Ford Focus ST vs Mazdaspeed3

The 2013 Ford Focus ST is undefeated in Head 2 Head match-ups and the 2013 Mazdaspeed3 has high hopes of being the first to dethrone Ford's hot hatch. After some road loops & a torque steer battle, pro racer & Motor Trend hot shoe Randy Pobst hitches a ride with Carlos Lago at Streets of Willow.

 

looks like the Mazda is a little bit understeer (front doesn't want to turn) in the handling department whereas the Ford is a bit loose (rear end swings out a bit allowing front wheels to grip and accelerate). With Mazda's claim to "Zoom Zoom" they should have done a better job in the handling department because the power is there.
The Ford's intake sounds awesome.

 

The MS3 is faster than a focus. Car and Driver proved it at the lightening lap. Don't remember the times but the MS3 was noticeably quicker. This test was done by motortrend who is blatantly biased to Ford so take it with a grain of salt. The MS3 induces oversteer once you push it hard enough. "Numbing understeer" is probably the most ignorant comment I've heard about the MS3 yet. It's not tail happy like the Ford. It's the one that's balanced. As for the Ford sound, I think thats retarded they had to route the intake into the cabin. I'd much rather hear the MS3 growl than a Focus suck.

 

Pushing a car harder will not change the fact that a car has understeer to oversteer. It's physically impossible. If the front won't turn, driving faster just means you'll hit the wall with the front end. Understeer isn't balanced, neither is oversteer. NASCAR drivers are constantly adjusting tire pressures and suspensions thru a race to try achieve a neutral balance but rarely do as different tracks require different set-ups. Same thing goes here, different tracks may yield different results. Mazda and Ford do not take in to consideration where or how hard you drive your car.
Maybe that other test was at a different track yielding different times.
Maybe the set-up was tweaked or changed.
Sometimes I've heard of a race car being tight in the centre and loose off.