Ford Focus RS8 featuring Cammer engine

[Vintalage]

[kubiache]

Yep, still don't like them. But on this one, too, the interior is pretty cool.

[DumpsterDamon]

is it me, or does the front side angle look like the vents on a 350z?

I am not a fan of focus's, but I like how SVT has played with them. Hell you can even get them with HID lights. Now if only Pontiac would have their own "SVT" like team that would toy around with some performance parts for their lineups...

[thehemi]

I like the exhaust exits in the bumper.
Looks really clean -- for a Ford Focus.

[Mike Jung]

Some V8 juice puts zing in Ford concepts
Retro replica F-100 pickup and Focus get goods
Carmaker stuffed V8 and rear-wheel drive into 3-door

by: JIM KENZIE

The guy in the gray Ford Mustang GT, heading east on Front St., at Bay, never knew what hit him.

He had surely had fat-wheeled, loud-exhaust, hot-rod Ford Focuses sitting beside him at stoplights before — the fast and furious sport compact tuners love to tweak the noses of big-engined, domestic pony cars.

But if Mustang Man heard what this particular Ford Focus sounded like, he must have really wondered whether he could hear a, gasp, V8 under there.

A V8 engine? In a Focus? Why would anyone do such a thing?

The car was built by Ford's Racing Performance Parts division to showcase the company's "crate" engine program, which they hope to sell to the burgeoning hot-rod market.

A crate engine is delivered to a hot rodder's shop in a crate, ready for more-or-less immediate installation, as opposed to said hot rodder buying a bunch of bits and assembling them himself.

Indeed, one of the selling points of this project is the plug-and-play nature of the electronic components.

You don't have to be a hot rodder to appreciate how complicated it must be to make all the computerized components work together when you're putting an engine from one car into another.

Ford offers a range of wiring harnesses for the most popular engine swap conversions — older Mustangs, for example — to ease this process.

The so-called "Cammer" engine is a bored (94 mm versus 90.2 mm) version of the dual overhead camshaft four-valve Cobra V8. That the displacement is 5.0 litres, the same as the legendary Mustang pushrod V8, is no coincidence — the point of this project is to wean the engine-swap crowd off Ford's old technology and onto the new.

An 11.0 to 1 compression ratio, ported cylinder heads, higher-lift cams and associated electronics mods generate something in the neighbourhood of 420 horsepower at 6,700 rpm (up from 390 in the Cobra) and 370 lb.-ft. of torque at 5,000 rpm.

(Actually, Andrew Punzal of Ford Racing out of Dearborn, who was shepherding the so-called Focus RS8 on a whirlwind media tour as part of last weekend's Molson Indy, says recent updates to the engine have pushed power to about 450 horses.)

Aftermarket connecting rods and a reinforced block help make sure the expensive oily bits don't end up all over your driveway the first time you pop the clutch.

It's a Ford Racing part, as are the differential and shift linkage to the Tremec five-speed manual transmission.

And the custom-built exhaust system is too. It's also loud. Gloriously loud.

So, just how do you stuff a V8 into a Focus?

Actually, it looks like it fits pretty well in there. I did say it was rear-drive, didn't I?

They started with a European-style Focus RS body shell, and tossed out just about everything else.

They took the Cammer engine, turned it 90 degrees to Focus's normal orientation, somehow jammed it under the hood and connected it to the transmission and rear differential.

The double A-arm suspension front and rear is all aftermarket or prototype parts; Canadian content is provided by Multimatic Motorsport adjustable dampers.

The interior uses RS sport seats, five-point racing seatbelts, a roll cage that pretty much eliminates the rear seat from any practical purpose, an A-pillar gauge package and various other customizing add-ons.

It goes like bloody hell.

With this much power and this short a wheelbase, it isn't for the faint of heart.

Now, I'm not about to try and toss a car like this sideways on Lake Shore Boulevard at lunch time. But Punzal told me the Champ Car drivers were doing just that on the Cleveland race track the weekend before.

Ford Racing has done a similar project using a 1953 Ford F-100 pickup truck. A pair of them, actually, based on originals found in Tennessee and Texas.

McLaren Performance Technologies — yes, an offshoot of that McLaren — stitched the vehicles together, retaining only the hood and doors in their original configuration.

Because we're collectively taller than we were in 1953, the cab was stretched by 152 mm. The bed was shortened by the same amount to maintain the correct proportions.

The trucks — ours was the silver FR-100 — were assembled around a racing-style chrome-moly tube frame, which is almost completely hidden from view inside the vehicle (you can see bits of it in the pickup bed, which is lined in gorgeous cherry wood).

The front suspension is fabricated; the rear end is based on the independent system from the SVT Cobra.

Again, the interior has been treated to a stunning makeover.

If anything, the driving experience of the truck is more impressive than the Focus, if only because it feels more natural to be in a rear-drive pickup than in a rear-drive subcompact.

If you're not part of the hot-rod scene, it's difficult to imagine just how big it is, how much money these people spend on their vehicles, or how beautifully-constructed most of them are.

Or, more to Ford's main marketing point, how loyal they are to their favoured brands.

With this new engine program, Ford has given them a good reason to stay on board.

[Roush GT]

its still fugly

[95-GT]

I think they got that idea after an aftermarket company dropped the Cobra motor/drivetrain in a focus.
I have some pics of it, but I gotta resize it. They said it fit in there like a charm.

[jake3217]

It's still a focus and it's still ugly.

[RAMAIRGT1]

here's a link to the cobra motor in the focus, they even swapped the IRS
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthrea...hreadid=319753

here's a link from the company who did the swap
http://www.atimotorsports.com/Deskto....aspx?tabid=76

[AMRAAM4]

That would be the Focus I was referring to in the "Mazdaspeed 6 Spied" thread

[AaronGAGT]

Originally Posted by RAMAIRGT1

here's a link to the cobra motor in the focus, they even swapped the IRS
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthrea...hreadid=319753

here's a link from the company who did the swap
http://www.atimotorsports.com/Deskto....aspx?tabid=76

Here's another link, from the Mazdaspeed Spied thread if anyone wants more reading.

http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content...._code=01412980

[95-GT]

Yep, the one I have might be a differant one, but it has like some gay graphics and stuff on it. Prety amazing what you can do with money. I think you will maybe see 2-3 for the price of $85,000 for the non RS8, but the Cobra motor alone was something like $15,000 brand new. Insane.

[jay1486]

It is still a F***us.

[jake3217]

Originally Posted by DumpsterDamon

is it me, or does the front side angle look like the vents on a 350z?

I wouldn't be at all suprised if both were designed by the same firm.

[AMRAAM4]

You God damn people and your "It's still a Focus" or "It's still a Neon"

Guess what?? YOU STILL DRIVE A GRAND AM!! That'll get outperformed laughingly by both.

[mr_eh]

^^ *nod*

i dig the car i'd rock it...

[RAMAIRGT1]

thanks bob i was gonna say that

[Vintalage]

Originally Posted by AMRAAM4

You God damn people and your "It's still a Focus" or "It's still a Neon"

Guess what?? YOU STILL DRIVE A GRAND AM!! That'll get outperformed laughingly by both.

Exactly what I was thinking.

[Mike3800]

Originally Posted by AMRAAM4

You God damn people and your "It's still a Focus" or "It's still a Neon"

They are still Focuses and Neons... but I don't see a problem with that.

I think this one is pretty badass.