Ford U.S. & European Performance Lines To Merge

So FoMoCo says they're going to be merging their American and European performance lines. Yes, to me, this sounds like a very good thing. Does that mean that we'll be able to buy the Ford Focus RS here in the good ol' U.S. of A.? I hope so.

England's Automobile magazine recently had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Jost Capito, the guy who is in charge of aligning Ford's performance divisions all around the globe for the Blue Oval Boys. And if you're a fan of high performance cars of the Ford stripe the discussion bodes well for the future.

"I don't see RS in Europe going away, and I don't see SVT in the U.S. going away," said Capito in reference to what Ford is deciding what to do with the next-gen high-performance Focus. This was in reference to the Ford Focus platform that was recently unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show, and Capito brought up the Focus RS on his own.

Hmmm, interesting. There's a lot of people over here (and I'm one of them) that are bummed that we don't get a car as fun (they say) as the Ford Focus RS. And really, from an engineering standpoint, there's no reason why Ford couldn't bring the RS version over here to go with the other Focus they already sell in this market.

So, combine the longing of the hot rod crowd over her with what Capito has been blabbing to the European press about, and it's easy to see that we could end up with a bunch of various hi performance Fords over here.

For example, in Europe, Ford already offers both the Focus ST and top-level RS. And Ford has been seen testing a 240-horsepower Ecoboost-powered Focus ST that is supposedly hitting the show rooms within 18 months. And after that, there will be a follow up to the latest RS

The word is that the next RS variant could sport a 350-horsepower all-wheel drive hybrid powertrain and could be hitting the streets within the next three years. Now put all the pieces together, and it's easy to see how these upcoming next-gen hot Ford hatchback could very well end up in America.

Source: AutoBlog