"oh...wow", a falcon drivers fortnight in a focus

[Simmo]

hi guys, i just gave back a focus after 2 weeks with it and i had to come on here and say my piece about it. i normally drive a manual 1993 ED XR6 but i've snapped the clutch pedal mount and was carless for a while until i got this focus.

firstly, the car. it was a 2003 Focus Zetec with the 2.0L engine and 5 speed gearbox. the owner is a female coworker who bought it from a dealership in NSW called 'Dominelli Ford' and from what i could tell it had 17" simmons knockoffs on nankang ns2 rubber and was lowered a fair bit. it sounded like a mild exhaust as well but she told me everything on the car came from the dealer. rims, ride height, possible exhaust. so does anyone know this dealership and this option package?

now for the part you guys will want to hear. it was awesome. it was a really, really, really good car. and it was FWD!! i jumped in this thing expecting a chick-spec buzzbox that handled like all the other FWDs i've driven...crap. what i got was a real car. it whipped round all those suburban corners so damn fast with almost no hint of the nose trying to push out. no trye squeal either. got the proper noise i expected from big rubber copping it but no lame squeak from tiny, traction less tyres. there was body roll of course, but really minimal thanks to the springs. was just enough for me to be able to place the weight when in corners so i loved it.

in Brisbane there are plenty of twisty mountain roads and i've spent my life with the falcon trying to make it a master of these roads. im faster on all the corners than all my friends with their little jap cars that are supposed to drift. of course i get eaten right up once its straight again but nothing can catch me on a corner. i was expecting not to be able to hit fast corners with a fwd 4cyl banger, but after my first 10 mins in the car i knew it would be doable and not just doable, but quick.

so the second day i head out to mt nebo and mt glorious. an extremely long mountain pass just mins from brisbane. its got what you want on a pass which is a handful of straights, plenty of decreasing and increasing radius corners and a couple of real 1st gear hairpins. the focus ate it up. after 10 minutes i was pushing it the same as i push the falcon and getting similar results. plenty of grip with oversteer on lift-off corners. oversteer! a focus! "oh...wow". after the 30-40 minutes of pounding the mountain and once i was back down on the straight stuff i wanted more. i left it alone since it wasn't my car but was really itching to test the other passes i know.

so the next day i grab a mate for navigation on the harder pass [we both know the course uphill and down but it helps to get a headsup when you're really hammering] and head back out to 2 more roads. first up we tackled the more technical clear mountain road on the uphill. i cut my 'touge' teeth on this road and since its 10mins from my place i try to get on it once or twice a fortnight. i got in the groove after the first 3 corners and with my mate giving me the headsup on blind corners and crests where even though i know its clear i cant help but want to hesitate. fanged the hell out of the course and checked the time when i finished. 20 secs off the falcons best uphill time on my first run in an unknown car. brilliant!

of course by now i had the feel of the car and wanted nothing more than corners, corners, CORNERS! so we headed to the last test road out at Mt Mee. this is another tight mountain pass, but with a set of about 10-12 cambered corners right in the middle that are super fun. i was full tilt, white knuckled and breathing heavily by the cambered corner set and was out of breathe and sweating by the end. it was the best feeling run i'd had since i got the car and the run with the pedal on the floor the most. my friend and i both agreed this was a far superior car to anything FWD we'd driven. this was a far superior car to some RWDs we'd sampled as well.

after those 3 runs i didnt go back as i'd faded the brakes out once on the last run and didn't want to punish this great car anymore. so it was another 7-8 days of normal driving including to and from work and ferrying mates at night to NYE parties, etc. this time let me get in touch with everything the focus did that wanst flat out fun. the super triangular interior that put a funny look on my face the first time i saw it was looking good now and the only problem was the air vent which i couldnt seem to make blow directly on me. all the buttons did what they should have done and i didnt need to read the manual to work out anything. the headlight switch in used to since its the same style in the falcon. the pull out foggies/tail lamps was cool and i only stuffed up the euro indicator side twice. the seats were comfy yet firm and pretty grippy when i was taking lateral G forces. my 2 best mates are both 6'7"/202cm and i put them BOTH in the back as a test and they didnt whinge once or ask for legroom.

the stereo sounded good with a few adjustments. it could have handled heavier bass, but a couple of panels/bolts/screws inside the cabin would complain. i figured out the little button to remove the 2-3-4-5 panel and disable the headunit. very nice touch on a factory setup. also i cant give enough love to the column mounted audio controls. not having to take my hands off the wheel to turn the music up or down is so damn good. i was reaching for the non-existent buttons in mum's camry the day after i gave back the focus it was so engrained. the only fault i will make mention of that really peeved me was the lack of view in the rear mirror due to the small rear window, and the enormous blindspots those c-pillars provide. i'm used to just turning and looking in the falcon. i rarely use the mirrors at all to change lanes as i prefer to swing around and check it myself.

to conclude this ramble i will only say again how much i loved the car. everything i tried to do, happened. the blind spots/rear view problem is simply blasted out of the water by the handling and functionality and look of the car. i'll leave you with the best moment i had in the little blue focus. i was stopped at a set of lights uphill with the windows down and ministry of sound on, pumping the techno out of the car. a flogged looking brown VN pulls up next to me, blaring rap. so i turn my beats up to drown out his music, not as a 'my stezza's louder bro' kind of move. next thing i can hear the rap even louder as mr. cool cranks his subs. again i turn up my album to lessen the rap onslaught and up his goes again. by this time i've had enough and am practically staging at this light ready to roll away from this guy. light goes green, we both stab it, i flogged a VN, uphill, by a car length. foci rule.