According to Ford, the Focus RS's drift mode was only discovered when the development team was doing some calibration of the all-wheel drive system. According Motoring, which did an interview with Ford Performance vehicle and Engineering Manager Tyrone Johnson, reported that the automaker never intended to include an oversteer-inducing driving mode into the Focus RS.

Johnson said that they were actually fine tuning the car's all-wheel drive system at the tail end of its development when a few of his fellow teammates realised how 'cool' it was when they pushed more power to the rear wheels.

It also helped that the Global Technical and Development Chief Raj Nair insisted on promoting it as one of the vehicle's key selling points after being impressed by the system.