You may wish the manual tranny had a sixth gear or that there were steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters for the six-speed, dual-clutch automatic.

WSJ: 2012 Focus Titanium Sedan: A Stab at a European Sport Sedan��From Ford | Rumble Seat by Dan Neil

The solution, I found, is to put the tranny in Sport mode and use the paddle shifters behind the steering wheel to flog the thing mercilessly.

WSJ: 2012 Range Rover Evoque Five-Door Review: A Range Rover for a Smaller Era | Rumble Seat by Dan Neil