http://www.topgear.com/content/featu...ries/16/1.html

Very interesting read, especially about the new suspension.

 

This quote is the exact sediment about the Z06 vs GTR.

"The Nordschleife tests everything," says Jost, "but it's not important how fast a car is round there, it's how it feels in the customer's hands."

Unfortunatly public likes to look at pure numbers which is why manufactures have started using it as some benchmark of how great their car is.

 

Just one problem: North American buyers would never go for it.

This is infinitely more appealing >>

 

I was sure you had finally lost your mind completely. Then I saw the smiley!

 

Hey, there's people here who actually believe that the vast majority of American buyers would find the current fugly N/A Focus more appealing than what you see at the top of this thread.

 

If the Focus RS is so desired by Americans, why has no grey market company imported them to the US? Ford sells them (at least the last generation) in Mexico, so it wouldn't even have to be shipped very far. There was a company called Motorex that was importing and selling R34 Skyline GTRs in the US for huge prices, but people were buying them, and there are some here in the USA.

The Mustang is not sold in Europe by Ford officially but there are companies that import them there. There are a few members on this forum who own S197s in Europe. Granted it cost them a lot more than we pay here in the US for a Mustang, but they wanted them and they got them.

So it would seem that there is a demand for Mustangs in Europe, hence they are being imported and sold, even at a higher cost, while there is not enough demand for any companies to import the Focus RS to USA.

 

Because nobody in his/her right mind would pay 30,000 euros (~$46,000) for a 221 hp Focus in the USA plus all shipping costs plus all paperwork.

 

True in some resect but not in others, the mustang is an american icon, a car everyone knows from its long history. Same with the skyline, long japanese heritage and a car known by everyone after video game companies made them household name.

But the focus which has only come out in what 2000 is so new, its nothing special, it doesn't destroy other cars in video games. So it doesn't have the appeal as the ones you mentioned. Is the european focus much better then ours. Yes. But it does no way appeal to spending 40-50k to get one on US soil, might as well go to your local mitsu or subi dealer and buy a rally car for 30-35k.

 

The simple solution to that is to build them here or in Mexico, since the engineering and design is already done.

And indeed, that is exactly what Ford will do with the next Focus and the Fiesta.

 

That things pretty bad azz for a little squirt of a car. I want one.