My 2012 Focus SE next to its replacement, a 2014 Focus ST.
I really liked my 2012 Ford Focus SE. It was practical, it was fuel efficient, and it was yellow. It was perfectly content on my daily commute, and surprisingly decent for the occasional motorsports event. But there was always that little voice in the back of my head that prodded, “wouldn’t you have way more fun if you had a turbocharger hanging off the side of the motor?”
In the dead of winter, I brought home the car that was to replace my 2012 Ford Focus SE: a yellow Ford Focus ST. Similar colors, same interior, same infotainment, but different bumpers and a turbo. Funny what a difference a single letter can make.
A difference in expectations
You may think that the Focus ST is targeted to driving enthusiasts like me, but you’re only partially correct.
Who does Ford imagine buying the Focus ST? It’s probably a car enthusiast that likes driving a stick, who likes feeling a rush of power when hitting the gas, and perhaps enjoys carving corners on his or her favorite mountain road. But let’s be real — for the vast majority of owners, perhaps the most frequent demand that would be regularly made on the car is joy of accelerating onto the freeway from an on-ramp or cloverleaf.
If this is what you think your customer will be doing, then you can make some choices. For example, you can have overboost, which temporarily raises the boost limit for about eight seconds for that extra rush of power. If you’re only going to be at “full” boost for seconds at a time, then you can size the intercooler to reflect that. If the car is going to see more freeway commuting miles than corner carving, then you direct more air around the wheel wells to help with better fuel economy. And if the car is only going to be occasionally asked to put down power when cornering, you can make the car cheaper and leave off the limited slip differential. You can use brake biasing to achieve wheel spin control instead.
That works for 99% of drivers out there. Great!
But it doesn’t work for me. I’m in the 1%, the idiots who take their cars to closed courses to enjoy life on the edge of tire adhesion.
The shortcomings of the Focus ST are well known among track rats. Engines heat soak easily. Lack of airflow to the brakes means that even with good pads and good fluid, it’s extremely easy to overheat the brakes. Then there’s the inconvenient fact that you’re putting down 240 horsepower through an open diff, with brake biasing attempting to reign in wheel spin, and getting worse and worse at its job as the session goes on because the front brakes never, ever get a chance to cool off.
Smokin’ those brakes!
Which is a shame, because the suspension is pretty well done. The car rotates very easily, which is rare to find in any FWD car straight from the factory.
I took the Focus ST to Grattan, lapping with some friends who brought their cars out there, and was blown away at how well the Focus ST could attack corners, and how easy it was to chase down older V8 Mustangs down the front straight. It also quickly became clear that my brakes were a problem I had to manage, making it through the weekend almost without going off from brake fade. Almost.
The video above ends where it ends because I nearly went off at Turn 1 trying to slow the car down. I decided that that was the end of my weekend.
These brake calipers were once silver…
When I got back home, I had a chance to inspect the abuse I had wrought upon the car. I had one chunked tire, two ruined front brake discs, and a pair of brake calipers that looked decades old instead of six months old. I replaced the front brakes and the tires and never took the car to another track day again.
Ruined front brake discs.
At least with autocross, the speeds weren’t super high, and the run format meant that it was possible to cool the car down between runs. Still, I wasn’t enjoying autocrossing the car either, as corner exit was always an exercise in patience, something that I sadly don’t have. I ran my Focus ST once at a National event and then never ran it again Nationally either. It would only come out to play at local events when my Miata was down.
Going sideways on the lakes at a Western Michigan Furrin’ Group event.
I also took the car rallycrossing and, for the first time ever, on the frozen lakes for ice runs. Still, the same problems I’d run into when autocrossing the car were there when driving the car sideways.
On one run with the Saginaw Valley Region winter ice runs event, I had a friend ride shotgun with me. At the end, he stepped out of the car and immediately noticed the smell of burning brakes, and beckoned me to check it out for myself. Yep, the brakes were burning hot, even in the cold of winter. Well, I had just run a three mile course in which the front wheels were constantly spinning at an indicated 75 mph on the speedometer, so yeah, three minutes of nonstop front brake usage from a computer that’s wondering what the hell is going on would result in cooked brakes…
Practical considerations, or lack thereof
As I noted in my closing statement of the Focus SE COAL, “I had taken a car that was good at 95% of the things I needed it to do — be a comfy daily driver — and not so good at the 5% of everything else — be a race car — and swapped it for a car that was the diametric opposite.”
Leaving aside the realization (as I was typing the above) that the Focus ST also wasn’t a very good race car, it definitely fell short on the “things a daily driver should be.”
Outside of the three gauges perched on top of the center dashboard and the six speed manual, the interior of the ST was identical to my old SE.
First and foremost, it didn’t have heated seats, which I quickly learned was something I really, really liked in a winter driver. My Focus ST had the exact same seat frame and cushions (the “Sport” seats in the regular Focus trims), it just didn’t have the seat heaters that my Focus SE had.
Secondly, the Focus ST was expensive to keep around. As a cheap hot hatch with a lot of power frequently purchased by young folks with more dollars than common sense, insurance on the Focus ST was pricey. And as Michigan has some of the highest auto insurance rates in the US, and I live basically next door to Detroit proper, my car insurance payment for the Focus ST alone was more expensive than my Miata and my Mustang combined.
If I wanted all of the horses under the hood, I had to feed the Focus ST premium fuel. The large 18″ wheels meant that I had sticker shock whenever I went to replace the summer tires.
Get this: I ultimately preferred the Focus SE on the street to my Focus ST.
Sure, power is nice. But you can never reach a Focus ST’s limits anywhere but a closed circuit. And when you do get on a closed circuit, the Focus ST is a square peg going into a round hole. With the Focus SE, I could (and frequently did) wring the motor all the way out to redline, chattering the narrow tires on the on-ramp as I went full bonzai merging onto freeway traffic. Now that is a lot of fun.
And the irony is not lost on me that the Focus SE handled a track weekend with perfect aplomb whereas the Focus ST couldn’t.
Dropping the ST
After about two years of ownership, I sold the Focus ST. I must have sold it for far too little money, as I sold it to a DC Region autocrosser, who then took the car to a dealership and traded it in on a new Focus ST, getting more on the trade-in than I did in the private party sale.
I didn’t care. Once I had made up my mind, I had no desire to keep the car around, so I ditched it and ditched it quickly. And replaced it with something that was a lot more fun…
Nice comparison, it’s very interesting to read about someone’s race experiences, especially doing something I never would. I’ve considered it but I can’t quite bring myself to wring out a car like that, it’s too much like abuse. The previous owner of my Supra ran the local Supra club and regularly auto crossed the car, wrecking the differential carrier, a cost I’m addressing now.
I wouldn’t lose sleep over the trade in, in my limited experience some trade in values are inflated for to reinforce a sale.
I actually owned a 2017 Focus ST (it had a large update for the 2015.5) and just traded it in on a heavily discounted Jetta GLI. Huge mistake, the VW’s ECU calibration and laughably tall gearing (6 speed) make daily driving a chore. And the clutch is delicate. But the Jetta also has a magic differential and heated seats even on the base model.
The ST2 is the way to go, due to the phenominal Recaro seats, Sony audio system and HID lights.
You are one of very few people who got to make a direct comparison like this. I understand your disappointment completely. I have never taken any of my cars to the track, but when a shortcoming shows up in how I use a car it becomes like a nasty toothache that won’t go away. Getting rid of of the car is the only cure.
These systems that apply brakes to cure wheelspin irritate me in concept. And when the brakes aren’t big enough and are constantly overused to the point they can’t do their main job, you just have to shake your head and wonder what they were thinking.
I sold several Focus and Fiesta ST’s during my stint as a Ford salesperson and none of them ever took their cars to the track or had any intention of doing so. Not even the guy who modded his Focus ST to over 400 horsepower.
Several people at my dealership even bought them without having driven a stick before. The buyers were generally young people who wanted something quick and sporty but functional or older guys who got tired of Mustangs.
And John nailed the ST’s purpose with this paragraph:
“Who does Ford imagine buying the Focus ST? It’s probably a car enthusiast that likes driving a stick, who likes feeling a rush of power when hitting the gas, and perhaps enjoys carving corners on his or her favorite mountain road. But let’s be real — for the vast majority of owners, perhaps the most frequent demand that would be regularly made on the car is joy of accelerating onto the freeway from an on-ramp or cloverleaf.”
Oh, I get what you (and John) are saying. My only point is that in a performance car, using brakes to cure wheelspin instead of a limited slip diff of some kind (at least optionally) seems like the kind of cost cutting that sends performance buyers elsewhere.
If in fact Ford doesn’t offer one, they likely did the math and decided they’d rather lose the 1% or whatever of sales due to not having it in the car than possibly a greater percentage of sales due to taking on extra cost for those that have no need for it. Options sometimes cost the manufacturer more money than they’re worth as well due to production line efficiencies, logistics etc. The Focus ST also has/had the RS version as the next level up that was far more “racy” but at a significantly increased cost.
VW for example offers (offered?) several levels of GTI to either include or not include an (electronic) LSD that apparently makes a big difference on a track, but may not be worth it to many buyers, the car looks the same and performs the same in the majority of conditions.
For the average (or not even average, let’s say 99.9%) consumer, they’d far prefer to pay almost nothing for a piece of software that uses an offshoot of the existing ABS system to slightly apply the brakes to a spinning wheel and adds almost no wear to the pads or rotors than to pay for a limited slip differential.
People buy the sizzle, not the steak, I don’t have any issue with CUVs or SUVs myself but if you think about it, it’s even worse there, there are VERY few SUVs that can actually really go “off-road” anywhere near the extent that the makers would want you to believe they could and almost anyone who actually takes even the most cabable ones offroad often add quite a few modifications (tires, skidplates, gearing, different bumpers) etc to make them more capable. But very few people actually go anywhere offroad besides an unpaved church parking lot or the soccer field so that’s why it all works out.
Same with sporty cars. Nobody who tracks their car seriously and repeatedly generally does so without sooner or later upgrading their tires, brake pads, often rotors, brake fluid for sure, suspension and those are generally the minimum. Sure the manufacturers could do it but in the meantime add trade-offs which include lower fluid life, poorer cold braking performance, vastly increased maintenance expense etc. Most any trackday event will publish a document suggesting that participants at a minimum ensure their fluids are fresh and consider upgraded brake pads to, if nothing else, make the day more enjoyable. I’m sure the videos we’ve seen aren’t the entirety but the ST is being driven mich harder than the SE was, which makes perfect sense. Keep driving the SE to its maximum and the same parts will fail there too .
However, both cars could be upgraded as far as tires, brakes and suspension are concerned for the same cost and at the end the ST will be the more satisfying track car (only due to the speed), both will be less desirable as daily commuters though as a result.
Autocross is a little different in that the cars are classed depending on what is modified, so that makes a big difference but (and I am not claiming to be familiar with autocross rules) I believe it is possible for even in the “stock” class to have SOME changes to some components, someone correct me if stock actually means “stock”, i.e. exactly as it rolled out of a showroom.
It’s the same thing with 4WD systems; the overwhelming majority use brakes to control wheel spin. Works fine for typical CUV/SUV use, but it’s not what you want for serious off roading. Much cheaper than LSDs and a locking center diff. In fact, no extra cost at all, as it’s just in the ESC software.
I’m not sure what you are trying to say. The modern on demand “AWD” systems like you’ll find in the average CUV use a clutch to engage the rear axle. Many are electric (Ford, Toyota, Nissan) where they will vary the duty cycle of the signal to allow varying amounts of power to go to the rear while others use hydraulics (Honda) to engage the clutch.
If electric the clutch is usually located in the rear diff case. Nissan does away with the rear diff in some cases and use a clutch to each axle shaft. Hydraulics are usually located in the transfer unit/transaxle.
Yes they still have traction control that use the brakes, but on most it rarely comes into play.
I believe he means if you actually go off road and find yourself in positions where one wheel wants to raise off the ground (or have less traction for some other reason), it would normally end up getting all the power and just spinning away but the brake slows it down, thus encouraging the system to provide power to the wheels that are actually in better contact with the ground.
Fact is most types of limited slip differentials are not suitable for use on a FWD vehicle because they can cause behavior in slippery conditions that an average person just isn’t prepared to deal with.
I have a hard time believing that the brakes were overheated due to the traction control. I have and have had several Fords with traction control. The 92 CV and 93 GM were early implementations that were low speed only. That means that it only used the brakes to control slip.A couple of times, while having fun in the snow, I activated the TC enough that it shut down, to allow the brakes to cool.
All the rest of them had all speed TC which will also cut engine output if the brakes can’t do it on their own. So in those the brakes are really only used for slight slippage. The other thing all of those have in common are a switch to shut it off. Now in some Fords, including the ST you have a sport mode which allows more slippage.
John, your COAL articles seem good enough to be worthy of inclusion in Car & Driver.
In that vein, the failings of the Focus ST at the track aren’t much of a surprise. As other commenters have pointed out, Ford is counting on few ST owners running their cars on the track, and source parts accordingly. So, under normal driving, the brakes work well enough, but overheat on the track.
Still, it’s not comforting (and very GM-like) in under-engineering what would seem to be a critical safety item. It’s too bad because the ST gets good reviews but it’s yet another reason I swore off Ford products years ago.
In fact, the Focus ST is a bit reminiscent of what the industry used to call ‘kid cars’ (a term which originated with the original, bargain-basement 1968 Plymouth Road Runner). Chrysler was best known for these cheap hotrods and a terrific example was the old SRT-4 Dodge Caliber. Loads of FWD horsepower, but also loads of torque-steer which had the front end darting to the right under power. High-horsepower FWD cars absolutely need a limited-slip differential or, at the very least, equal length front half-shafts.
But the brakes are only under-engineered for the track, which is true of any road car, hardly Pinto-esq or X-car-esq.
If you are driving hard enough on a public road for the brake based torque vectoring to be an issue, that’s not the relevant safety issue.
I actually owned a 2017 Focus ST (it had a large update for the 2015.5) and just traded it in on a heavily discounted Jetta GLI. Huge mistake, the VW’s ECU calibration and laughably tall gearing (6 speed) make daily driving a chore. And the clutch is delicate. But the Jetta also has a magic differential and heated seats even on the base model.
The ST2 is the way to go, due to the phenominal Recaro seats, Sony audio system and HID lights.
SE being more enjoyable than ST as a daily, I can totally see that. 2012 Golf R, with a modest 256 hp and a 6-speed manual was far more enjoyable than the 2017 340 with the M-goodies. The latter is faster by far, but getting up to highway speed on that much faster is a bit hollow. Couldn’t get the 2 car seats in the back of the Golf though.
You can change the traction control and electronic stability control settings on the Focus ST. “Sport” mode allows more tire spin and slip. And you can disable it entirely – for “Track Use Only”, they warn. It’s surprising you weren’t aware of this?
Also, Ford upgraded the front brakes partway through the 2014 model year to larger Brembos.
I feel similarly about my accord exl v6 vs the sport i4. The v6 is a rocket but its so fast you hardly ever have anywhere you can rocket it up to redline besides onramps and open highways. the added weight to the front end makes steering feel numb and this makes back road driving less fun. I almost wish i got the sport but I was shopping used and it was lacking alot of features vs the exl and the direct injected 2.4 isnt a fun rev happy motor like the old honda engines.
I had a ’08 GTI, Turbo 2.0L with the 6spd DSG trans. A very fun car to drive by the electronic diff which is actually just the brakes was a real piece of junk if you lost traction under power. It would apply the caliper on the spinning wheel then release, then reapply. This caused the caliper to hammer back and forth.
I do agree that limited slip differentials are not for your average driver, front wheel drive is especially hairy if you lose traction and I’ve seen many rear wheel drive vehicles wrecked in winter conditions because they lost control because of the limited slip diffs. When one wheel spins the none spinning wheel actually helps stabilizes the vehicle.
By the way the stability systems will use the brakes at speed in autocross and track events. Some systems cannot be turned off completely and other will turn back on if the system gets to certain parameters. Ford offers a special ABS control module for the S197 Mustangs that has different ABS calibrations and no stability control functionality.
I bought a 2013 FoST brand new. First new car ever. My track-car 1995 Miata was busted (piston rings) and I figured I could track the Focus while rebuilding the Miata. I was also, at the time, one of the pace car drivers for our local National Auto Sport Association region.
The FoST was an awesome autocross car. I threw a Steeda rear sway bar on mine and it would pivot like a RWD car with some easy lift-off oversteer.
On a racetrack, though, the “eLSD” and “torque vectoring” both were its downfall. It could handle 80%-speed pace laps all day long, but asking for repeated lapping would, as you saw, burn up the brakes easily. Both eLSD and TV use brakes to work and cannot be disabled (though traction + stability control can be). It was a bummer, the car could do about 4 laps of VIR before the pedal went soft and I had to pull in.
We do see people with FoSTs and Fiesta STs still out playing with us so there must be some solutions with software, beyond the typical “better pads and fluid” that ought to help any car on track.
Ford sold these cars with an invite to the “ST Octane Academy” which was a one-day performance driving school using their ST cars, so to have the retail cars fall on their face during track use was surprising.
(Also, for those who think track days are silly or abusing the car or whatever. Come do one weekend. You’ll learn some skills that translate directly to better car control on the street and be a better, safer driver for it.)
Yep yup. I have to defend my 2015 white focus ST with almost 98000 miles on it, with zero problems. Yes the Goodyear Eagle f1 are worthless. Michelin pilot sport 4s with Bridgestone Blizzaks are the perfect set of tires for the ST. Brakes, yep, I don’t track my ST, Who does Ford imagine buying the Focus ST? It’s probably a car enthusiast that likes driving a stick, who likes feeling a rush of power when hitting the gas, and perhaps enjoys carving corners on his or her favorite mountain road. But let’s be real — for the vast majority of owners, perhaps the most frequent demand that would be regularly made on the car is joy of accelerating onto the freeway from an on-ramp or cloverleaf.
That’s me.
I live in Metro Detroit. Mountain Rds? Got none.
I helped rebuild the line in Wayne Assembly after Michigan Truck was no more
And rebuild it for the Ranger, cause nobody wanted cars.
Me? Shopping used focus RS.
PS. The ST is a monster in the snow. With snow tires F 150 tried real hard to keep up.
I had a 2012 focus se sport 3 speed that I took to the streets of willow springs and it handled like a ship on the ocean with its stock suspension. I traded it in on a new focus ST3. I’ve taken it to track day at horse thief mile at willow springs and the brakes did get hot, but with 30 to 45 minutes between sessions they cooled off well. the Fost goes to Ortega Hwy every other week for canyon driving between san juan Capistrano and lake elsinore. with 78k miles on it its on its 3rd set of front rotors. it has been a great car that’s not had too many easy days, and has never let me down.