Britain’s famous Goodwood Festival of Speed is a celebration of all things fast and fabulous, and Ford chose the annual hill climb event as the perfect venue to reveal its refreshed 2015 Focus ST.

The ST has won over hot hatch enthusiasts around the globe thanks to its impressive performance and driving dynamics, and for 2015 Ford has revised the front suspension to provide even more responsive and balanced handling. The changes up front include new springs, retuned shock absorbers, and a revised electric power steering system that promises to deliver improved steering feel.

The 2015 Focus ST also gets restyled front and rear fascias, standard LED character lighting, new design 18-inch alloy wheels, a redesigned centre stack with improved climate controls, a new flat-bottomed steering wheel, improved storage space in the centre console, updated door storage with cupholders, a standard rear-view camera, newly available HID headlights, and aggressive new red and black stripe options.

The styling changes give the Focus ST a dynamically sculpted hood, thinner headlights and rectangular instead of round fog lights. “The design of the new Focus is stronger and sportier, and that allowed us to make the new ST even more aggressive and dramatic,” said Moray Callum, Ford group vice president, Global Design. “The front bumper is deeper, the honeycomb upper grille is higher and more upright, and the lower grille is larger. The deeper rear bumper really emphasizes the width of the car.”

Under the hood, the 2015 ST continues with the same 2.0-litre turbocharged EcoBoost engine that delivers 252 horsepower and 270 lb-ft of torque, paired exclusively with a six-speed manual transmission.

The new Focus ST will be available in ST1, ST2 and ST3 trim levels, all featuring sport seats deigned in collaboration with Recaro. ST1 seats are cloth upholstered, ST2 adds partial leather with base and side bolsters available in four colours (Tangerine Scream, Performance Blue, Smoke Storm or Race Red), and ST3 seats have full charcoal black leather finish.

©(Copyright Canadian Auto Press)