Ford's Focus RS500 takes on the BMW M3 Coupe

Fifth Gear  Thursday 09 September 2010

The RS500 is a pumped-up blue-collar bruiser to BMW's white collar prize-fighter

Okay, we admit it, this isn’t a straight comparison. The latest edition of the BMW M3 costs a wallet-evacuating £53,275 even before you start ticking boxes on the options list, while the most expensive Ford Focus ever clocks in at £35,450, if you can find one, because this hot Ford is already sold out.

Nor is it a fair fight. The BMW’s naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre V8 develops 420bhp compared to the 345bhp produced by the RS500’s 2.5-litre turbocharged five-cylinder engine, making the M3 almost a second quicker in the sprint to 60mph.

So, unlike most twin tests, the idea of driving these cars back to back is not to discover which is the more deserving of your money or even which is quantifiably better – instead, it’s a snapshot of the intriguing differences that lie at the heart of what two very different brands believe a performance car should be in the 21st century.

To appreciate the contrast between the two, one must understand something of where they both come from. Like the Porsche 911, the M3 is now the product of a never-ending cycle of evolution which started in 1986 with the race-derived E30. The muscle-bound 3-Series is the car which has come to best define BMW’s Ultimate Driving Machine ethos; front-engined, rear-wheel driven, balanced, poised and powerful.

If the M3 was originally born on the track, the RS500’s heritage stretches even further back into the mist and mud of international rallying. The limited edition model can trace its roots back to some of the best cars the blue oval has ever built. The RS badge may have ditched all-wheel drive the moment it was attached to a Focus in 2002, but the front-wheel driven mega-hatch hasn’t lost the working class hero status gifted to all fast Fords. The RS500 is horsepower at its most democratic; a pumped-up blue-collar bruiser to BMW’s white collar prize-fighter.

And just as boxers can be characterised by their footwork, performance cars are defined by their driven wheels. The Ford transmits its power through the front wheels with the ferocious urge of a rally car, but it is at the very limit of its technical wizardry. In the standard RS the five-cylinder engine goes about its business with the demeanour of very strong, very proficient Volvo engine.

In the RS500 it’s like Ford has hooked up an afterburner. It’s really that dramatic. There are times when the Focus feels like a rigid black cage being hauled along by a runaway train. Don’t believe those performance figures either – it may not have the tongue-biting fizz in the last 800rpm, but the Ford feels every bit as quick as the BMW.

It’s clear after a few minutes that the RS500 now sits at the outer edge of what is possible with a driven front-axle; it occupies a class of one, quicker and more visceral than the Honda Civic Type R Mugen, more talented and butch than the Renault Megane 250 Cup.

In contrast the M3 feels like what it is; another sublimely drawn notch on BMW’s performance family tree. The car is a pointed reminder that rear-wheel drive remains the undisputed thoroughbred performance solution – the Ford relies on its trick differential like a bodybuilder depends on steroids, but the M3 is clean-limbed and lithe, its chassis exhibiting an aura of cohesiveness and accuracy that the RS500 cannot quite match.

Unlike the Focus, where all the energy is concentrated on those tarmac-shredding front tyres during prolonged periods of savage acceleration, the power feels more evenly deployed within the M3’s frame, erupting in more controlled fashion somewhere beneath your seat. The M3 is a car more in control of its power.

The BMW also broadcasts a mechanical symphony from beneath its bonnet. There’s something primal about the sound of a high-revving V8 – it stirs the same feelings as the rapid, shimmering beat of an aboriginal drum. The Focus’s souped-up engine is almost as evocative, but in an utterly different way. The RS500’s power rises on the whistle of a spinning turbo and spools to calm on the chattering, barking pop of a spine-tingling overrun. It sounds like an industrial power ballad.

It also has the blunt good looks to match its soundtrack. The M3’s bulges have slimmed over the years, but the RS500 is a square-jawed hero in the Mad Max mould. Its matt vinyl wrap and exclusivity turn more heads in provincial town centres than an England striker on holiday. The attention underscores the idea of the Ford as a working class hero – not a fantasy machine for bedroom posters, but a potential future purchase if the right second-hand circumstances arose. The RS500’s cost undoubtedly puts it beyond the reach of most, but the degree to which it jams its big, black, sticky thumb in the far more expensive M3’s eye will be heartening to anyone determined to maximise their brake horsepower buying power.

By contrast, the BMW continues to reap the benefits of its mechanical layout, and the years BMW has dedicated to refining it. Its unwavering faith in the dynamic benefits of rear-wheel drive is one reason why the M3 continues to enthral. Sure, the latest generation might move another step away from its race track origins, but the slide towards executive express has not prevented the V8-powered M3 from retaining the kind of tail-happy potential that most enthusiasts relish. It remains one of the most complete performance cars currently on sale in the UK.

Unfair fights almost never end satisfactorily, but in the final analysis the best BMW and the fastest Ford fall on opposite sides of an intriguing divide. The civilised M3 is a car you respect, cherish and occasionally allow yourself the indulgence of a flamboyant, attacking drive; the RS500 is a car that tempts you into driving that way every time. It’s a raw car that’s harder to live with, but easier to love.