Project 5

2013 Ford Focus ST | Unofficial Shelby Development Vehicle | LSG Rally Car

I never had any real intention of purchasing this car. At this point in time, I was quite happy with P4 and it was almost paid off. Like many other Focus fanatics, I would go to the Ford website and build my dream ST to see how much it would cost and to ponder all the dirty things I would do to it in my garage if I were to get one. It was still late 2012 so there were none at the dealerships to check out until about the middle of November. I had noticed that the first 3 had popped up in the inventory of a dealership about 30 miles away. For me, 20 miles is too far just to go sit in a car at a dealership, so I waited until the weekend when I had a military drill to attend which took me right past this dealership. On the way home, while still in Uniform, I stopped in and there it was, sitting right in front of the main building entrance, the car that I had built on-line so many times before, I had to drive it. After the usual back and fourth with the salesman, I got the key fob and was on the road. The seats were so snug and felt as if the car was giving me a hug and saying ‘buy me, take me home’ as if you were reading that on a puppy dogs eyes at an animal shelter. I was taken back by the placement of all of the buttons and dials as it was such an easy transition from my mk1 since everything was in pretty much the same place. A couple of stop lights later, I was at the freeway entrance and I wasn’t ready for what was about to happen. I didn’t want to spin the tires so I eased through first gear, lightly shifted into second, and then floored it. The turbo spooled up so incredibly quick at such a low RPM that I was tossed back in the seat where I was embraced once again by the Reccaro seat. 4000, 5000, 6000 RPM and the car still was holding me back in the seat. I knew at this point, I was doomed. At the end of my visit to the dealership, I had purchased it. No haggling, no arguing with the salesmen, just ‘shut up and take my money’. Not the smartest vehicle purchase ever, but one that I don’t regret.