Building a decent fast Focus would appear to be about as challenging as dynamiting fish in a barrel. With an outrageously talented chassis to begin with and the entire Ford empire of engines to dip into, surely this was a simple case of plug and play? You'd think so wouldn't you? Unfortunately, Ford somehow, in the past, decided to make something of a horlicks of the whole affair. They're looking to make amends now, however, with the launch of the latest Focus ST.

Let's look at the performance models of the old Focus. First up was the Focus ST170. This promised a lot but delivered so little. Its handling felt no better than a standard 2.0-litre Zetec yet the ride quality had deteriorated quite markedly. Worse still, because its engine was so sluggish at low revs, it couldn't hope to cut it as a serious hot hatch. What should have been a car that rewrote the rules in the hot hatch sector strangely transmogrified into an instantly forgettable also-ran. The ST170 represents great value as a used buy, if that's any consolation. Dealers can hardly give the things away.

The other model that Ford launched caused even greater controversy. The Focus RS had a long gestation, originally slated to be a four-wheel drive model developed in conjunction with Cosworth. When it did appear, it was markedly different. With power going to the front wheels, the 2.0-litre turbocharged engine huffed and puffed to produce a meagre 217bhp. Given that Mitsubishi and Subaru can reliably extract 300bhp+ from a 2.0-litre turbo engine and Japanese domestic market Honda Civics generate 220bhp from a normally aspirated 2.0-litre, this was nothing entirely special. What's more, many didn't care for the way the Quaife torque-biasing differential deployed the engine's power, the Focus RS being somewhat wayward on anything other than the perfectly contoured Shellgrip of a race track. While it could set a storming time around a modern circuit, on typical British B-roads, the Focus RS was a torque-steering handful. Only the most committed petrolheads mourned its passing.

"The Focus ST offers layers to its talents that no competitively priced rival can hope to match"

A lot has happened in the intervening time. Ford has launched the second generation Focus, a car that refines the theme yet further. Some have griped that in making the Focus that little bit more polished, some of the edge and attitude has been lost. That may be the case, the steering not feeling quite as sharp as the earlier cars, but there's little doubt that the latest generation model is more capable. It'll corner quicker and safer with better body control and superior braking abilities. Therefore, as a platform for a serious performance car, the latest Focus holds all the aces. Surely Ford can't foul it up again?

Being rather hopeless at suspense, I'll level with you. The Focus ST is brilliant. It's a hot hatch that flatters the average driver and rewards those with a few more tools in their locker. So many seriously powerful GTi hatches feel as if they have a little too much power but the chassis of the Focus is so talented and the engine so tractable that it always feels a class act. Having clocked up quite a few miles in the Focus RS, I was initially worried that the ST would be a little soft in the belly. Over the first couple of miles I wasn't feeling much love for the steering, the electrically assisted system offering too much help. I then discovered that it's possible, via the car's computer, to change the weighting. I was on a Comfort setting. Notch it up to Sport, grab the thick-rimmed wheel and you've got a car that loves to be thrown at corners.

Catch it off guard and the car can feel slightly nose heavy, that five-cylinder 222bhp turbo engine being quite a hunk of metalwork, but traction is so good that when you get it right, the Focus just slingshots out of a bend with no drama, very little in the way of torque steer and one of the most infectious engine notes around. Despite offering a broadly similar turbocharged power output to the original Focus RS and having drive directed to the front wheels like the Focus RS, Ford insiders claim the latest ST will demolish the RS's time around the Nurburgring by a full twelve seconds, courtesy of its superior cornering ability and improved torque. I can believe it.

The sprint to 60mph takes just over six seconds and a top speed in the region of 150mph will be more than adequate. Wet traction off the line isn't the greatest but lateral grip is superb. The Volvo-sourced powerplant serves up a big slug of torque between 1,700 and 6,750rpm. It's this driveability that makes the Focus ST such a formidable weapon. I drove the Ford to an event where I was driving a 414bhp Audi RS4 and it's a real compliment to the Focus to say that it felt neither slow nor cheap afterwards.

Unusually, the production version of the ST comes in three trim levels, priced from £17,795. You can specify an ST, an ST 2 or an ST 3 but some revision of this nomenclature will presumably be required if a diesel model is ever introduced. The ST 3 is the plushest with electrically adjustable leather Recaro seats and a six CD autochanger.

The Focus ST is more than we could have hoped for. It's a more mature car than you might expect given the loud colour schemes of the press fleet models you'll have seen in magazines but it's also a very talented, extremely tactile and awesomely skilled car. With cars like the Vauxhall Astra VXR and Volkswagen Golf GTI around, it needed to be. Ford have pulled it out of the fire.

TOP 5 FOCUS DEALS

The results below show the top FOCUS deals on buyacar

	Ford Focus 2.5 ST-3 3dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £289	Saving £2,470	Price £17,775
	Ford Focus 2.5 ST-2 3dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £275	Saving £2,334	Price £16,911
	Ford Focus 2.5 ST-3 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £302	Saving £2,552	Price £18,293
	Ford Focus 1.4 Studio 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £173	Saving £2,681	Price £10,114
	Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi Style 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £209	Saving £3,389	Price £12,406

typical 11.15% APR

PCP finance quote over 48 months,  10,000 miles pa,  deposit of £1000