Making Our Own Ford Focus RS In Germany

We've worked on a lot of cars over the years and done some crazy projects. But one of the things that we've never done is work on a brand new car. Now, I'm not just talking about modifying a brand new car. I'm talking about making one. Which would mean making our way into a working operating factory and then somehow inserting ourselves somewhere on the operating line to be part of making our own car. Now, who would be crazy enough to let us do that? Now, if you know anything about Mighty Car Mods, you know that we love turbos, we love all-wheel drive, and we love hatchbacks. Which is exactly why we've decided to get our hands on a Ford Focus RS. Now, we emailed Ford and said, would it be possible in any way at all for us to be involved in the creation of this car? And they wrote back and amazingly said yes. So we've come to a little town called Saarlouis in the southwest of Germany, where our car is on the production line being made today. It is literally being made right now. This is the moment that we've been waiting for. And we're going to be involved not only in following the car, but also getting our hands dirty, as dirty as they get on brand new cars, in actually creating this car ourselves before it's shipped back to Mighty Mods headquarters in Australia. Martin, this is going to be freaking awesome. So good. We've arrived in Germany to a beautiful town called Saarlouis, which is just 10 kilometres from the French border. It's a small city with a population of 35,000 people and the city's largest employer is Ford. Originally built on an old airfield in the 60s, the Saarlouis plant started car production in 1970 and today produces the C-MAX and the Ford Focus. And we're here to work on our own Focus RS, which is getting built today. Our first stop is to check out the engine. The Focus RS is powered by a 2.3 litre inline four cylinder that sits in an east-west configuration. Both the head and block are alloy, meaning it's light, but durability is built in using iron cylinder liners. It's got double overhead cams, variable cam timing, piston cooling jets, as well as forged conrods and crank. With the help of a twin scroll turbo and a huge 26 pounds of boost pressure, the engine puts out 350 horsepower. This is then sent into the all-wheel drive system via a six-speed manual gearbox. Our next stop is to check out the seats and Australia does very well in this regard with Recaros coming as standard. So right here is the Recaro shell seat. Now, while some areas of the world the RS gives you an option for seats, in Australia, they basically realised that if you're given an option of a mad Recaro shell seat or a standard seat, everyone was just going to tick the box for a mad seat. So they've just made them standard for RSs in Australia. Now, we spent a little bit of time in a Recaro factory and it's awesome to see the attention to detail that goes into the seats and one of those seats is going into a brand new car. Man, I want one of those things for women pulling seats out of cars. Look at it! And there's like a special plastic guard that they put there as well to make sure it doesn't scratch the car. So cool. And then in the seat, in the seat goes. That's amazing. Just like that. And then all like the tooling's already set up, the bolt's already there. It's all like torque to spec straight away. So good. Yeah, so good. At this station, there is a steady supply of spoilers being delivered. This is where our car will get its badges and then the massive RS wing. Later on, we'll be meeting the guy who designed it so we can ask the age-old question of whether the spoiler engineering actually increases performance. This is where the driveline gets connected to the rest of the car and ours is on its way there right now. That is our actual RS. Like one you can tell by the white bumper on the front that's temporary. We'll fix that later. But that is our actual car sailing through to go and get the rest of its like undercarriage and engine and all that. Although we often pull engines up and out of the engine bay, for most modern mass-produced vehicles, it's much quicker and more efficient to load everything in from underneath. The process of joining the freshly assembled engine and all-wheel drive system to the chassis of the car requires robots with lasers working with humans to accurately align all the parts. The body for the Focus RS is born from the same one that's engineered for the regular Focus with a lot of similarities, but then the RS is built with a host of performance modifications to transform it into an all-wheel drive hot hatch that's capable of some serious skids, which we'll be getting into a little bit later. Now there's a few bits and pieces that they leave on the car in this part of the production line. Like you'll notice the bumper is not an RS bumper. The brakes have covers on them, but you can pick the subtle differences like the bigger brakes, massive brake calipers, but all the extra fruity bits, that happens later. This part of the line is where they're screwing in those massive bolts that hold all the sort of subframe to the actual shell of the car. After this, it'll go to the RS modification centre and that's when they put on other little details that are specific to the Focus RS. But there it is. We're in Germany. This is freaking awesome. It's freaking awesome. Next up, the Focuses get their guard liners and air intakes. Then some fancy computer whiz-bangery automatically matches wheel and tyre selection and cues them to be installed on the line. And once this is done, then we're allowed to get involved. Now you may have noticed on the Focus RS that are coming down the production line with all the other cars, they've got this sort of dummy bumper on the front of them and that is because the bumper that comes on the RS when it leaves the factory, it would not actually fit on there. That's right, the RSs are so fat and wide and mad that they're too big to fit in all the tooling that they've got set up to make the Focuses. So that is why the cars need to come here. This is the vehicle personalisation modification centre and this is the place where all the different optional accessories that people order when they order their car get put on the actual vehicle. In our case for our RS, this is where the front bumper will go on, it's where the side skirts will go on, it's where some of the under-tray stuff underneath the engine goes on and lots of other bits and pieces. So come with us, check it out, it's going to be magical, it's going to be freaking fat and awesome. Our car has arrived in the modification centre and our first job is to get rid of the dummy bumper and replace it with an RS bumper which we'll attempt to build ourselves. This RS bumper requires over 100 components and each one is put together by hand which an expert can do in around 20 minutes. This is Michelle who normally does this job, just here and I think she's just quietly smiling about how long it's taking us to do this. You do this much faster, yeah? See, we haven't had like great experience putting like badges and stickers on cars in the past. No, never. So it's important that you get this right, like this is not the TRD laser, I also just want to make a note of the fact that I'm going to be washing this thing. Yes. A whole lot. I'm going to be looking at it all the time and if this is wrong, I have no one to blame. I can't blame the factory. No, no. I can only blame myself. So here we go. Actually really stressful. I know. I'm so glad I'm not doing this component. So I have to line up this bit and then the bottom bit. RS badge, yes. Oh, that looks pretty good, man. Yeah, man. Well done. It's actually really good. I like the colour too, that's cool. So the trick with this one, Marty, is to line up the bottom, but not actually press the bottom in yet. Yep. So line all of that up, but then actually press the top. Yeah. Up here. Yep, here. I missed it. Great, perfect. No, I didn't miss. It worked. We're good. We are. All right, so next up, we're punching the holes. This is the little holes for the plates where the washers go, because Australian cars, if you've got HRDs, they have to be able to wash the headlights. So this is a big punch that punches the hole. Just like that. Perfect. So when we're removing the bumper now, only one person is going to remove it, because if you've got two people, there's more chance of it getting scratched. So you just want one person. And then we're going to flip it. No pressure. And I want to help, but I'm not allowed to. Well done, Marty. Solid. The machinery, like, the tooling is just so good. So good. That's your one? Cool. I think that one's my one. There it goes. A lot of work goes into one bumper, hey. For some reason, Marty, even though we've done this kind of stuff a lot, it feels really scary doing it to a brand new car that we don't even own yet. Yeah, that's right. So there's a very specific process and a specific pattern of which one of these fasteners needs to go on at which time to make sure that the whole thing is sitting flat. And they're making a speed up too. But you know what else I can understand? I can understand why they're getting grumpy because they've got another bumper bar that they need to make and we've just held up their production line. Well, there is that. But also, like, so much of this stuff, you know when you're pulling cars apart and you're like, why is it like this? Why do they make these fasteners? Because this is fast, man. Yeah, exactly. It's got to get done quickly, right? Schmackes. Big schmack. I think schmackes is my new favourite German word. Because I'm pretty sure it just means smash it, mate. Thank you. Look at this teamwork, Martin. This is efficiency. Look at this teamwork. We've just, we've just You think we've been working on cars together for 10 years? Revolutionised. Efficiency. I don't think Michelle thinks so. No. You gonna schmack us? Schmack us. That's my new favourite word. Schmack us. Once I stick it in, do I screw it? Or do I just finger it? I think you just smash it. Just finger bang it? Just with your thumb, man. Okay. Smash it as good as you can. There we go. Wiring looms. Yep. This is so satisfying. Oh, and then tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Complete. Yep. Okay. It's complete. Well, it took us longer than 20 minutes, but our bumper is done. So now we can install the subwoofer, and then start working on some of the other components that are unique to the RS. It's also time to get rid of the dummy bumper, which will be returned to the factory floor to be used again. Okay, so now that the bumper's finished, the next step is that we've taken off the dummy bumper that was on there. Then the real one can go on, and the, what do they call them? Rockers. They call them rocker panels here. The side skirts are called rocker panels. That's, that's some kind of translation though. Yeah, I mean, we said side skirt and they looked at us like we were just crazy. But that's what goes on. So now our bumper can go on, the rocker panels can go on. Probably the other interesting thing that I, the word I keep hearing is Schnell, and Schnell means hurry up. Does it really? It means hurry up. Is that what they keep saying? Yeah, I keep hearing Schnell. I keep hearing Schnell and Scheisser. No. That's all I hear. Really? I don't know what they mean, but I think they mean you're doing a good job. While all Focus models have suspension setups that are tried and tested on the street and the track, the RS gets a number of additional components to help with rigidity and performance. All of the work that we do today will be checked over and then signed off by an engineer to make sure that the car is safe to leave the factory. So this here is cooling for the braking system. So this is basically getting air that is coming in from the bumper and sending it over here into these massive calipers. These ducts we're installing are fed via large vents that sit on either side of the front bumper, which feeds cool air to 350mm vented discs and four pot Brembos, which are engineered for track use. Our brakes are going to stay cool. That's awesome. What's really interesting is each time we do a little mod, which I think is a good thing, then the actual technical guys check it and double check it again to make sure that everything is perfect before it leaves the factory. I guess I would too if my name was on it, right? Because that's the interesting thing. The guys are signing parts and marking them to make sure that they've checked them for quality control. Look at that big front mount, dude. That's factory. And it's black. Epic black front mount. A black front mount from the factory. So these here are spring blockers. Now there's a lot of things about this car that are a real anomaly. And one of them is it's too low and it's actually too low to transport. So these here actually get locked in up here under the springs and that means the car can retain a bit of height and actually be able to get around when it's being transported. We talk about cars being too low in Australia and these things. It's like they've got to raise it just to move it around. Next up, we can install our bumper. So awesome. Learning how to put cars together by the guys that actually make them in the factory. It's amazing. And that's it. Our car is ready to go on a ship bound for Australia. But now we want to delve deeper into the form and function of the car. So we're heading to Cologne to meet the designer and lead engineer. And while we're there, we want to find out what their attitude is towards people like us who modify cars after they have spent years designing and engineering them from the factory. The first person that we're going to meet in Cologne is Ernesto, who is the exterior lead designer for the Focus RS. Can you tell us a little bit about the process of how you actually designed the car? I'm assuming you started with a big block of clay and then actually carved it out. Is that right? Well, that's kind of the way we do it, yes. The base is, of course, the Focus. So we have a couple of things we have to maintain. All the sheet metal parts are the same as the base car. However, the mechanical parts, because this car is an all-wheel drive, is a bit different. The engine requires a bit more cooling. So we have a couple of engineering requirements and therefore also big openings in the front end, as you can see. What are some of the design considerations you have to make when you're designing a car that is made to go considerably faster than a normal Focus? Well, first of all, cooling. That's the main thing. But also downforce, aerodynamic features. And the RS is typically very functional. I mean, there's no just design styling features. Everything has to work. So it's fit for purpose. Can we talk about the spoiler at the rear end? There's a lot of talk about spoilers and a lot of talk about their purpose and their working. Does the spoiler actually do anything? And if it does, how did you test it and design it? Well, we test everything in the wind tunnel. So we work closely with the aerodynamic engineers. And particularly on the RS, since it's an all-wheel drive system, it needs downforce on the front and on the rear. And since we have a big splitter on the front, as you can see, this big black thing in the front had a lot of downforce in the front and we needed to counterbalance in the rear. The front is so significantly different to any other Focus. So you definitely see the difference. And on the rear, I put a bit of my own touch to it by having this embossed RS logo on it. Something I took from my previous work as a world rally car design. I did also the Ford Fiesta rally cars. We took some design cues, if you look closely, from the Fiesta rally car and put them into the Ford Focus RS. Certainly the front openings. So what we did, we eliminated any bars. It's just a full functional opening for upper and lower intercooler. The mesh is just very thin. It has the best openings for cooling. And if you look closely also, we call the dock bone, the black bit in the grille. That is pretty much what we have also on the world rally cars. How does it feel when you spend so much time and you put so much effort into designing a car and then you see people modifying them? That's totally fine to me because of course we have our restrictions and our ideas in the beginning of course way wilder than what you get on the road later on. We appreciate and look also what the customer does to the car because they gave us also ideas. We as designers have to look at the customer as well. So you're certainly a fan of people modifying the car once they've got it? Certainly. Well, that works well for us. Next up, we're meeting Tyrone who is the performance engineer for the RS. And the first thing we want to find out about is the all-drive system. What we have is two clutches in the RDU, the rear drive unit, which basically adjusts themselves constantly from all the way open, in which case the car is a pure front-wheel drive car, to all the way closed where the maximum amount of torque is transferred to the rear end of the car. And then all kinds of intermediate settings where the system is controlling the dynamics of the car. So you always have movement, but if the clutches are open, all you have is movement. Movement is not equal to torque transfer. You just have movement. Things are spinning, but there's no torque being transferred. The torque gets transferred once the clutches get closed. So the 2.3 liter, the direct injection engine, is an engine that already exists in its basic form in the Mustang, in the 2.3 liter Mustang. But we knew we needed significantly more power and torque, so we had to make modifications to that. So that's how that decision came about. It fits into the platform, in a base car, a base focus. The 2 liter ST is essentially the same basic engine. So from a package point of view, it fits and everything. So that's how we started off with that decision. We have the exact same stroke and bore as in the Mustang, but we've changed cylinder liners, the head is different, all new turbocharger. The Mustang is a north-south installation. We have an east-west installation, so the intake exhaust is completely different. So it's quite heavily modified, but the basic engine unit is essentially the same. As an engineer, are you always trying to push the boundary of what kind of power you'll extract from one of these? Yes, always. So you're always on the team of let's get as much as we possibly can of this engine? Absolutely. So the power output that you've got, how do you feel about that from a terms of, do you think if you see people in the aftermarket pushing it, is that something you'd like to see? Well, it's interesting. I mean, I know that we're pretty close to the limit on this engine, but everybody can decide what they want to do with it. I mean, more power is always better, but we have a lot more constraints than just more power. These cars also have to serve as daily drivers for hundreds of thousands of kilometers. And so we have to think about that also. Now that's enough talk. We've got a couple of Focus RSs and a closed track, so it's time for some launch control and some skids. Full throttle. And then let go of the clutch. And just sidestep the clutch. Full throttle. The RS goes 0 to 100 in just 4.7 seconds. And of course, now we have to try drift mode. I like this a lot. Windows down to clean the smoke. Do you want to have a go? Yeah. All right. Let's swap it over, man. This is awesome. Yeah, the tire's gone. With the tire gone, they brought us another RS to play with. And at this point, all we can really say is that the hype is real. This car is an absolute monster. And it was an amazing opportunity to come to Germany and work on our own car in the factory. Right now, our car is on a ship on its way to Australia. But until it arrives, we just have to wait.