2012 Focus ST at Frankfurt. Or could it be the 2013 Focus RS Concept?

Ford are promising a performance Focus at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. We’re assuming it’s a production-ready Focus ST, but could it be the 2013 Focus RS Concept?

As the Frankfurt Motor Show looms closer, car makers are starting to reveal and tease their plans, and Ford sent us a press release this week promising a big presence at Frankfurt and a ‘Performance Focus’. Will that be the production-ready 2012 Focus ST, or could it be the 2013 Focus RS Concept?

Sensibly, we’re looking at the production-ready version of the 2012 Focus ST. Ford revealed the Focus  ST Concept at Paris 2010, since when we’ve seen the ST out testing as Ford runs a fleet of twenty Focus STs around the world to iron out the wrinkles before the 2012 ST launches.

Which all adds up to the ‘Performance’ Focus at Frankfurt being the 2012 ST. But why would Ford be so imprecise? The 2012 Focus ST is hardly a secret.

Ford themselves said, when announcing the arrival of the 2012 Focus ST at Paris last year, that they were “…delivering on its promise to introduce a global performance version of the new Focus with a world premiere for the exciting flagship of the range, the muscular 250PS Focus ST.  The dramatic new ST will launch in early 2012.” So what’s to hide?

There is just a small possibility that Ford are planning to wheel out the first look at the ST’s big brother – the 2013 Focus RS. We’ve already had Ford boss Gunnar Herrmann admit that Ford are working on a new Focus RS for 2013, one with 380bhp and FWD, and that we can expect it to arrive late 2013.

That may be a bit too far off for Ford to be showing us a concept at Frankfurt, but it’s not impossible. Still, even if it’s ‘just’ the 2012 Focus ST all ready to roll out to Ford showrooms, it’s still an appealing fast Ford.

Especially as we expect the 2012 Focus ST to be almost as swift as the last Focus RS.