm
Transmission Six-speed manual
Fuel/CO2 30.4mpg (combined), 224g/km
Performance 0-62mph: 6.5sec, 150mph
Price 17,495
Verdict Sets standard for all other hot hatches
Rating Five stars
