All Cosworth go-fast parts used on this Focus will be marketed under the "d-sport" moniker. The development of these parts is a byproduct of Cosworth's larger program of creating small-displacement four-banger race engines to be used for years in a variety of motorsport arenas. Look for 300-plus-hp crate Duratecs (which won't be so PZEV anymore) to be available for around $15 grand.
In fact, Cosworth will be supplying the engines for every car in the Formula Atlantic series, which has used the 1.6-liter Toyota 4AG for years. Their stressed components produce 300 hp and cost more than $30,000 each. With an extra 700cc of displacement, Cosworth can produce more horsepower and offer better torque delivery and greater service life at half the cost. It will also make kick-ass road racing and all-motor class engines as installed in the Focus.
Importantly, the Duratec engine architecture is shared with other global Ford products; you'll find the 2.3-liter in the Mazda3 and Mazda6. Most notably, a 2.0-liter Duratec powers the new Mazda MX-5. Ken Anderson of Cosworth tells us that with the Cosworth packages installed on the 2.0, it makes only 5 percent less horsepower than the Cosie-modified 2.3-liter. We like the sound of a 190-wheel-hp, normally aspirated Miata.
All that Cosworth go is bolted into a Focus made both complete and fierce, thanks to a host of aftermarket goodies. Brembo's Gran Turismo kit provides 13 inches of demotive force with two-piece discs squeezed by four-piston calipers that are fed high-temperature fluid through Goodridge braided stainless-steel lines. Ford Racing sells the SVT rear kit that tosses the rear drums in favor of discs and single-piston calipers. Jab the brake pedal without forethought and you can scare yourself. The Cosworth Focus stopped in 111 feet from 60 mph, without a hint of fade.
Wrapping the large brakes is a wheel and tire package on the upper limit of functionality, with 225/40-18 Michelin Pilot Sport Cups mounted to O.Z Record 5s. The combination looks great, but we can assume great numbers would be even better with a substantially lighter wheel and tire package.
The Pilot Sport Cup's ultrastiff sidewall, combined with Tein Flex coil-overs, produces a ride that could be measured on the Rockwell scale. Anything but polished tarmac transmits its surface quite directly through your coccyx and into your kidneys. The EDFC's stepper-motor adjustment is controlled via a cockpit-mounted box, and we dialed both the front and rear set to its softest setting for street use.
Body roll is a near impossibility given the stiff sidewalls, springs, valving and big anti-roll bars. This lack of compliance means that while you pound through corners, sometimes the road surface will pound back, and on uneven surfaces, there's more skittering than sticking. We'd raise the car an inch to prevent the suspension from running out of travel on normally trivial bumps. On our smooth skidpad, however, the Focus produced the magic number, 1.0 g, and snaked through the slalom at 72.8 mph-4.3 mph better than stock.
Whether it's the orange cloak or the lightly muffled 2.3-liter engine, the Cosworth Focus attracts pupils like Human Sexuality 101. The color is Volkswagen Snap Orange, not as ravishing as the Elise's Chrome Orange, but thick, lovely and involving. Stares and glares (cops usually doing the latter) judge the flared RS bodywork from FFwd Motorsport, the Ford Motorsport RS rear spoiler and H.I.D. headlamp conversion and chrome Cosworth Sport upper and lower grills.