Will these rare Fast Ford Focuses cost the same as a Ferrari?

If you’re heading to a car auction with £100,000 in your pocket to spend, you’d probably be expecting to come back with a flashy Ferrari or mint-condition Aston Martin. Not a Ford Focus.

Stop rubbing your eyes and pick your jaw off the floor because this could be the reality this weekend with a selection of hot hatch versions of one of Britain’s favourite modest family motors predicted to see their prices go into orbit.

Seven Focus ‘Fast Fords’ from the 2000s and early 2010s are set to go under the hammer on Saturday, with the pre-auction estimates for each car in the region of £50,000 to £110,000.

The handful of Focuses are being offered to collectors at the NEC Classic Motor Show in Birmingham as part of the next Silverstone Auctions sale.

The five Fords will follow to the block classic Jaguar E-Types, 1970s Aston Martin muscle cars and a host of Ferraris from various eras.

But some examples of the Focus hatchbacks up for grabs are expected to eclipse all the predictably-desirable cars listed above.

The £110,000 limited edition Focus RS500 

The one predicted to sell for the highest sum is a 2010 Focus RS500 with just 948 miles on the clock and in ‘out of the box’ condition.

Silverstone Auctions’ guide price has it down to go for between £90,000 and £110,000. With the limited edition motor initially costing just £35,750, it means it has tripled in value in just over a decade.

It is rare. Just 500 were made as a swansong for the lauded second-generation Focus RS, with each one individually numbered. Of those, only 101 were UK-spec right-hand-drive cars.

This lot offers number ‘174’, which is described as ‘one of, if not the best RS500 out there’.

Every RS500 made was finished in this stealthy matt-black paint with matching wheels and featured an uprated version of the 2.5-litre, five-cylinder engine that graced the Mk2 Focus RS.

It generated 345bhp, which is 15 per cent more power than the standard hot hatch.

This car was first registered in the UK on 6 August 2010 and has just one owner who bought it and then stored it as part of an exceptional modern classic Fast Ford collection. Hence why it has fewer than 1,000 miles on the odometer and remains in this incredible condition.

A second example of the limited run MK2 RS500 with 6,857 miles is also up for grabs.

Chassis number 160 out of 500 is a UK-spec car but briefly moved to Hong Kong before returning to the UK and was registered to the vendor only in April this year.

It is expected to sell for between £65,000 to £75,000, proving that mileage is key to keeping values of these low-production cars supremely high. 

The original Focus RS…but with just 21 MILES on the clock

If you thought 948 miles for a 12-year-old car was little used, wait until you see this earlier version of the fast Focus.

The Mk1 Focus RS – a souped-up version of the first ever Focus that hit the market in 1998 – is one of the most sought-after hot hatches of the turn of the century, and this one is exquisite.

This 2003 car has to be the lowest mileage example in the world, having covered just 21 miles from new under its single owner for almost two decades. 

Its first and only registered keeper got their hands on the Focus RS on 1 November 2003, and the auction house says it is in ‘totally original ‘time-warp’ condition’ still today.

The lone owner is a ‘notable collector’ who, on delivery, immediately put it into heated storage, with the V5C showing zero previous registered keepers and the paintwork untouched for the best part of 20 years.

Its guide price reflects the fact it has barely turned a wheel, set at an eye-watering £85,000 to £95,000. 

Retailing in 2002 for £19,995, if it sells for the higher-end estimate the Mk1 Focus RS will have increased in value by 375 per cent – not a bad investment, in reflection. 

‘We are very lucky to deal with a vast array of special cars, but this is up there with the best with unrepeatable mileage and undeniable time-warp condition,’ a spokesperson for Silverstone Auctions says. 

‘The Fast Ford market has always been led by low mileage, factory-original cars and none come better than this lovely Focus RS,’ they added.

The one in the best Focus RS colour ever 

If you ask Fast Ford fans which Focus RS colour stands out the most, it will be the Ultimate Green paint offered on the Mk2 version.

This 2009 example has just that, and with one owner from new and 357 miles on the clock it is hugely collectable if this is your sort of thing.

The car has lived a life of luxury in a heated garage and remained completely standard all its life, as it left the factory. 

Want it? Silverstone Auctions expects a winning bid to fall within £60,000 to £70,000. 

In the year it was built, this car would have cost £24,995. That means it could land the owner a £45,000 profit. 

‘With the prices of performance Fords continuing to rise across the board, particularly the modern classics such as the Mk1 Focus RS and Mk2 Focus RS500, this 2009 example with its single ownership, high specification and borderline unrepeatable low mileage is perfectly suited to being nestled into a collection, enthusiastically driven, or ideally a combination of the two,’ says the auction house.

The three remaining low-mileage Focus’ set to sell for over £50,000 each

If the estimated sale prices of the three cars above aren’t enough to shock you, there are three more set to go under the hammer at the same auction for staggeringly-expensive prices.

A pair of second-generation Focus RS examples from 2010 are going to the block, and both have incredibly low mileage.

The first is the Performance Blue hot hatch with two former owners, yet only 54 delivery miles on the clock.

Its first keeper for around five years was a farmer who ‘bought it and then decided he didn’t want to get it muddy so put it in to dry storage until its first MOT in 2015,’ the auction lot says. 

It was bought by the second keeper in 2017 and put into a five-year hibernation in their private collection. In that time it was trailered to its MOT annually – and despite having covered so few miles it has even had a cambelt change.

Silverstone Auction says it will go for £55,000 to £65,000, which is well over twice its original price.

The second 2010 RS is an Ice White example with three previous owners who collectively have driven it a mere 958 miles.

Expect it to sell for £50,000 to £60,000 on Saturday, says the auction house. So, again, twice what it cost new 12 years ago.

Silverstone Auctions says: ‘This fabulous RS is barely run-in and offers an incredible opportunity today to own yet another Ford performance icon.’ 

Completing the group of big-value Focus’ isn’t even an RS.

The Focus ST is considered a ‘warm’ hatch, rather than the full-blooded hot-hatchback. But despite this, low-production examples appear to be in big demand.

This 2007 Focus ST500 has a barely-believable 0.3 miles on the clock – ‘quite possibly the lowest mileage Ford ever offered at auction,’ says Silverstone.

Like the RS500 first mentioned in this piece, just 500 were made, all of them in black paint with silver racing stripes.

Under the bonnet is the standard ST’s 222bhp 2.5-litre turbocharged petrol, meaning it can complete a 0 to 62mph sprint in 6.6 seconds and has a maximum top speed of 150mph.

These cars also feature unique scarlet leather Recaro seats and ST500 badging and – when new in 2007 – cost £20,495.

Silverstone Auctions thinks it will make £40,000 to £50,000, so double the price in 15 years. 

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk