So i have a ford focus zetec s 180. 1.6 sigma engine. My mate has a tiantium with 180 and it feels much more powerful and quicker. I can definitely feel the boost in higher gears but when in lower gears such as 2,3 and 4 the car seems flat. When i put my foot down it seems like a 1.6 minus the turbo lol. The car is stock and no known issues with the turbo.It does have a whistle while partial throttle but ive read thats the dv valve letting out air. Could i do anything to fix this. Maybe an ecu reset? I dont know if anything is mechanically wrong or if its something electrical. When boosting i still hear the whistle all cars make under boost.

Is the other car remapped?

Is your servicing up to date?

When were your spark plugs last changed?

Are you running on the same fuel as the other car?

Titanium only came with the 150ps version.  Yours must be bad if it's slower than that.

Hopefully it was a Titanium X?  180ps was available in those.  Could be remapped.  They can pull over 225bhp with a remap.  (More power than 2.5 Mk2 ST!)

If all the service requirements are up to date and there aren't any warnings or fault codes then there probably isn't anything that could be done to yours.  Could try some premium fuel I guess.

Yes, Titanium X had 180 as Tom says. I remember test driving a ZS some years back and it was quite lively, though it only showed a noticeable advantage over the 150 at higher revs iirc. Don't quite understand why it should feel "flat" in 2nd,3rd and 4th but not 5th and 6th. Usually the other way round as many cars these days are way overgeared.

Sometimes the torque is restricted in lower gears (don't know if that was the case with the Focus 3? - didn't feel like it.), but even if so, that would normally only be 1st/2nd, certainly not 4th.

Mountune did a Ford warranty friendly MP200 conversion on the Mk 3 which was quite popular. I guess it's quite possible your friends car had one of these and I don't think it would be easy to tell, other than from the performance. It could be added to the 150 or 180 versions.

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-features/driven-ford-focus-zetec-s-mountune-mp200/26732

it was the titanium X sorry and it was completely stock with no map just like mine. Mine has had plugs and coils within the past year.

i have ordered a forscan cable from amazon to have a look