Watch Uber Riders Go For a Drift in the Ford Focus RS
If only “Uber DRIFT” were an actual option on the app.
Taking a ride in a taxi, an Uber, or a Lyft is generally an uneventful process. Unless, for example, the driver is a rally champion giving Uber rides in a 350-horsepower Ford Focus RS at his disposal. To us at The Drive, that sounds like a recipe for a delightful trip to the airport.
Last month, Ford uploaded a video to YouTube showed Romanian rally driver and Ford brand ambassador Simone Tempestini purportedly acting as an Uber driver for a day in a Nitrous Blue Focus RS. In the clip, the 21-year-old driver offers rides to several groups of people—on the condition that they have 10 minutes to spare. Tempestini then uses those 10 minutes to give the hatchback something of a "test drive" for the visitors...which was really just an excuse to show off the car's drift mode in a parking lot.
As what is arguably the hottest hatch of 2016, the Focus RS looks to be entirely up to the challenges of people-hauling that would be demanded of an Uber-mobile. The backseat is large enough to fit adults, it's zippy enough to blast through urban traffic, and it even holds plenty of luggage—though any baggage or parcels back there may be violently pitched around as the car drifts around maniacally.
Ford claims that 99 percent of the riders Tempestini picked up agreed to thrown around inside of the Focus RS, and who can blame them? Anyone with a pulse would take a ride like that over a trip in one of the clanky, busted-up Toyota Camrys favored by New York City's Uber drivers.
