Ford Focus RS Drive with Brian

[00:01] getting excited because this is the time for me to merge. There are many good cars for merging and this is one of them. And it doesn't have rev-matching, but it's very easy to rev-match manually.

[00:17] it's very easy to rev-match manually. Again, still with the warmness. Time for me to go. Rented box truck, yes. How about another gear? Here we go. Turbo kicks in and we're off.

[00:35] think that this is savage and nasty. It can be that if you drive it that way. But for the majority of the Stop. For the majority of

[00:50] things, it's very, very smooth. And this is well, granted this thing has thicker tires, smaller wheels, bigger tires. That's the move with the RS. This has

[01:04] Sparco wheels and it went down from 19 to 18. Give you more sidewall, give you more smoothness. I have 86 miles to go. But anyway, let me reiterate. Go to fandanem.com/regularcars,

[01:22] you're automatically entered to win this Ford Focus RS. Thank you so much for taking part in these giveaways. You're helping Regular Cars to get out there and go and have fun. Uh in fact, right now I'm dropping this car off and

[01:36] picking up the next giveaway car, which is also a hot hatch, but sort of a won't talk about that. I have plans that I want to do this summer and I want to go on a few local road

[01:50] and I want to go on a few local road trips around the northeast, possibly uh maybe out into the Midwest. Yes, Ohio is the Midwest. What with the TSA and the the the general madness with air flight these days,

[02:05] I'm myself and Nick are preferring not to Um we prefer to drive now.

[02:20] Uh turn it into a longer trip rather than having to deal with uh the general bad vibes it it feels at airports these days. Um unless I suppose you you fly in and out during the middle of the week at like first thing in the morning. This

[02:36] car does have cruise control, but I've noticed that I tend not to use it. I'm not sure why. I I guess it's because maybe the weight of the accelerator and the weight of my Ultra boot,

[02:52] uh it's a brand I like to wear, uh is nearly neutral in balance. So, I just tend to just the the perfect amount of rest with my uh

[03:06] shoe and the resistance of the accelerator pedal makes this almost as if I don't I'm not pressing on the pedal at all. I have gotten thumbs up with this car

[03:19] during my time with it. Most of them from ST drivers. But then again, I very rarely see RS's these days. I remember seeing them a lot in 2019 right after this uh car was

[03:35] But now I really don't. now I really don't. I see a lot more Toyota 86's, but they just existed in greater numbers than the RS.

[03:49] Also I'll you about that video that I uh yeah, I put my watch on I'll tell you about that video I did um with James Rolfe uh from Cinemassacre.

[04:01] It was sort of a last-minute thing. Our mutual friend uh Justin Silverman, and I I didn't wear their hoodie on purpose. I just This is what uh came out

[04:13] of the closet. Hey, hey, hey. He just called and said, "Hey, you want to do something with James? Uh we're going out to this uh auto museum in the Pinelands in New Jersey go film some movie cars." And I'm like, "Yeah, I'll

[04:27] that." Uh so, we drive like 2 hours in the deep Jersey. And we're at this little classic auto dealer sort of slash museum, but it's really sort of a consignment shop.

[04:44] know what I'm talking about these places. And now I'm getting boxed in between the box truck and the semi truck. Oops. Am I going to downshift for this or just

[04:57] going to let the turbo do the work. Stay in sixth gear. versus the ST. ST requires that you uh downshift uh to pass pass people on the

[05:12] highway with with any urgency. Uh the RS, not a problem. You you just it. Turbo will spool up. You have more

[05:24] displacement. The thing will just grunt ahead. Speaking of grunting ahead, here comes a BMW.

[05:39] over there and just see if he turns into BMW guy. Yeah, he's in my blind spot, but he's all the way in the far lane over there.

[05:58] Interesting that BMW guy over there, he goes. Oh, BMW kid in a convertible BMW. I mean, I'm guessing that's a 3 Series of some kind. Oh, look at Ford Escape getting into it. All right, Ford Escape up there is

[06:14] right. Contractor truck has to go around. I'm going to go around, too.

[06:28] the slow lane unless I absolutely have to go. Which often means that I'm passing people in the slow lane. Now, I'm catching up with BMW guy again. I've noticed, and maybe I'm dating myself a little bit,

[06:42] I've noticed that since the pandemic, and I know we're 6 years after after the fact, but I notice people drive faster all the time. There is no poking along, making my way,

[06:56] just staying in the speed limit, and just uh you know, being happy with wherever you're going, at whatever speed These days, if there's no cops, if there's no

[07:13] if the road's open, it's like you're accelerating through space, trying to get to light speed. If there's nobody in front of me, I'm just going to keep accelerating. Maybe that's also down to the peripheral

[07:27] proliferation of electric cars, of electric cars, because there's no comfort difference between 65 or 95, apart from, you you a higher kilowatt

[07:41] use. They just sort of they feel the same, sound the same. Wind noise is a little higher, I guess, but that's it. What were we talking about? All right, the classic dealership after that I was doing the thing with Justin

[07:54] Um it was interesting. I met James Rolfe in the past, but in passing. At the Too Many Games convention and at, Um we just

[08:09] you know, had a polite hello, goodbye. Um Interesting though, I did ask him, not this time, but I think the first time he and I were in the same room, I asked him, "What was your first car?" And it

[08:22] was interesting. James Rolfe isn't a car guy. You know, he's really a classic film guy. As much as he's known for his video game content, he he's really interested in like the golden and silver age of cinema.

[08:36] So, but I did ask him what his first car was, and he says it was a Chevy Lumina and he says it was a Chevy Lumina Z24, whatever performance version GM

[08:48] made of the Lumina. And I think that's pretty cool. Cuz I mean, if he said Chevy Lumina, I'd be like, yeah, that's the car in the in the early 2000s, maybe late '90s, that you were just given. You know, grandma

[09:01] can't drive anymore, here is the Chevy Lumina. And for my younger viewers, a Chevy Lumina was a car one rung higher than whatever cheap sedan a company made.

[09:16] You know, you had the Chevy Cavalier, and above that was the Lumina. performance version of the Cavalier. Cavalier was a Z24, and maybe the Lumina used the same engine as the Cavalier. Okay, welcome to Quakertown,

[09:29] Pennsylvania. If all that Okay, driving tip for you, and maybe this just applies to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but if all the semi trucks slow down,

[09:41] you slow down, too. Because they're all talking to each Because they're all talking to each other on the CB, and they know where the where the cops are hiding before you do. Even if you have a Valentine One or you

[09:56] Uniden or something like that. And they'll know before Waze or Google Google Maps also can alert you to uh any police presence. So, I see, you know, apart from those semi trucks slowing down, but the one in

[10:12] front of me, uh the guy with the Vanguard trailer, uh he slowed down immediately. So, and can't really see anything in front, so can't really see anything in front, so Are we still in the construction zone?

[10:33] I am going to downshift for this one because I respect uh the Hyundai Ioniq 6. It is my second favorite EV behind the uh Lucid.

[10:47] The Lucid, in my opinion, figured out luxury. Whether Mercedes is going to make a super high luxury EV, I don't know.

[11:01] ahead. Yeah, four-ways up ahead, some amber lights flashing. I see tail lights coming on, and some guy on the side of the road. Oh, okay. Here comes the rollback.

[11:15] And by that, I mean tow truck, uh here to pick up a truck and trailer. Interesting. Interesting.

[11:28] right. Um uh classic age of cinema and James uh classic age of cinema and James Rolfe's uh Chevy Lumina. Um, so, when we met up at this classic dealership, uh, I I got the vibe that he

[11:43] was already in production mode, so I went into production mode as well. chuckles out of him. I mean, I was bringing some of my A material. I knew what my role was for that film shoot, and my role was to be

[11:59] the car expert. But, I realized I probably, in my zeal to appear knowledgeable, I think I gave wrong makes and models for certain cars that are in certain movies. That's

[12:14] dealership had a bunch of movie car replicas, and that was the type of video that, uh, James and Justin were trying to make. Of course, they had a Batmobile to make. Of course, they had a Batmobile there. It was the Batman Returns

[12:28] Batmobile. And this one was interesting cuz it had a, uh, an LS in it. It wasn't just a roller or something with an electric motor that would get it on and off the trailer. It had an LS. It I I

[12:41] It had some sort of transmission hooked up to it, and it had the propane tanks in the back, uh, so it could shoot fire out its afterburner. Um,

[12:53] in the video, the cameras rolled the whole time, and I talked about every single car that I saw in there. Um, they did have a Challenger, uh,

[13:06] A Vanishing Point Challenger, but the Vanishing Point Challenger was white. something like that. And then, I think Justin, at some point in the video, asked me, uh, what was the

[13:19] And off the top of my head, I think it and looking back, I'm like, no, I think it was a '66." it was a '66." It was a '66 Mustang GT 390, I think.

[13:33] when did Bullet come out? And a quick Google could have instantly found that Google could have instantly found that car. that time the Mustang was getting big. So, maybe it was a '66. Mustang came out

[13:50] The The Mustang came out in '65. The first The first year is all '65s, even though we like to say it's 1964 and 1/2. They're all red They're all registered as '65s.

[14:02] registered as '65s. So, maybe it was '66 immediately. I don't know. I mean, obviously the 39 The The FE 390 big block did exist. Cuz that goes back to I think '61.

[14:19] '60 or '61. No, wait. It had to be earlier than that cuz FE stands for Ford Edsel, and that came out The The block itself came out for the Ford Edsel design, and that was late '50s. See, this is the The The car-tism stuff.

[14:34] Where I went into Ja- Well, when James got excited or enthusiastic, he was talking about King Kong. That movie because it revolutionized uh uh

[14:46] scoring for the movie, you know, the music in the movie. Whereas I got really emotional. Out of all the cars that were at this uh classic dealership, the best one, in my opinion,

[15:01] microphone cuz I keep looking at the camera over there. I should really move the microphone over here. The best car, in my opinion, The best car, in my opinion, that was there was a very clean MGB.

[15:14] Because in my mind, that's the predecessor to the Miata. So, of all the cars at this dealership and most of them were winga-dinga stuff, '50s, '60s, which is fun. But they are big American boaty. You got

[15:31] to do a lot of work to make a '69 Chevelle actually track. Chevelle actually track. Whereas an MGB, even with the raised headlights, right, meaning the old suspension's raised up, even with that,

[15:45] it's still a barrel of laughs to drive all the time. Isetta. And uh his connection, he just wanted to talk about family matters.

[15:57] was funny because the whole car is funny. Um but I knew very little about an Isetta apart from yeah, the engine's sort of technically I get I don't know if it's technically rear or mid-engine,

[16:11] one. Um why is the door on the front? Uh it was just ev- everything about the car was a ta-da. Look, we're being weird for weird sake. But it's also

[16:28] BMW doing in the And I think they're '60s. Mid-'60s is when the Isetta existed. But they're do- they were doing in the '60s what Japan was doing in the '80s

[16:42] and '90s with the funky K ve- vehicles. The Pike cars come to mind.

[16:57] old exit when I used to live up in Schuylkill County. But now we just blast on through it cuz I don't live there anymore.

[17:12] Why does it what Oh, right, we are getting off at that exit. A bunch of cars slowed down. There's there was what looked like a police

[17:25] officer, but it's it's a livery Nissan Rogue on the door. So, that was Pennsylvania Turnpike Which means I think it's just uh

[17:41] What's this? Oh, here's a police Challenger coming up, unless they're spotting for the Challenger coming up. the Challenger coming up. Or is that sheriff? Now,

[18:00] The state The constables have power of arrest. constable does. Do they just serve notices?

[18:17] Dodge charge four-door Charger thing. He has a cage between the front and rear seats, but it's only a half cage.

[18:33] but it's only a half cage. Like, it only covers the passenger area. but and he has this little spotlight there.

[18:52] strange breed. Uh there's nothing really going on on the highway now, other than me just getting off on uh I-78 eastbound, cuz So, that's it for this video.

[19:08] Um whenever Cinemassacre puts up uh the video at the car show or car show the video at the

[19:20] car show the video at the the car museum, I'll be sure to link it. I think we're doing a call it it may appear under collabs.

[19:32] my everyday things, I don't really post on Twitter {slash} X anymore. on general principle, I'll post the videos on X. videos on X. But I'm not giving X any content that

[19:47] stuff that benefits me. So all my silly antics goes on on Blue Sky and Instagram. Oh, by the way, if you want to submit a car to Regular Car Reviews, we don't have the email system anymore. It wasn't

[20:01] worth the money to pay for that thing every month. We just do everything through Instagram DMs. So and it helps us because it it doesn't clog up my Gmail. And on

[20:14] Instagram, you can send pictures anyway on DMs. So if you want to submit a car to Regular Car Reviews, the easiest way is to send it through Instagram DMs.

[20:29] away. And don't feel like weird if I send you a voicemail back because half the time I'm doing something else. And if I see this, it's usually like hey, I like your car. When you can

[20:42] hey, I like your car. When you can uh something that I have to do every single time I get a car for Regular Car Reviews is

[20:57] you and I have a conversation on the phone. Just to go over the logistics and information and I can give you the skinny on how we film these things.

[21:14] So, anyway, thank you for coming along for a drive on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. We're now getting off now. Pennsylvania did away with all the money, the cash toll booths.

[21:29] I don't think any exist anymore. I mean, maybe in the midstate, you know, out in western PA, there may be some still cash toll booths, booths, but it's all uh toll by plate now.

[21:42] read your plate. They send you a bill in the mail if you don't have E-ZPass already. So, oh, and by the way, um if you're a Pennsylvania resident and you don't have E-ZPass or if you don't

[21:55] have an E-ZPass account, um and you drive through toll booths, once you get that letter in the mail, once you get that letter in the mail, you have 3 days to pay it.

[22:09] you have 3 days to pay it. Otherwise, they tack on a disgustingly big late fee. I think it's it's a complete money grab because you get it and you like, "Oh, it's E-ZPass. I'll get to it."

[22:29] fee, can turn into a $60 fee in 3 days. And that. Very, very greedy. I mean, they're

[22:41] they're doing it, and you know why they're doing it. They're taking they're doing it. They're taking advantage of people's natural laziness. And they're going to make money off that. So, the moral of the story is

[22:54] when you get that E-ZPass letter in the mail that says, "Hey, pay your $6 toll or whatever it is, stop what you're doing, pay it immediately,

[23:07] immediately, and go mail it. welcome to I-78. I got to be paying attention now cuz it's I-78. Talk to you Talk to you later, guys. Oh, and by the way, please enter to win

[23:21] this Please enter the giveaway of this Ford Focus RS, of this Ford Focus RS, 350 horsepower, 350 lb feet of torque. Go to fanadem.com/regularcars. Buy a limited edition mug.

[23:36] We're just doing all kinds of merch on the site, right? Buy some limited edition merch and you're automatically entered to win this fantastic hot hatch. It's It's been a barrel of laughs. I got

[23:50] to stop saying I need a better term than barrel of laughs. Makes me sound old. It makes me bust. How about that? It'll make me bust. And I guarantee it'll make you bust,

[24:03] too. Regular Car Reviews and fanadem.com does not orgasm in a Ford Focus RS. Please enter the giveaway. fanadem.com/regularcars. fanadem.com/regularcars. Easy. Anyway, thank you so much.

[24:17] Easy. Anyway, thank you so much. See you later.