From the January 2017 issue
The Ford Focus RS" It?s back at the prison yard, its work-release program suspended after it shanked a guard and went drift mode across the warden?s lawn. This is a car that inks its own tats, and some of them are on its face.
It?s not that we don?t appreciate the Focus RS, a car built to satisfy a hard-core niche of driving enthusiasts, the ones who know who Kalle Grundel is and daydream about importing a Lancia Delta Integrale. We love that there?s a Focus with 350 horsepower and all-wheel drive. But sometimes more is just more. The Focus RS is a contestant on The Voice who sings at 126 decibels. It?s a Gillette razor with seven blades. It?s Joey Chestnut eating 25 pastrami sandwiches in 10 minutes. Oh, we?re definitely impressed. But you can be impressed by Joey Chestnut, we suppose, without necessarily wanting to marry him. Those staffers who?ve flogged the Focus RS on racetracks found that the mean streets of Michigan bring out a much different side of the car?s personality. In the context of 10Best testing, which includes roads that are paved entirely with frost heaves, the Focus?s playful brattiness turns ugly. Over bumpy sections of the 10Best loop, the suspension feels as if it?s made of pogo sticks. The optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, which help the RS deliver 1.04 g?s of grip, hunt and wander on rutted pavement.

Its Recaros were evidently molded around Popeye?s longtime ­­girlfriend, Olive Oyl. One driver likened th...