Let’s face it: Folks buying all-wheel-drive, turbocharged hot hatchbacks (and sedans, we aren’t forgetting you, Subaru WRX STI!) aren’t doing so because it’s logical. After all, spending nearly $40,000 on what to most people will appear to be an ordinary compact car could be seen as unhinged, especially considering the  far more powerful Ford Mustang GT and Chevrolet Camaro SS cost about the same. Yet those cars are flashy, lack all-weather traction, and have useless back seats. To us, the Golf R and Focus RS are intensely personal car purchases, the perfect everyday performance machines, easily slipping past most everyone else’s radar while delivering oodles of driving satisfaction without compromising practicality. We’ve set up this argument because Ford’s Focus RS online configurator is live, and in our latest fit of How We’d Spec It fantasy car-ordering, we priced out an RS to an almost absurd MSRP. Hold those “What about a Mustang!"” comments and let us explain. MODEL:
2016 Ford Focus RS (base price: $36,605)
Right off the bat, the Focus RS is $135 more than a four-door Volkswagen Golf R, and despite going without standard leather seating or heated front seats, it one-ups the VW with 19-inch wheels (to the Golf R’s 18s), adaptive HID headlights, Recaro seats, and a 10-speaker Sony audio system. Then there’s the 350-hp Ford’s 58-hp advantage over the Golf R. Other standard equi...