While the short-throw shifter afforded a better and more precise feel to the superb Getrag gearbox, the pedal placement in Steve's Focus had not been addressed, and as such the throttle still sat absurdly high above the brake pedal. Heel-and-toe downshifting in Learned's SVT Focus was nearly impossible and became even more difficult under harder braking as the brake pedal moved lower. While on the street the pedal placement in this particular instance probably has little effect on the day-to-day drive, a spirited romp with this car on a mountain pass or a casual track day would be dampened by the difficulty in getting a precise rev match on the downshifts while braking. It would also have been nice to see a better seat placed in the Focus to provide some better lateral support and an overall more performance-based feel to the cockpit. In this area of driver ergonomics above almost all, American car companies have long struggled, although newer models seem to show substantial improvement in seat support.
Learned's Focus is a terrific study in building an extremely clean, uncluttered, detail-oriented car. However, while the suspension offers some great apex-carving ability to the little hatch, I was still hoping the addition of forced induction might completely change the dynamic of the car. While there was certainly more power, it was more of an enhancement as opposed to a true change. While that may have in fact been Learned's intent, I thought the car could have handled a fair amount more thrust.
It may well have been the case that the potent 170 hp churned out by the Ford factory 2.0-liter Zetec Cosworth-enhanced four-cylinder was done at or near the limitations of the internals. With that in mind, reliability in forced induction mods would mean marginal boost levels and thus modest power gains unless a true and comprehensive re-engineering of the internals was undertaken. A re-engineering is exactly what it sounds like Ford has done with the RS in Europe. We know you can build it, Ford, now just bring it to the States, please. With people like the Learned brothers taking it upon themselves to turn the potential laden Focus into a solid performance car, it should be clear that the demand is there. And if that isn't proof enough, maybe the sales of EVOs and STIs over past five years will show that the market is ready. We'll be waiting.