Bang for your buck: Ford’s 345bhp Focus RS will cost less than £29,000

When it goes on sale next spring, the Ford Focus RS will cost £28,940, sprint from 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds and hit 165mph. That’s a set of numbers worth boasting about, isn’t it?

Let’s start with that price, because it’s a bit of a winner: cheaper than a Golf R (from £30,820) or base Civic Type R (£29,995). That puts the Focus RS toe-to-toe with the Golf GTI or Seat Leon Cupra, but above the recently announced Renaultsport Megane Cup-S, which looks a bargain at £23,935.

Back to the Focus, though. For under 29 large you get a 4WD, 345bhp, turbocharged 2.3-litre four-cylinder hot hatch with full torque vectoring, plus launch control and the much talked-about ‘Drift Mode’.

We had a ride in a development Focus RS a few months back and can confirm that it does indeed do sideways. Mind you, it helped that the chap driving us went by the name of Ken Block.

The rivals Ford is undoubtedly keen to draw attention to are the Mercedes A45 AMG and Audi RS3, both of which have even more poke (376 and 362bhp respectively), faster acceleration (4.2 and 4.3 to 62mph) and price tags about ten grand more.

The thing to remember here is that the Focus RS has a manual gearbox. This alone will account for pretty much all the time lost against the clock. Real world? It should be just as fast as its premium rivals, while costing many thousands of pounds less.

Honestly, under £29,000 for the Focus RS? Well done, Ford.