Loder1899's 345HP New Ford Focus RS

There's a company called Loder1899 (no, I don't get the name either), and they thought that what Ford's latest Focus RS needed was more power. A substantial amount of power, actually, bumping it up from the already hefty 300 ponies stock all they way to 345 horsepower. OK, sounds like fun to me.

Let me get my one meta-criticism out of the way right up front (and it's actually a pretty small one). Apart from the wheels, I've got no problems with what Loder1899 have done here. What I would like to see someone do, however, is take the Focus RS, and make a more day-to-day streetable and livable version of the Focus WRC rally car.

What Loder1899 have done though is pretty impressive. For starters, they're wadding 345 horsepower through the front wheels. Shoot, I remember when people would tell you categorically that anything more than 200 HP through the fronts was suicidal. That little tidbit of automotive history must have slipped by Germany's Loder1899 when it came to their new sport package for the second-generation Focus RS.

Said package features such standard niceties as a sport exhaust system, a new air filter and what must be a host of engine upgrades to get that small-ish 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five cylinder plant cranking out a total of 345 HP. Just what are those upgrades, specifically? Curiously, Loder1899 is staying particularly schtumm about the details. Why? Who the hell knows?

What isn't particularly schtumm though is that aforementioned sport exhaust system, which Loder1899 says, "will alert your friends, neighbors etc, etc that you've fiddled around with the engine". For some reason they didn't mention that doing that to the RS's exhaust will probably attract every cop in the county, but hey, you're a bad boy, and rebels like you don't care what the cops think.

Loder1899 also dropped the Focus RS's body by 35 mm, or 1.4 inches, and they also offer a choice of 20-inch alloy wheels in various designs. And about one of those designs, all I got to say is: "Bad choice." That would be the primarily all-black ones with the X-File green spoke highlights. Yes, they do go well with the color of the Focus RS itself ... but GAH!, they do not work on the wheels.

OK, now someone out there make me a Mikko Hirvonen version of the Focus RS, will you?

Source: Car Scoop