IN THIS FEATURE Filling the hole The best of both worlds Come on, feel the noise Fun through the bends Plenty of kit to boot Back from its sabbatical

When tuning the engine for maximum power - which arrives at 6,000rpm - TeamRS were careful not to compromise low-end grunt. By tweaking the engine's twin variable-cam timing it managed to extract a sizeable 236lb ft of torque, which is on tap from just 1,600rpm.

This makes the engine supremely flexible: think of the instant acceleration of a turbodiesel combined with the high-revving nature of a tuned petrol - surely the best of both worlds. That said, this engine isn't as free-revving as, for example, the Astra VXR, but this can be put down to the increased capacity and cylinders of the engine.

0-62mph takes just 6.8secs

From rest, the Focus scrabbles its way to the 60mph benchmark in just 6.5seconds. Quicker than the Golf GTI (7.2), it falls short of the Astra VXR, Megane 225 and Civic Type R - but only by fractions of a second, which in real-world driving you'd be hard-pressed to notice.

More importantly for Ford, it is quicker than the old Focus RS (6.6) - the ST actually laps the Nurburgring 10seconds faster than the RS ever could. Top speed is a nice, round 150mph, if you ever find yourself on an unrestricted section of German Autobahn.