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You would have thought that the company responsible for the infestation of XR2s, XR3s and RSs that once prowled our streets would not have been backwards in coming forward with a sports version of its impressively capable, best-selling Ford Focus. But for various reasons that we'll come to in a minute, we've had to wait three and a half years for this car. Still, now we have it, and it's called ST170: ST for Sports Technologies, 170 because it has 168 bhp. It's powered by a tuned version of the 2.0 Duratec motor with variable valve timing and a dual-stage inlet manifold, has a six-speed gearbox, 17-inch alloys wrapped with 215/45 tyres and a major braking upgrade. You can pick out an ST via its spoked wheels, the honeycomb mesh of its grille and bumper air intakes, projector foglamps and body-colouring of the door-handles and assorted body mouldings. It looks fit for its purpose, but pleasingly subtle.
Inside, you get sports seats or optional Recaros, an almost-too-subtle-to-see metallic fleck for the plastics of the centre console, silver-faced instruments that include oil temperature and pressure gauges (of small and vague marking), drilled alloy pedals with rubber grips, and metallic finishes for a few cabin components. You also get air-conditioning and a six-CD in-dash autochanger, so all the essentials are there.The ST170 costs £15,995, which puts it headlamp to headlamp with the Civic Type-R, the benchmark package in this class; the Civic has 197 bhp, but no air-con or CD stacker. Other contenders include MG's wrinkled but able 177 bhp ZS 180, the 150 bhp Golf GTI 1.8T, the 150 bhp Alfa 147, the 180 bhp Seat Leon 20V Cupra and, just, the 147 bhp Astra SRi.
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