Ford Focus ST 2.0L 2015 review

A dish best served warm, the tasty ST tempts with subtle spiciness rather than outright fiery performance

A good curry is a feast for the senses. The eyes scan it for red-flaked evidence of potency; the nostrils inhale the heady aroma of hidden spices and the mouth salivates for the first taste of chilli-infused sauce.

Similar sensory responses await in the updated Ford Focus ST. Red-flaked calipers lurk under the 18-inch rims and the faint but unforgettable whiff of unburnt hydrocarbons hangs in the air.

Then you press the start button and the relish the burble of the 2.0-litre turbo engine.

The ST, the warm version of Ford's five-door compact hatch, is enough for performance fans until the all-wheel-drive RS model arrives early next year.

The latest update brings minor revisions to the exterior, headlined by the stretched grille and narrower, more focused headlamps.

The best news awaits behind the door — where Ford has ditched the button-festooned dash for an eight-inch touchscreen with voice control as part of the Sync2 multimedia setup — and under the front, where the stiffer front suspension keeps the car sitting ever flatter through turns.

The base cost is $38,990. Options include prestige paint at $450 and $2000 for a Technology Pack bundling the latest driver assistance software. Standard gear runs from snug Recaro seats that may be too tightly bolstered for larger bodies to the touchscreen with in-built satnav, dual-zone aircon and bi-xenon headlamps.

That price is lineball with a Subaru WRX and $3000 cheaper than a Volkswagen Golf GTI. It shares its 6.5-second sprint to 100km/h with the GTI, 0.5 sec behind a manual WRX.

Driving

There's only so much punishment the Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres can take when you pump this much torque through the front wheels.

The ST wants to dance when the go pedal is pushed

The suspension that was a touch-too-firm in the city minutes earlier is now tracking undulations like a bloodhound but it is the corner-exit torque steer that opens the eyes. Without the RevoKnuckle suspension from the previous RS or an old-fashioned limited-slip diff, the ST wants to dance when the go pedal is pushed.

It is easily tamed with the steering quickly coming back into line as pedal pressure eases. Ultimately it is more fun than frustration. You just need to be aware it's likely to happen. Get it wrong and the ST's predictive stability control software will try to intervene before the car starts to slide.

At a more mundane pace, the ST shows why people will warm to it more than an outright hot hatch. The ride is solid but rarely jostles the passengers, especially those in the front cinched into the massively bolstered seats.

You could live with it as a daily driver with reasonable cargo and rear passenger space, then load its catalytic converters until they glow on weekends.

The meaty steering wheel is backed by good weight and feedback for a pseudo-sports car and, while the front wheels may occasionally misbehave, the driver is never in doubt as to which way they're pointing.

It can be vanilla bean on freeways and morph into a habanero on back roads

The six-speed gearbox can be flicked through the ratios without fear of grabbing the wrong gear and the clutch action is light and progressive, making takeoffs as smooth or spirited as the driver dictates.

The touchscreen is clear and easy to navigate and a brief play with the voice recognition software had my audio slave obeying my every whim. The signature oil pressure, boost pressure and oil temperature gauges are still slanted towards the driver at the top of the dash.