The Fiesta ST’s handling balance is markedly more biased towards oversteer than many regular hatches

stable in a straight line. That helped reduced fatigue on the long motorway trek from the UK to Lommel.

One thing I’m curious about is the Fiesta’s handling balance: it’s markedly more biased towards oversteer than many regular hatchbacks. Was there internal debate about signing off a car so lively? ‘The normal way of thinking is that understeer is safe and oversteer is dangerous,’ Put says, going on to explain that he believes the opposite can be true if a car is developed with care; if a car behaves safely at its limits and recovers from oversteer in a controlled way, it can help drivers stay on the correct side of the road.

Also here is Leo Roeks, head of Ford Performance in Europe, and the man who signs off the big decisions.

‘I drove these guys mad,’ confesses Roeks. ‘I kept telling them that the car wasn’t good enough – we made so many changes. We went round in circles. If you change one thing, it affects all the other parameters, so you have to change everything again accordingly.’

I’d say it paid off. This Belgian caper is the ST’s last adventure before it leaves us, and it’ll be missed. Its downsides fade into irrelevance with time, and while I still feel the ride comfort is a tad punishing for day-to-day use, especially at urban speeds, one run through a curving slip road or bendy B-road is enough to make it feel an entirely fair trade for the ST’s agility.

The over-bolstered front sports seats have worn in with use, like a pair of once-stiff, now-comfy trainers, although the leather on the driver’s door-side bolster is starting to scuff.

There was also the curious non-start episode mentioned last month, although since the Fiesta’s been otherwise entirely trouble-free I’m putting it down as an isolated incident. And chalking the ST up as a modern classic. In the future, I really do think people will look back on this car as being just as epochal a hot hatch as the Peugeot 205 GTI, Renault Clio Williams et al.

‘Most customers can’t talk to me about linearity and tuck-in but if they say it drives nicely, I’m overjoyed,’ says Roeks. ‘If they say it puts a smile on their face, that is the feedback I’m hoping to get.’

Well, the Fiesta really has put a smile on my face, every day for the past nine months. It’s a special little car, this Ford.

Count the cost

Cost new £24,890 Private sale £16,275 Part-exchange £15,495 Cost per mile 18.6p Cost per mile including depreciation £2.29