Torque steer would like a word with you.
Big horsepower cars and wet roads are the perfect recipe for a good scare, and YouTuber Officially Gassed had the chance to find out how terrifying the combination is with this 900-horsepower front-wheel-drive Ford Focus RS. In the video, Officially Gassed tears around narrow British roads in the car while doing skittery acceleration runs.
In an effort to prevent wheelspin, the car is equipped with a Syvecs Powertrain Control ECU. The Syvecs gives tuners the freedom to make fine adjustments to engine mapping settings and alter power delivery (and much more). In particular, the Focus’s owner mentions that he is using a boost-by-gear function to soften the power down low. He also mentions that the setup offers adjustable boost engine maps for low, medium, and high power.
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The Syvecs enhances the standard power output and the car attempts to put that down to the ground. So much so, in fact, that there is a warning in the online description of its capabilities, which states that it is intended for off-highway applications only. Is this a very cute way of saying it’s intended for racing?
While the Focus looked like it was hooking up well during the rolling accelerations, standing starts were a different story. Not even the best ECU tune in the world can keep the front wheels of this beast from spinning. In its first attempt, the Focus could only get to 60 miles per hour in 7.5 seconds on a very wet road. In its second attempt, on low boost (producing roughly 670 horsepower,) the best the Focus could do was a time of 6.2 seconds.
The crazy Focus ended up stone-dead last on Officially Gassed’s FWD 0-60 leaderboard. Disappointing, but not surprising given the wet roads put the car at a massive disadvantage. In the dry, though, it likely is a contender for the fastest FWD car on Officially Gassed’s YouTube channel.
Source: Officially Gassed