Autocar's farewell to last Focus RS

The final Ford Focus RS has rolled off the production line in Saarlouis, Germany and Autocar was there to drive it back to the UK.

The Blue Oval’s performance-bred Focus successfully raised the bar to which all hot hatchbacks must aspire and rejuvenated passion for the RS badge. After a very limited production run of 4500 customer cars, this RS, carrying the ‘4501’ number plaque, is destined to grace the halls of Ford’s museum.

With the Focus RS, Ford set out to prove that a very unique model variant could roll down the same production line as the less sporty 1.4LX and TDCi models, while also showing how effective utilising satellite plants could be for the final touches.

To date, the 212 bhp, WRC-inspired Focus RS has been sold in 21 countries across Europe, with British customers buying 2147 examples, nearly half of them.Read the full story in this week’s Autocar