Yahoo Autos News Reports Like This Are Why Some Australians Want Ford Focus RS Drift Mode Banned
Earlier today, we reported on calls from some Australian safety advocates to ban the "Drift Mode" available in the Ford Focus RS, but we might have underestimated the level of danger some Australians sense in this car. This TV news report from 7 News Melbourne makes Drift Mode seem like an all-out threat to innocent citizens, and while it raises some fair points, it's exactly the kind of overblown scare reporting that leads to destructive misunderstanding of automotive enthusiasts.
Anchor Peter Mitchell describes the RS as a "high-performance hoon car." Yes, "hoon" is a word that average, non-gearhead Australians use in everyday conversation-in fact, the country has a very strict set of anti-hooning laws banning "anti-social behavior conducted in a motor vehicle [...] such as speeding, street racing, burnouts and playing loud music from a car stereo." Penalties can include hefty fines and impounding of a vehicle.
Perhaps most sensationally, the 7 News Melbourne team tried to film a demonstration of Focus RS drift mode in Brisbane, but according to Mitchell, "our cameras were banned." You can't even let people see Drift Mode. It's that dangerous.
It goes without saying that no one should use Drift Mode on public roads. But if Ford were to disable this feature in Australian-market cars, it certainly wouldn't prevent some people from operating their cars recklessly. If you're motivated enough, you'll figure out how to drift an RS.
As we said earlier, the only thing banning Drift Mode will accomplish is preventing responsible amateur racers from using this capability in safe, controlled environments. It's clear that news reports like this are not ill-intentioned, and a powerful sports car can most certainly be dangerous in the hands of a reckless hoon. But this kind of scare-coverage most certainly isn't the answer.
