The Ford Focus RS is the world’s best hot hatchback. A sweeping statement, to be sure, but if you look at Car and Driver’s favorites among these sporty but practical small cars—the Mazdaspeed 3 and the Volkswagen GTI—the latest and greatest Focus beats them in all respects. Except one: You can’t buy it here. Yet.
Forbidden [...]
The 2010 Ford Fusion is a car that blurs the boundaries between a midcycle refresh and a ground-up redesign. Its platform is shared with last year’s Fusion, which means it’s still fundamentally a stretched version of the first-generation Mazda 6. Yet practically everything else is new — exterior design, interior design, powertrains, you name it. [...]
If you wanted the baddest Mustang available in 1967, you would’ve checked out the then-new Shelby GT500, which had a 428-cubic-inch (7.0-liter!) V8 that made a (conservatively rated) 355 hp. Back then, however, horsepower was rated differently. In today’s numbers, that big V8’s output would equate to about 300 hp. Forget about the ’60s, though. [...]