Myth Buster
Debunking the most common old wives’ tales
Ford Puma
1 THE PUMA IS ONLY A FIESTA IN DRAG
Well, sort of. It shares a lot with the Fiesta, but the 1.7-litre engine was only ever found in the Puma. And, in addition to the obviously different body, the suspension was also stiffer, the track wider, the brakes uprated and it had a closeratio gearbox.
2 YAMAHA ‘FIDDLED’ WITH THE ENGINE
Jeremy Clarkson suggested in a 1997 episode of Top Gear that the engines were put together in Spain, then flown to Japan for Yamaha to tune, before coming back to Spain. The reality is rather less wasteful; Ford had a contract with Yamaha to provide 80 1.7-litre engines per day for another project. When that fell through, Ford didn’t want a cancelled contract penalty, so created the Puma cheaply to utilise the engines. Some parts, such as the 1.7 blocks, did originate from Spain, but much else was sourced in Japan, and the engine was fully put together there before going to Cologne in Germany – not Spain – to be put in cars.
3 THE 1.4 WAS ALWAYS PLANNED
The Puma was an unexpected success, but Ford couldn’t get any more 1.7-litre engines to meet demand. So it used the ready-todrop-in Fiesta’s 1.4-litre unit, (the 1.25-litre motor wasn’t deemed tough enough). This led to the nickname ‘ The Secretary’s Ferrari’.
4 THERE WERE 1000 RACING PUMAS
There were supposed to be – 500 for Britain and 500 for Germany. But in the end, the Ford Racing Puma (FRP), originally dubbed the ST160 and developed by Ford’s Rally Specialist team, ran to just 500 units, all for the UK, because the high price dented demand.