The last Cosworth: story of my Ford ST170

Hello everybody! I own a rare car (at least here, in Moscow ST170 club counts 3 owners including me). And this is me and my car’s story.

A turning point in car manufacturing ideology has happened in the mid 2000s. The market starved for hot-hatches that are not sports cars in common sense. Customers wanted a sports car with wide utility range: take kids from school, visit a supermarket and bring home kids without nervous tic and food, not a huge shake.   A short time before that turning point the manufacturing of Ford Focus ST170 was closed. This one was the last fast Ford with engine engineered by legendary Cosworth.

The car was engineered in a rush. Ford needed a sports car to boost the Focus model sales. This is mostly the reason why ST170 became so eclectic, arguable and charismatic. That rush determined the choice of parts: popular compact and durable 6-speed Getrag gearbox, 2-liter naturally aspirated engine co-developed by Cosworth and Ford Special Vehicles Team (SVT), anatomic and sporty Recaro front and rear seats, shorter and stiffer suspension springs, short shocks, twice thicker anti-sway bar, strong axles, shorter steering rack and… thats all!   Other are shared with ordinary Focus. Exterior changes are extremely poor: 17-inch multispoke wheels, different front fog lights and larger spoiler on the back door.   

Well, seems like ST170 is an ordinary Focus with a deprived comfort. But let’s get out and drive.   On the back end we still have a revolutionary Ford’s Control Blade steering suspension, but with more sporty settings. The car dives into the corner like it was rear-wheel drive, no understeering and tilt at all. The maximum torque starts from approximately 3000 RPM and lasts up to 7200 RPM. At about 6000 RPM the IMRC module opens the intake to deliver more air for the engine so you can feel turbo-like punch to your back. The steering is extremely sharp – the steering rack is different here too.

Everything is about sound here. You should listen to this car to understand it. Get into the car, roll down the windows and get into gear. You can here a hard metal sound and that is not a gearbox malfunction, this is the sound of speed shifting mechanism. Sounds like an oldschool sportscar: no electronics, just a driver and a machine, hitch-towed.

Engine is the most interesting part of ST170. This is a 2-liter 4-cylinder high-efficiency naturally aspirated engine. It is equipped with intake manifold runner system and a variable cam timing. This results in a massive amount of torque in a wide RPM range a turbo-like boost on high revs. Forget about efficient modern small turbo engines, get ready to feed this beast properly. Pedal to the metal equals results into consumption of up to 17 liters of 98 octane gas on 100 kilometers. Don’t be surprised: heavy-duty fuel pump is able to deliver up to 200 liter a minute and that’s twice more than “ordinary” Focus pump does.

Acceleration is emotional. Large amount of torque brings the feeling of diesel locomotive and the control lamp of traction control keeps blinking despite of wide and tacky tires until you shift to the second gear. Tires start to spin again when you knock down the third. The shifter is short but not very clear so you have to get used to be accurate to choose the right gear.

Disc brakes are big, so the minimum wheel size is 16 inch. With this amount of braking power you can start slowing down close to the corner and hear the passenger’s scream “stop, stop, stop” pretty much all the time. But it’s easy to overheat the brakes, so one should be careful on racing tracks.

The interior is classy. Leather Recaro seats look stunning due to “snake hood” in the upper part of backrest and massive lateral support. The only problem is they are too slippery for track days. Steering wheel, gear shifting knob and handbrake stem are leather covered, gear shifting knob and door handles are made of aluminium, not aluminium-look plastic. And this is the essence of this car: it’s not plastic, it’s real. ST170 is a “factory sleeper”: humble exterior is coupled with daring temper and only expert can recognize the hot version in this Focus. ST170 is ready to make a home to work commute a rally stage, but get ready to start working for to pay the gas and service bills – this oldie needs lots of love and care to keep rolling strong.

P.S. The car is in repair shop for 6 months already – hard to find parts and specialists here in Moscow. But I believe it will be faster than ever after long Russian winter.