Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 215 | Page 50

The control unit in the rear drive
unit continuously varies the front/rear
and side-to-side torque distribution to
suit the current driving situation, monitoring inputs from multiple vehicle sensors 100 times per second. A maximum
of 70 percent of the drive torque can
be diverted to the rear axle. Up to 100
percent of available torque at the rear
axle can be sent to each rear wheel.
During cornering, the rear drive
unit pre-emptively diverts torque to the
outer rear wheel immediately based on
inputs such as steering wheel angle,
lateral acceleration, yaw and speed.
This torque transfer has the effect of
“driving” the car into the bend, achieving improved turn-in and stability, and
virtually eliminating understeer.
The AWD system has been tuned
to deliver exceptional grip – with lateral
acceleration exceeding 1 g – and great
cornering speed and acceleration out
of a bend. With neutral and adjustable limit handling, and the ability to
achieve controlled oversteer drifts at
the track, Focus RS delivers an exceptional fun-to-drive experience.
To deliver optimum driving dynamics, the Ford Performance AllWheel-Drive system was calibrated
alongside the car’s advanced Electronic Stability Control, in particular the
brake-based Torque Vectoring Control
system that works in parallel with the
torque-vectoring AWD. Other exclusive