Tough Crowd Comparison Test: Ford SVT Focus

After a thorough pounding in the mountains, the SVT Focus left us impressed and somewhat confused. It's not shockingly good like the Protegé and SRT-4, but the SVT Focus is largely free of vices, which left us staring at it in a befuddled state of satisfaction.

Around town, the SVT engine seems gutless and low on torque, an impression caused in large part by the tall gearing. But drive it hard and it's free-revving and strong. It's as if a Honda engine got bolted to a Ford gearbox. The gearing that seemed too tall in town happened to fit our test road perfectly, letting us hang onto second gear where most cars needed constant shifting between second and third.

Cornering grip in the Focus is surprising. It still has a fair amount of body roll, which feels like it should kill grip, but the front tires just hang on. The missing limited slip turned out to be less of an issue than we expected, thanks to big tires and relatively little torque.It's a good thing the Focus' 11.8-inch discs are the biggest of the bunch, because the caliper is partially integrated into the upright, so it's impossible to bolt on larger rotors without cutting apart the upright. Sure, the brake pedal started to get soft after extremely hard use, but it's likely more aggressive pads would cure the problem.

The Focus' odd ergonomics bugged most testers. The seats are mounted too high for tall drivers. Though headroom is still sufficient, the driving position is odd and your passenger is put on a pedestal, whether they like it or not.Overall, the SVT treatment is exactly what the Focus needed, turning a cheaped-out econobox into a well-rounded car with a genuine quality feel and all the performance hardware you'd never be able to bolt onto a Focus yourself. The lack of wings, scoops and fake carbon fiber makes it a refreshingly adult performance car.

Best Feature: The SVT Focus is so thoroughly well-rounded that no one feature stands out, except the price. Finishing this high with the second lowest base price is impressive.

Worst Feature: Gearbox. Sure, the shifter's great,but the gear ratios are way too tall. If you can break every speed limit in California in second gear, what are the other four for? The lack of a limited slip puts the last nail in the gearbox's coffin.

First three things we'd modify
1: Limited-slip differentialOur imitation of a broken record: Quaife should have a diff for the SVT's Getrag six-speed by the time you read this, SVT is also working with Tochigi Fuji Sangyo (maker of the Protegé's diff) on one.

2: Turbo
We don't know any way to put shorter gears in that box, so making enough torque for the gear ratios to make sense seems like the best solution. We're not really sure of the best way to do this, but we'll be figuring it out on our new project car.

3: Driving school
Step 2 was big enough, don't you think? Besides, the SVT doesn't really need anything else. Spend a few days in school learning how to handle it. Tim O'Neil's rally school is a personal favorite, even for street driving.

Base price:$17,480
Measuredhorsepower atthe wheels: 150 hp @ 6600 rpm
Curb weight as tested: 2,780 lb