It's Official: The Ford Focus RS Will Have A Mighty 345bhp To Play With

While we’ve been busy wetting ourselves out of excitement for the scorching new all-wheel drive Focus RS, there’s one detail that Ford has remained coy over: the power output. Until today, that is. Thus far we only knew that the engine would belt out ‘in excess’ of 320bhp, but today the company announced that the car’s 2.3-litre Ecoboost engine will be good for 345bhp and rev up to 6800rpm.

There’ll be plenty of twist to play with, to; the engine develops 324lb ft of torque between 2000 and 4500 rpm. And that’s not the end of the story, as there’s also an ‘overboost’ function that’ll bump the torque figure up to 347lb ft for around 15 seconds.

Still no word on performance figures, but with that kind of firepower, 0-62mph should easily be possible in around five seconds. A price hasn’t been revealed either, but around £30,000 is the expectation - a figure which will make the RS one of the best performance car bargains out there.

What we have received from Ford is further confirmation of the ‘Drift Mode’, something which “allows controlled oversteer drifts.” Oh, and there’s launch control, obviously.

Want to see all this demonstrated? The new Focus RS will be put through its paces up Goodwood’s famous hill climb this weekend at the Festival of Speed, with a certain Ken Block behind the wheel.