So Ford's hottest hatch, the Focus ST, has been given a bit of a nip 'n tuck but is it really any better than before? Well, yes and no.
Lookswise, a resounding yes. The scalpel has fallen on the front bumper, which is new, and there's new fog-light housings and a honeycomb grille. Air intakes are larger to help the ST breathe and chill and the bonnet has been modified to accommodate new headlights.
The tail door has a new diffuser-style bumper, there are new tail lights, dual tail pipes and ST badging on front wings and wheels. And talking about wheels, they're seriously hot - I love the design and the low-profile rubber adds muscle to the wheelarches .
That wicked electric orange colour is still available (though it looks hotter on Audi's S3), as is Performance Blue (our test car's colour). And everything is colour-coded: spoilers, door releases, mirrors, side mouldings...
The most distinctive change on the inside is the "Ford Power" start button. Button it might be but it still works like a key in that you have to keep the button pressed until the engine fires, unlike German rivals that just need a quick press. So pointless really, though the cousins in Brakpan will luff it.
The rest of the cabin is top shelf. Our five-door had full leather, brushed aluminium trim, really comfy seats and a chunky steering wheel. The awesome Sony sound system is part of the ST's updated tech that includes Bluetooth with voice control which, besides allowing access to your cellphone's functionality, can be used with the radio and aircon.
I also liked the boost gauge on the fascia that helps you to understand how the car builds power and how long it holds boost. Yet no cruise control - very odd.
Under the bonnet is the familiar 2.5-litre, turbo'd five-cylinder that's good for 166kW and 320Nm and a six-speed manual gearbox. The boys from Ford's Sport Technologies (ST) reckon the car should hit 100km/h in 6.8 seconds at the coast and run strongly to 240km/h.
Sorry gents, but performance is my only real gripe with the car.
We calibrated a true 100km/h as a little past 100 so gearing and boost come very much into play. Ideally third should be hooked at just about 100km/h because you're almost at the rev limiter and losing boost by the millisecond.
Beaten by the Golf GTI
The best change time is in the dying throes of second so, in English, we achieved 7.9sec to a true 100 up here on the Reef and could easily have bettered that if it hadn't required a second gearchange - which also makes me wonder if perhaps not too much focus (excuse the pun) has been placed on 60mph (96km/h) when calibrating the gearing?
Anyway, 7.9sec means the ST is behind the lower-powered Golf GTI (147kW, 7.7sec) and Mini Cooper S (128kW, 7.3) and is certainly out-gunned by stronger rivals such as the Opel Astra OPC (177kW, 6.8), Seat Leon Cupra (177kW, 7.2), and much more expensive Audi S3 (188kW, 6.7). The only salvation to be found is in the Mazda3 MPS that has 190kW yet takes 7.8sec to to 100km/h.
I don't understand why, as part of the facelift, the True Bluers couldn't have found another, say, 10kW? Especially as the Bid Daddy Focus, the RS, (that's already undergone some testing at Nurburgring for 2009 release) houses a 2.5-litre mill based on the ST but "specially developed" to make 208kW and more than 400Nm (and it gets a limited-slip diff).
The RS isn't coming to South Africa so why not grab some of that tech and get the ST to run convincingly stronger?
Still, for a turbo car, it sounds really good; the exhaust has a cool tone when you boot it. Handling really is sorted.
No overheating
We did a bit of track time and, besides the nose feeling a little heavy, there's nothing to really write home about. The update includes lower ride height, stiffer springs and better steering ratios. Even the gearbox is smooth and handles pressure well.
Oh, and before you ask, we did our darndest to get the thing to overheat - track, urban freeway, traffic. Perhaps the bigger air intakes have solved the ST's overheating problem about which such a fuss was made at the SA Car of the Year finals.
But the battery did go flat once over the 10-day test and we suspect two causes. The fan, after the car is switched off, seems to come on more often than not and part of the instrument cluster stays on 24/7.
The important safety boxes in the Focus ST are all ticked: anti-lock brakes with electronic pressure distribution, electronic stability control, side-impact bars, driver and passenger front and side crash bags, curtain bags front and rear and neck injury protection on the front seats.
More plumbing
I liked the ST. It turned heads, was a pleasure to drive and was ballsy enough to get the adrenometer pumping but, as much as I wanted it not to be, it's just missing the sting in the hot-hatch ring.
Which is a pity but perhaps, like most automakers with approved after-market tweaks, Ford should offer some plumbing or remapping to reassure drivers that anything with less than 166kW will be left at the lights.