StangTV

If you haven’t heard anything about EcoBoost, you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years. EcoBoost is Ford’s family of turbocharged, direct-gasoline-injected smaller – and therefore lighter – engines that are destined to live under ever-more-strict government mileage-per-gallon mandates in the coming years and decades. And what a family of engines it is – the EcoBoost has been opening enthusiasts’ eyes to what is possible with direct injection and a little bit of aftermarket tuning.

Just last week we reported on Livernois Motorsports and their exploits with tuning the EcoBoost in the F-150 – this week, we’re showing off Steeda’s brand-spankin’-new 2013 Ford Focus ST. The Focus ST ships from Dearborn with a stout little four-cylinder that’s pumping out 252 horses and 270 foot-pounds at the crank and as you’ll see in the video, the little pocket-rocket boosted machine clipped off a 14.41 like nobody’s business – all stock!

14.40's on stock low-profile wheels and tires...just imagine what one of these things will do with a little more boost and some sticky tires!

We’ve also seen that SCT is already working on tuning for these cars and has found a ton of performance through a custom 93-octane tune for these cars, but one of the interesting things about reviewing SCT’s data is this – the cars lose a ton of performance from the factory when the cars get hot. It appears that the factory tune is pulling out a ton of timing and fuel, and the SCT engineering team mapped out a way around that problem.

The results are pretty impressive – 23 horsepower and 45 foot-pounds of improvement at coolant temperatures of 185 degrees over the stock calibration. What would that do for the car that the Steeda gang was ripping on? Well, the car in the video ran a 14.41 at 97 mph, with a relatively-slow 2.24 short time. A set of drag radials would easily pick the short times up enough that the car could run a 14-flat. Install a tune and 13.80′s in a factory hot-hatch should be easily accessible. A pretty nice-looking hot-hatch, too.

Left, at 185 degrees of coolant temperature SCT's custom tuning picks up 24 horsepower and 45 foot pounds of torque. Right, As you can see, SCT's gains over the factory programming when the car is hot are immense, and not surprising as Ford has to calibrate for all types of drivers.