See also our Focus RS first drive feature here

Ford are very proud of the Focus RS as a stunningly effective driver’s car, with good reason if the reviews are anything to go by (see our First Drive story here). Anything that gets Steve Sutcliffe from Autocar so animated must be pretty special. But Ford are also proud of the fact that they’ve been able to bring this car to the market at all, let alone with a £25,000 price tag, which is where our factory tour came in.

As if we needed any more reasons to be weary of our old chum The Credit Crunch, producing cars that enhance a brand’s image but don’t actually make any money is something manufacturers can no longer indulge in. Ford had to make sure that this new RS could be produced on the same line, at the same time and in the same factory as every other Focus. They couldn’t take cars off the line for ~any reason, or slow the line down to add extra components. Previous incarnations of the RS had to be whisked off to specialist suppliers for the “fast bits” to be fitted, which made the car expensive and slow to make. ~It was also a process that allowed quality issues to creep in because the process couldn’t be as accurately managed.

I was lucky enough to be asked by Ford to fly to Saarlouis in Germany with Richard Bremner for an article published in Autocar magazine. While doing the stills photography I also made the short video you can see above with the hope of showing what goes on behind the scenes in an ultra-modern car factory. It’s an awe-inspiring experience because of the sheer scale of the operation, although I’m always impressed by how calm and measured everything seems, despite that fact that 1,600 cars a day come out of this building!

Of course we missed the last flight back from Luxemboug and had to hire a rental car to hurtle back to the UK in time for work the next day, but that’s a story for another time…

Diamonds might be a girl’s best friend, but I’d settle for a Porsche any day!

I try not to allow myself to get excited by unobtainable things – it just leads to heartache and yearning. So it is with Porsches, along with the feeling of why spend so much money on a car…?

Friends who do own such cars, of course, don’t just get a basic version, theirs always have all the bells and whistles on it. The one that springs to mind is white, which I know is the new black, but to me it will always just be white.

Anyway, I’m now saving my pennies in the hope that one day I too can be driving around in a Porsche, preferably a red one, but in actual fact any colour will do.

My neighbour has obviously been saving up as well. But rather than showing it off to the street, he then proceeded to covered it up with a huge body bag. Sadly, I don’t think it gets the protection he was hoping for, as we’re all so nosey on our road and can’t help but take a peek to see what’s underneath.

After going on a Porsche launch day and having driven a variety of the purring creatures, I find it hard to see why anyone would ever want anything else. The drive took me completely by surprise, as I pottered around town expecting the engine to feel as if it was being held on a leash. In fact it felt quite civilised and dare I say, a tad dull.

I pulled onto the motorway slip road and found it hard to breathe as this apparently civilised machine took on a completely different personality – and this was just the basic Boxtster! I’d rather not talk about the 997 Targa we drove later as I think my passenger’s ears are still ringing from my screams as I floored the accelerator.

The thing with such powerful cars is that you really need to know how to drive them safely, but at the same time have some fun. It’s all too easy to go fast on the motorway (any fool can do that) but the real skill lies in taking those corners at speed in a safe and controlled way. I think I just need to practice some more – perhaps a permanent loan could be arranged!