Ford offers Drift mode on the Focus RS

After reading a headline like that, any enthusiast would be punching the air, throwing out high-fives and generally acting in a more or less ecstatic manner. Ford really wasn’t kidding when they announced that they would make the 2016 Focus RS a seriously fun-to-drive hot hatch and they’ve delivered on it. Just look at Ken Block burning that rubber!

While most premium cars nowadays offer multiple drive modes, they are usually limited to economy mode, a standard mode, and a sport mode. Ford, and its Performance division, has endowed the 2016 Focus RS with Normal, Sport, Track, and Drift modes, all of which can be controlled through a switch at the gear lever. This means that drifting arena will no longer be the domain of crazy hooners. The 2.3-litre EcoBoost mill is said to churn out more than 315bhp, delivered to all four wheels via an AWD system with torque vectoring in the rear axle. Up to 70 per cent of the expected 450Nm of torque can be distributed to the rear wheels when required.

Showcased at the 85th Geneva Motor Show, the 2016 Ford Focus RS is the first production car in the world to have a drift mode, controlled by a yaw sensor. The sensor, and its attendant computers, checks for the correct drift line and redistributes torque via the AWD system so that you can let your tail hang out for as long as you want. I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of amateur hour drifting videos in the Focus RS pretty soon.

More Focus RS hoonery below: