Here's some footage and good quality exhaust sound of driving the Focus RS on back roads in Australia.
Hope you enjoy it!

 

Some good footage for sure ... is this your buddy's car?

All I can think of when the engine pops is the headgaskets on those engines ...

 

Thanks for watching! Yes it's my buddy's car.

Did some reading about the issue and I think the internet has uncovered the reason for head gasket issue may be a batch of Focus RS's that have had the gasket from the Mustang ecoboost installed on them by mistake.

The engine block is the same but the cooling ports / coolant flow route is different for both cars. So fingers crossed for my mate!

 

that shot of the ford emblem with the tree-shadows rolling over it was pretty cool...

I think ford is pushing a 2.3 liter engine beyonds it's means - between the HG, the cracked blocks, the failed studs ... I think 175hp/liter is just to much for an open deck...

Those are direct inject arent they?

I'm sure the guys that are having issues are mod'ing and driving the cars spiritedly!!

I sorta ask myself are the 3 liter BMW turbocharged engines going to wear prematurely ... a buddy w/a JB4 3 series has gone through some transmission parts ...

No free lunch!

 

Only time will tell. Here's hoping to not having any of these issues.