[Tatommy]

I hope some of this information is useful for those out there.

But first, my background for reference: I have autocrossed for over a decades (low horsepower jetta, over powered bad handling WS6 firebird, mini cooper turbo, and c5 Z06 Corvette) For the past 6 years I have participating in many tracks days in the North East (Watkins Glen, Pocono, Lime Rock, Thunderbolt, Lightening, Palmer, Thompsons, etc...) So hopefully this earns me some cred while I comment about the RS.

In no particular order I wanted to list some of my thoughts, feedbacks, likes, etc having driven my new car for about a month as a daily driver only:
- When I first test drove car with 20 miles it felt a bit under powered. Actually disappointing. However, at 1500 miles, it feels like an entirely different car. My only conclusion is that the entire drive train needed to 'loosen-up' for lack of a better technical description.
- The handling is absolutely incredible for a 'stock' car. I have pushed the car extremely hard in low and high speed corners, and I am absolutely amazed by the ability to put down power deep in turns. My Z06 requires patience and retraint in corners, and is more of a 'handful' to drive. The car really feels like it is velcroed to the road, I can't imagine with real competition tires.
- Stock Ricaro seats are wonderful, and very comfortable for my size (5'10" 170lbs) Anyone who sits in the car is surprised by the level of bolstering.
- Pleasant surprise: headlights at night turn with the wheel! I have trouble seeing at night, but the Xenon lights with movement have solved that problem. Plus, the fogs lights are actually ‘good’. I never put much stock in fog lights helping see the road, but these work well.
- Shifter very smooth, accurate, short throw, with little effort. Clutch pedal also light, so traffic situations are fine.
- Suspension is very livable, but when you turn on the tighter damper settings, it feels like an STI (not good for daily driving IMHO).
- Rear seats are decent size. I have a booster seat and a toddler seat in the back with plenty of room
- Removing FAKE (synthetic) engine sound is a must. Although it sounds cool, the purest in my will not have it. Disconnecting does NOT adversely affect the radio, speakers, etc..
- Lower tire pressure! Stock, my car had 46-48psi in the tires. This is way too much, and makes the car too twitchy at high speeds IMHO. 41psi Front, 38psi Rear is correct setting as per Michelin (for the RS) and my butt-o-meter. (note: the sticker in the door jam recommends 46psi during ‘max’ load, but fails to list the ‘normal’ tire pressure. Weird)
- MPG a little lower than I expected with ‘Ecoboost’ engine. Even staying out of boost, it ain’t great. I average 22-23mpg with a bit of spirited driving and normal. It is not bad for a 350hp car, but I expected to be able to squeeze more MPG out of it while driving easy.
- First gripe: Gas tank too small. I fill up near empty and barely get 250miles out of the car (about 12 gallons). However, my previous daily driver was a 700-800mile per tank Passat TDI, so maybe I am just spoiled. I used to fill up very infrequently.
- USB port appears to be lower power 1amp variety, so my phone doesn’t ‘quick charge’.
- I wish we could turn off the pops and burbles in sport mode because again the purest in me knows they don’t need to be there in a direct injected modern engine. (My z06 makes all kinds of explosions from the exhaust, but those are ‘real’ artifacts from the engine).
- Oh yeah, my ritual every time I get in the car is turn off the auto-shutdown engine feature, switch to Sport Driving Mode, for better steering feel and throttle response, and turn off traction control. I sometimes turn off stability control too to see what the raw AWD system can do without the nanny kicking in. But turning it off requires holding the button down for a full 5 seconds, and then you have a bright exclamation point in the center of your instrument cluster warning you about the dangers of driving in that mode… (I personally think all the driver assist gadgets are making worse drivers, but that’s an entirely different conversation!)
- Touch screen does not leave any finger prints!
- Sunroof does not go back all the way when you press it in ‘auto’ mode. It is about 2 inches too short (insert joke here), so you have to press again to open completely. Not sure if that is by design.
- Drivers side AC vent (one near door), seems to never be pointing in a good place! The AC works very well, and it has been a hot summer, but I either freeze my left hand off when I face towards me, or I aim at the roof, which doesn’t help. (OK, first world problem, I know)
- I could see oil temp being an issue during track sessions, just from how high it has risen during some ‘spirited’ highway jaunts.
- Driving in 6th gear on highway leaves plenty of passing power for normal driving. You really never need to shift.
- Driving in 4th gear on highway from 80+ is amazing. The little 4 cylinder does work.

That’s all I can think of for now. The car is a complete joy, and my favorite daily driver to date. It will most likely wind up on the race track eventually, but I am trying to restrain myself for now!

 

[randman2011]

Thanks for the write-up! It's always great to hear from people who drive these cars a lot!

Another comment about the car taking a while to get up to speed. Interesting. Although Ford employees have been saying that for months and we just didn't believe them.

As a heads-up, the fuel tank is 13.9 gallons. Still quite a bit smaller than the 15.5 gallon tank in the Euro ST but better than 12.5 gallons in the USDM one. And you are correct that the USB port is 1.0A, which is really frustrating. I haven't had a phone that charged that slowly since the original Galaxy S.

 

[dianebrat]

- Pleasant surprise: headlights at night turn with the wheel! I have trouble seeing at night, but the Xenon lights with movement have solved that problem.

Clarification, they don't move, there are additional turning lights on the sides that light up when they sense the wheel turn.

 

[randman2011]

Clarification, they don't move, there are additional turning lights on the sides that light up when they sense the wheel turn.

These are separate features. There is a separate light that turns on to illuminate essentially just the next lane, but the projector itself has the ability to swivel according to steering input. This was a standard feature on the Euro Focus that they didn't remove for the RS because Saarlouis.

 

[dianebrat]

These are separate features. There is a separate light that turns on to illuminate essentially just the next lane, but the projector itself has the ability to swivel according to steering input. This was a standard feature on the Euro Focus that they didn't remove for the RS because Saarlouis.

really? wow.. item learned, I'll need to test.

 

[JWA]

Nice write up. I'm at 500 miles and the car is really opening up already.

Have you tried track mode? That would be basically the combo you want, if you turn the shocks back to soft. More pops and bangs though.

 

[Tatommy]

Clarification, they don't move, there are additional turning lights on the sides that light up when they sense the wheel turn.

They DEFINITELY move when I turn the wheel.

 

[Tatommy]

I've tried all modes.

I even tried track mode and set the shock dampers back to default just to see if the "track awd" mode feel different. It feel like more rear bias.

 

[Raider615]

Are the USB ports not the Ford "Smart Charge" 2amp variety? I plug my iPhone 6s into the one in the center console and it seems to charge very quickly. For example, I started my 15 minute commute this morning at 13% and arrived at work with about 50% battery. Otherwise your review is pretty much spot on with my experience through 1500 miles!

 

[BlackDragon]

BTW, the sunroof thing is by design, and pretty much all car manufacturers I've come in contact with do the same. Its for wind noise.

 

[Gonzo4rs]

Excellent,,honest write up,,,,,,,,thank you for sharing,,,,,another testimonial that makes my wait,,,,well,,,,,worth waiting

 

[pdxgeek]

- Drivers side AC vent (one near door), seems to never be pointing in a good place! The AC works very well, and it has been a hot summer, but I either freeze my left hand off when I face towards me, or I aim at the roof, which doesn’t help. (OK, first world problem, I know)

I had this same issue, you need to move the air direction down more, you can aim it lower where it goes below your hand and will actually hit your torso.

 

[ansibe]

But first, my background for reference: I have autocrossed for over a decades (low horsepower jetta, over powered bad handling WS6 firebird, mini cooper turbo, and c5 Z06 Corvette) For the past 6 years I have participating in many tracks days in the North East (Watkins Glen, Pocono, Lime Rock, Thunderbolt, Lightening, Palmer, Thompsons, etc...) So hopefully this earns me some cred while I comment about the RS.

I'm impressed. When you get it to the track, let us know how you feel. I find there is a little more understeer than expected on the way in, then mega grip, and lots of bouncing, on the way out. That could be just my unfamiliarity with 4wd. I'll keep experimenting with my drive mode & susp settings, as well trying to get on the power well before the apex. I'm on the Cup2s.

In no particular order I wanted to list some of my thoughts, feedbacks, likes, etc having driven my new car for about a month as a daily driver only:
- Shifter very smooth, accurate, short throw, with little effort.

Really? I like the shifter, but the throws are a little long for me. Still, it's very effective on the track and street.

Thanks for the write-up!

 

[braap]

@Tatommy: have you compared your startup ritual with Track mode? I usually go into Track mode first thing and turn off the damper setting manually. How does that compare to Sport mode with ESC off?

 

[braap]

I had this same issue, you need to move the air direction down more, you can aim it lower where it goes below your hand and will actually hit your torso.

But then it closes That seems to be an annoying part - if you point them low enough, they close (the side vents)

 

[pdxgeek]

But then it closes That seems to be an annoying part - if you point them low enough, they close (the side vents)

Its a point right before that, where you can make the air pretty flat. Took a few tries to get it dialed in, but its there, and just about perfect.

 

[braap]

Its a point right before that, where you can make the air pretty flat. Took a few tries to get it dialed in, but its there, and just about perfect.

Yeah, I got that too, was just slightly peeved that you have to get it just right, right before it closes. Seems like a minor design flaw to me. Not a big deal overall though, just kind of funny

 

[Likes to Carve]

@Tatommy Nice write-up.

In regard to: "Oh yeah, my ritual every time I get in the car is turn off the auto-shutdown engine feature, switch to Sport Driving Mode, for better steering feel and throttle response, and turn off traction control. I sometimes turn off stability control too to see what the raw AWD system can do without the nanny kicking in. But turning it off requires holding the button down for a full 5 seconds, and then you have a bright exclamation point in the center of your instrument cluster warning you about the dangers of driving in that mode… (I personally think all the driver assist gadgets are making worse drivers, but that’s an entirely different conversation!)"

I thought Sport mode automatically disabled the auto-shutdown feature. If that's true, it would make your first step redundant.

 

[pdxgeek]

@Tatommy Nice write-up.

In regard to: "Oh yeah, my ritual every time I get in the car is turn off the auto-shutdown engine feature, switch to Sport Driving Mode, for better steering feel and throttle response, and turn off traction control. I sometimes turn off stability control too to see what the raw AWD system can do without the nanny kicking in. But turning it off requires holding the button down for a full 5 seconds, and then you have a bright exclamation point in the center of your instrument cluster warning you about the dangers of driving in that mode… (I personally think all the driver assist gadgets are making worse drivers, but that’s an entirely different conversation!)"

I thought Sport mode automatically disabled the auto-shutdown feature. If that's true, it would make your first step redundant.

It does not.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Likes to Carve]

It does not.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Thanks for clarifying. I don't remember where I read that.