While Ford piles on the hype ahead of the Geneva launch of the Focus ST, Top Gear's Paul Horell has been hanging around the Ford skunk works, Team RallySport, gleaning details about the 2015 Focus RS - which is to the admittedly attitudinous ST as an F16 is to a Fokker Triplane.
He says the development hasn't been officially signed off yet, but the White-coat Warriors at Team RS are saying, “You need at least 240kW” - and they're confident they'll get it.
They won't however, get it from the glorious-sounding five-cylinder Volvoturbo; Volvo is now Chinese-owned so that engine isn't available any more and besides, it's way too thirsty, as we discovered when we had one on test for a week.
Instead the new Focus RS (incidentally, it's only the 23rd model to wear those prestigious initials since the original Escort RS of the early 1970s) will have a four-cylinder, 2.3-litre engine with balance shafts, direct injection and a whopping great turbohairdryer, that was originally developed for the next-generation Mustang, due in 2014.
Now, how's that for a pedigree?
The Pony-Car powerplant has been re-engineered for the 90-degree switch to transverse mounting and its wastegate screwed down for extra boost. Thanks to Ford's active noise cancellation (invented for the upcoming Mondeo), it'll probably have a tailored, synthetic engine intake roar that sounds better than the real thing.
And yes, the world's hottest hot hatch is still front-wheel drive.
Horell asked why it didn't have the new Ford Kuga's all-wheel drive set-up; after all, the Focus shares its platform with the next Kuga.
Truth is, they'd have to hack pieces out of the floor to fit it under the RS's road-hugging sports suspension, and besides, RS head honcho Jost Capito, an experienced racing driver and petrolhead of note, has never liked AWD on performance cars. He says it's too heavy, too clumsy, too expensive and makes the car too thirsty.
Instead, Capito has carried over the superb RevoKnuckle two-piece MacPherson strut front suspension from the previous RS (and we can vouch that it works) even though it was too expensive to be used on the ST.
SERIOUSLY UNSUBTLE BODY KIT
Horell's contact said they would continue to use it wherever torque steer was a serious issue and the cost could be justified, pointing out that the RenaultSport Megane has a similar set-up, as do all the three-door Astras; Opel calls it the HiPer Strut.
The rest of it would be the mixture as before, he said; big brakes from the race-track parts bin, huge gumballs on aggressive alloys and a seriously unsubtle body kit. And the interior would be pure Boy Racer, all in black with deep bucket seats, alloy fittings and lots of dials and gauges.
Then he dropped a bombshell: the new RS will be a five-door hatch based on the standard Focus body shell. There is no three-door or coupé version planned for the new Focus, so there will be no fastback Focus RS.
There is, however, a station wagon, and it is just possible that there could be a Focus RS Estate. Be afraid, BMW Touring drivers, be very afraid.
He didn't say that; we did.