As I headed North on the A38 I was in a reflective frame of mind. My meeting with plod had gone well, the officer I spoke to was intelligent and sympathetic. My visit to the nick was, by the way, not related to matters motoring. I was there in a plaintiff rather than defendant role. A warm post-plod glow of gratitude engulfed my once sagging shoulders. Matters were on the up. At this juncture I must confess that I probably wasn’t giving the task of driving the full majesty of my confused mind. The traffic cop at the wheel of the well-marked BMW squad car was indubitably of the same opinion. This he confirmed by flicking on an attention-grabbing set of blue lights.

"The things you write about the police, I should throw the book at you". He didn’t. I was politely informed that I was a dozy old git who should know better. I concurred, he smiled; I headed home slowly, having resolved never to say or write anything nasty about our fine boys in blue again. Well, until the next time anyway.

That I was driving the all new snarling and be-winged 300bhp Ford Focus RS (in oi, look at me white) may have caused the very, very nice officer to give it a second look. The snot green version is even more larey, which leaves blue - the colour I’d go for if this wonderful Chav Chariot wasn’t something that I may simply have grown out of.

But... if I was just a teeny bit younger, say the age I was when the Escort Cosworth came out in the 1980s...?

The Focus ST is oft referred to as the Ford Asbo. So I’ll call the new RS the Custody, then. Even when parked it looks as though its transgressing several laws. On the move it will easily collect a license-full compliment of points in hours.

Some say that Ford has missed a trick here. Putting 300 horses through the wheels that are also tasked with the quite important business of steering does, on the face of it, look like a recipe for crashing - a lot. The old Focus RS was just that and really rather horrid, but this one’s fitted with a Quaife diff and revo knuckle (don’t ask) to calm things down a bit. Basically Ford couldn’t afford 4WD. The fancy bits work, after a fashion but you will still want to keep a firm grip on the wheel at all times.

The 5-pot 2.5 litre Volvo motor has new pitons, turbo, intercooler, inlet manifold and exhaust system which on top of the ponies endow it with 325 lb/ft of twist. And boy does it ever holler.

On a favoured B-road the RS - at around £25K - without too much fruit - will see off just about all comers, including many costing ten times as much. Now then, bring on the Mitsubishi Evo X FQ400

Zog Ziegler