ST-op in the name of the law!

GET your trousers on — you’re nicked!
And audiences can expect an arresting performance when Ford’s first global performance car becomes one of the stars of a new film version of the 70s classic TV show The Sweeney.
Flying Squad officers Jack Regan and George Carter, alias Ray Winstone and Ben Drew, will pursue London’s criminal characters in black Ford Focus ST hot hatches. And the bad guys have a tough job to outrun the good guys thanks to the ST’s two-litre EcoBoost engine, which delivers 250PS.
The ST is the first performance car the US giant will be selling all around the world when it goes on sale in 40 countries next year.
Ford of Britain’s managing director Anthony Ireson said: “The new Focus ST is a hugely exciting car for Ford with terrific dynamic credibility.  It will be a car for real driving enthusiasts, so Regan and Carter won’t be disappointed.”
Under a cloak of secrecy more akin to a James Bond film, some of the first production models of the ST were smuggled to the set of The Sweeney, along with Mondeos, Galaxys and Transits, who will play the parts of “extras”!
Director and co-writer Nick Love, whose films include The Firm and The Football Factory, commented: “It was important for me to collaborate with Ford on The Sweeney as their legacy with the original TV show is so strong – they’re the perfect partner.  I like the Ford Focus ST so much, I want one!”
The car giant’s link with the 1970s Sweeney TV series saw Regan, Carter and their Flying Squad colleagues driving a string of Ford Granadas, Consuls and Cortinas.
Vertigo, which is producing the film, has been lent six Ford Focus ST models during filming, which should finish by Christmas.
The movie also features Hayley Atwell (Captain America), Damien Lewis (The Escapist), Steven Mackintosh (Underworld: The Rise of the Lycans) and Paul Anderson (The Firm).
Post filming production will take place early next year, just before the ST reaches the market place, and the film with have its premiere in September.