Ford Focus RS gets the world's first electronic handbrake
Ford Performance debuts Drift Stick at SEMA to make getting sideways even easier.
Getting sideways in the Focus RS using Drift Mode is unquestionably a lot of fun, but the engineers at Ford Performance have made getting sideways even easier with the new Drift Stick, which was just revealed at SEMA in Las Vegas.
Developed by the same team who worked on Drift Mode, the Focus RS Drift Stick is the world's first electronic handbrake. The Drift Stick uses the RS' all-wheel-drive and antilock brake systems to help initiate drifts by opening the rear clutches and using hydraulic pressure to lock the back wheels when pulling the aluminum lever.
This aluminum lever is the key to wicked drifts.
Ford says the implementation of a hydraulic handbrake would be more involved and not easily reversible, while the electronic system uses existing Focus RS hardware and requires less pressure than a hydraulic unit to engage and disengage.
The $999 Drift Stick is available for order beginning to December to customers in the US and Canada, won't void a car's factory warranty and is said to be approved by Gymkhana madman Ken Block.
