2010 Ford Focus RS

A car like Ford Focus RS would never have been conceived in these times. It's an overhang of the years of optimism that suddenly terminated last fall. Look at the size of the RS's twin tailpipes, exhaling like storm drains from the rear bumper. See the giant gills gulping air to the intercooler below the front license plate. Check the swollen wheel arches, the ground-hugging stance, the 19-inch wheels and the rear spoiler like a bomber's wingspan.

So let us, the car-lovers of the world, offer collective thanksgivings that Ford has made the very apex of hot hatches into such a life-affirmingly brilliant machine as its Focus RS.

We've covered the engineering before, so let's jump-cut to the way it feels down the road. We're in a second-gear corner, a tight mountain uphill 90-right. We throw the car in, its stability reassuring under the wheel-filling brakes, and feel the high-geared steering take a bite out of the curve. The tire grip is way beyond conventional hot-hatchback levels, but that's not the really astonishing part. The really special part is what comes next, on the exit of the curve.

We squeeze the aluminum throttle pedal and the engine takes a giant lungful, hurling us under the impulsion of the 305-hp, 2.5L five-cylinder motor's 325 lb-ft of torque, available with little lag from well below 3000 rpm. The limited-slip differential does its job of keeping both tires biting, and the patented front suspension geometry suppresses the torque steer. The little Focus just careers out of the bend with startling fairground-ride physicality. As the revs climb to the sound of an intense five-cylinder thrum we grab the next gear and loose off an explosion of waste-gate flutter. Honestly the way it gets its power down, you could almost swear there's AWD at work here.