CAR AUDIO

Ford Focus Trend Powershift

THE DRIVER’S HATCH

By Michal Kieca

Engine: 2.0 Litre 16-valve Direct-Injected Petrol Power: 125kW @ 6600rpm | Torque: 202Nm @ 4450rpm Transmission: Six-speed Dual Clutch Automatic

Fuel Consumption listed: 6.7 l/100km | Tested: 8.4 l/100km

Price (as tested): $24,590

Overall Rating: ★★★★

Plusses: Handling; steering; value; interior space; dual clutch automatic; solid feel.

Minuses: Fussy; cheap interior design; very heavy feel, fuel consumption.

OVERVIEW

For driving enthusiasts and not shopping-trolley-wielders, the Focus is the best driver’s car in its class. Tested her in mid-range Trend trim, not only is the new Focusa cracking drive and a sharp looker, it’s now right near the top of its segment for interior quality. It might be lacking the ultimate class and all-round polish and goodness of the Sixth-Generation Golf, but it still certainly is a great car.

VALUE AND FEATURES: ★★★★

Thanks to the production switching from Germany to Thailand, the production shift was quickly followed by a price cut that saw the price of Trend Powershift drop to $24,490 drive-away. This made the car great value as the car was now able to compete with the lower end of the compact car segment. The Trend comes well equipped with fog lights, bluetooth connectivity, alloy wheels, parking sensors as well as with Ford's new 'Sync' system.

ON THE ROAD: ★★★★

This is where all Focuses leave their opposition behind. Simply, the steering, ride and handling are brilliant. The Focus’ immense depth of talent means that whether zipping around backstreets or blasting along a twisty, country road, the Ford is memorable. After enjoying the keen turn-in thanks to torque vectoring control, nicely judged damping and the supreme balance with almost no body-roll that the car had on one of my favourite roads, I was astounded by how much fun the Focus really was. This car makes the most ordinary drive feel extraordinary, the driving experience is always effervescent, the car seemingly made for maximum driving pleasure. The light, resistance free steering is delightful, a highlight of the whole car, continuing the fine Ford tradition of offering consistently fantastic steering on every one of its models.

The Focus isn’t dynamically perfect though, thanks to the humble Goodyear eco tyres fitted on the test car and a non-switchable ESC system that gets excited very shortly after the driver does, killing all fun in a swift manner. This third-generation Focus isn’t quite as comfortable as the old car; the suspension has less travel. Tauter damping is required to control the 80kg increased mass over the last one, in order to keep the heavier Focus’ body control in check over large undulations in the road surface. The resulting ride feels absorbent at low and medium speeds, but on our bumpy country roads, the suspension unfortunately lets the car’s occupants fell many bumps. On the move, the Focus shields its occupants from wind noise very well, but on coarse roads plenty of tyre roar enters the cabin.

The 2.0 Litre naturally aspirated direct injection engine might deliver some decent sprint times on paper to 100mk/h (8.7 seconds), but in the real world the engine doesn’t feel as quick. It’s definitely not one of the strong points of the car. More than the 202Nm on offer is needed to shift the Focus’ porky mass, especially below the 4450rpm at which it’s produced. The noise form the engine isn’t particularly pleasant, it gets loud near the red-line, with just a un-characterful buzz being heard. The 2.0 Litre is well-matched to the six-speed twin-clutch automatic which operates smoothly and decisively for both upshifts and downshifts. Sport mode livens up gearshifts and keeps revs higher, but the car still can’t match the VW Group’s DSG transmission when it comes to fast ferocious upshifts.

The worst part about the entire transmission is the manual shift interface; the fiddly rocker-switch on the gear selector. It’s too small and an utter pain to use discouraging driver involvement, so much so that it’s best to leave the ‘box’s own brain figure everything out.

THE INTERIOR: ★★★

This is not a plush Volkswagen Group interior. Despite Ford claiming otherwise, the switch from German to Thai production has resulted in a downgrade in cabin plastics, the door trims are hard and brittle and the seat trim has become low rent. The Trend is basic inside, with a plastic steering wheel, cheap, flimsy controls for the standard air-conditioning, Nokia-like audio controls and a hideous, green, dot-matrix audio screen. The controls are scattered all over the place inside and some buttons are located behind the steering wheel. The voice recognition software worked well enough, but the menus were unintuitive and too complex to use.

There's decent space in the front and back, all seats were very comfortable and the driving position could be tailored to suit anyone, thanks to vast seat and steering wheel adjustment. The boot is of a useful size, well shaped with a low loading height and is very deep thanks to the space-saver tyre.

SAFETY: ★★★★★

The Focus comes full of passive and active safety features. ABS, brake-force distribution and brake assist with ESP and TCS are standard. The car has 6 airbags and achieved a 5 star EuroNCAP rating.

VERDICT:

This is one immensely competent car with a distinct flair for driving enjoyment. If you focus on the steering and handling, the small Ford feels like the class leader. With greater polish and refinement it could be just that.

All images/media © Ford Australia Press Office

Renault Sport Megane RS265 Cup

By Michal Kieca

Engine: 2.0 Litre F4R 16-valve turbocharged petrol Power: 195kW @ 5500rpm | Torque: 360Nm @ 3000rpm Transmission: Six-speed manual

Fuel Consumption listed: 8.2 l/100km | Tested: 11.1 l/100km

Price (as tested): $42,640

Overall Rating:★★★★★

Plusses:Handling; steering; exhaust note; driving position; overall amusement value, hot hatch king.

Minuses:Interior feels somewhat cheap; confusing ergonomics; firm ride around town.

OVERVIEW

The supercar killer, the hottest hatch on the block, the hand grenade. All of these words can be levelled at the Megane RS265. You just know you've got a great front-driver in your hands when you when you can tighten its line through a sweeper with the throttle.

With its hunkered-forward lines, fat black guards-filling rims, brilliant sports seats and a raucous exhaust when under the whip, it's sure is a blast at the wheel. This is the hottest hot hatch, bar none.

VALUE AND FEATURES: ★★★★

The Megane RS is great value considering that you can demolish supercar owner egos as quickly as ripping up and down your favourite backroad all day long. Truth be told, this car will chase down any supercar in the twisties. And it’s not exactly barren when it comes to standard features.

The base Megane RS 265 is well equipped. Standard equipment includes auto headlights, LED daytime running lights and rear parking sensors. There's also dual-zone climate control, cruise control, rain-sensing automatic wipers, Bluetooth and audio streaming, multi-function steering wheel, CD/MP3 player, Arkamys 3D audio, aux-in and USB input, and electric heated foldable door mirrors among a longer list.

ON THE ROAD: ★★★★★

This thing goes like the clappers. Engage 'Sport', and every single car that’s not a supercar will disappear from your rearview mirror.

The fighter jet howl, rising in shrill outrage from 4000rpm, encourages full throttle hooliganism, the throttle and fat tail pipe in raucous harmony is absolutely amazing. Not since the sorely missed Integra Type R has a small car had so much ‘theatre’.

So what’s happening under the bonnet? In any language, 195kW and 360Nm of torque are hefty figures for medium front-drive hatch.

Renault claims a 6.0 seconds for the 0-100km/h dash and a speed-limited 255km/h top speed. Once once rolling, when cornering, or overtaking, and with things in full-song, it's a belter.

Load in the revs, and above 4000rpm the Renault simply scorches. It pulls like mad all the way to the redline, before softly bumping the rev-limiter. The engine just makes a jet-fighter like snarl and then seamlessly thrusts the car up to speed through any gear at any speed.

The sheer speed that you can carry through the twisty sections is beyond prodigious. It’s a point and shoot car; the Megane RS265 held its line with remarkable dedication, despite arriving at some wickedly tight bends with what I felt was way too much pace. The car just feels like it has infinite levels of grip, the nose always tucking in, the back always pivoting around you. The car takes the physics textbook and throws it out the window.

I can’t fault the Megane’s steering. It’s an electric power steering unit that’s been tested and tuned to perfection by the team at Renault Sport. The wheel feeds in high-definition detail of what the front wheels are doing, what the road surface is, straight to your hands. The wheel is well weighted and allows the driver to place the car anywhere they want on the road with pin-point accuracy.

With of the amount of power and torque pounding through the front wheels, I was expecting torque steer, but there was none, even on our course back roads. The RS just transfers the power seamlessly onto the road, there’s no tugging at the wheel, no tram-lining. Renault engineers have created a suspension geometry that stops all torque-steer, even when powering out of an apex under full throttle.

The ESP settings can also be changed, using that ridiculously hard to operate software. In ‘Sport’ the system allows more slide before intervening, allowing you to appreciate the balance of the chassis, allowing you to slide the tail at the same time as you tuck the nose deep into an apex, and then just fire out with the engine screaming.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room, what’s the ride like, hot hatches need to be fun and work in the urban environment too. The suspension is definitely on the firm side, but not to bad dealing with our imperfect roads, it’s about as stiff as I’d want it. It rounds out the big undulations really well, but it can get rather unsettled on smaller bumps.

The cabin is actually quite hushed at speed, with tyre roar being the biggest bugbear.

THE INTERIOR: ★★★

The thing is that the RS feels expensive in terms of the bits that you can’t actually see, the oily and bouncy ones, yet it seems cheap when it comes to those parts that you can actually see. The Piano black and chrome trim pieces fail to lift the ambiance in this cut-price interior; evidence of bean counting here… The seats and driving position are spot-on though, the stuff that drivers care about.

The switches and controls in the cabin feel quite decent, as do the tactile surfaces. The interior also manages to feel rather solid, unlike the RS250, there were no squeaks nor rattles coming from anywhere, the car was as solid as a drum, imparting refinement not expected in such a rorty machine.

The front seats are brilliant - grippy, with a superbly shaped back and base; they're as good as you'll find fitted standard in a road car. They offer plenty of adjustment, which is no doubt aided by an easily adjustable multi-function steering wheel. The bulky six-speed shifter falls comfortably to hand, and the pedals also placed just right even for heel and toe downshifts, it's easy to get comfortably set for press-on driving, no matter your size or shape.

One issue that I had was with some of the controls in the cabin that were placed in their typical awkward Gallic way. Case in point, in order to get the most out of the engine, the throttle mapping needs to be put into ‘Extreme’ mode. Sounds fun right, not so easy though. It took no less than 5 minutes of randomly pushing buttons behind the steering wheel in an attempt to engage this mode for the car. Not all of the electrics are useless, the RS monitor mounted nicely in the dashboard provides al the information that a seasoned petrol head needs from turbo boost to on board telemetry. So, the ergonomics aren’t great, as you’d expect with a French car. It would be one if everything was perfect, we’ll leave that to the Germans.

The rear seats seem reasonably well shaped, they’re set low, and provide enough headroom for even tall adults. The same praise can’t be heaped on the overall feel of the cabin in the back, it’s claustrophobic, feeling rather like a submarine in the back with only tiny windows on each side.

The boot appears to be quite good. It's deep and wide thanks to the low floor and space-saver spare, and offers a pretty reasonable 344 litres. Shame that the loading lip is just so high and the opening of the boot so small, a side effect from making the Megane’s chassis as rigid as possible.

SAFETY: ★★★★★

The Megane comes with the full arsenal of passive and active safety features, nothing is really lacking. ABS, brake-force distribution and brake assist, Brembo front brakes, three mode ESP (normal/sport/off). A limited slip differential, anti-slip control, and front seatbelt pretensioners are all standard. The car achieved a 5 star rating on EuroNCAP.

VERDICT:

The story goes that the French Gendarmerie Nationale called for tenders for new "rapid intervention vehicles" to replace its fleet of Subaru WRXs. Renault obliged, boosting both the horsepower and torque of the Megane RS 250 to win the tender. And as a side-affect they have created arguably one of the best front-wheel drive cars ever made.

It looks brilliant, it's well priced, and it has the muscle to match its athletic lines and razor-sharp dynamics. A cracker in every way, leaving you grinning ear to ear during every drive.

Toyota GT86

Review by Michal Kieca

A Victory in Engineering Finesse, Finally the Affordable Fun Machine is Here!

One day after lapping Toyota’s superb GT-86 through the perilous Winton Raceway in Victoria, Australia, the adrenaline of the day is still a vivid memory. Never has a car left me as thrilled, or utterly delighted as the 86. Or left me grinning so much from ear to ear.

Toyota in recent years has matured and understands the fundamental qualities of a good car. Even better, it has the in-house talent to do so at a price that would excite even Cyprus with their financial woes. My ardent enthusiasm for the 86 mirrors the fieriness of the vehicle itself. The Porsche Cayman was the benchmark for that car’s development, and it shows: not just in the similarity of the driving position, but in the general character of the car. The Toyota’s agility, chassis balance, responses and the eagerness of the naturally aspirated boxer engine, all mirror the German. The steering is delightful, organic and beautifully weighted with such pinpoint accuracy and purity that will have others lost in the dark.

The chassis simply brushes off bumps and the bravely neutral handling allows the car to be utterly adjustable allowing you to “Ken Block” corners at will. Yet the car feels planted and stable, with your body becoming an extension of the machine. Working in harmony with the dynamics is the willing Subaru boxer, keen revving and beautifully matched to the gearbox. Sure, the 86 could do with a bit more power, but that would be to fundamentally understand the essence of the car. It would upset the balance, the poise, the brilliance… No other car in my mind, not even the MX-5 offers the same degree of accessibility, or is as exploitable, or natural in every facet of its being. Yes, I’m in love - and believe it or not, with a Toyota! Amazing...