Solid gold…
… and almost as expensive, though a serious suspension upgrade elevates the already exceptional Fiesta ST
What’s the hold-up? An hour into your first drive in Ford’s most serious ST Fiesta and it feels like everyone else on the road is dawdling horribly. Corners are trundled, painfully slowly, and acceleration away from every junction, roundabout and red-light-gone-green is glacial. It’s as if every car you come across is moving in slow motion and, somehow, your Ford is not.
So you wait for a suitable gap, parp past in a choice of at least two gears (remember when hot hatches had to be in the right gear, with at least 5000rpm dialled up, at all times? The Ford’s 1.5litre three-cylinder turbo doesn’t…) and claim for your delectation a clear stretch of road.
At this juncture it’s worth pointing out that the standard ST, in ST-3 guise (from £23,995, with the all-important Performance Pack in place), is no slouch. An exceptional hot hatch, it claimed silver in our last Hot Hatch Giant Test, ahead of the then new Renault Megane RS and behind the (£10k more expensive, 120bhp more powerful) Honda Civic Type R. To the ST-3 the Performance Edition adds £2500 to the list price, a set of very fetching lightweight Ford Performance wheels (at 18 inches in diameter, no bigger than the ST-3’s stock rims but lighter) and a Ford Performance coilover suspension upgrade, which both lowers the car (15mm at the front; 10mm at the rear) and brings 12-stage compression and 16-step rebound adjustment. The damper units, finished in stainless steel with blue springs, look the business tucked up behind those very pretty wheels.
I digress – back to that clear stretch of road. Rev the triple out and it worms its way deeper into your affections. It sounds great, never feels anything but strong and somehow still returns 38mpg. The manual ’box is sweet too, if not quite in Civic Type R territory. Everything else that matters is good – driving position, seats, brakes – and there’s much that, while less essential, helps sugar the list price pill, including heated seats, wheel and screen and a powerful stereo.
But the real juice is the Fiesta’s astonishing
handling. There’s stacks of grip, direct and meaty steering, unwavering body control and a deeply rewarding sense of connection with your tyres. Understeer’s there only if clumsily provoked – mostly the Fiesta just changes direction like a housefly and offers more adjustability than many rear-drive sports cars. The standard car shares many of these qualities but the Performance Edition elevates them all to another level of ultra-crisp definition.
Yes, the ride’s tough at low speed on rough tarmac but, as with the standard ST, once you’re up to speed it soon settles. And the truth that you could have a sensible new Golf for the same money will be inconsequential to the kind of souls this Fiesta will make deliriously happy.
It changes direction like a housefly and o ers more adjustability than many rear-drive sports cars
On paper it’s an odd compromise, but on the road it all combines harmoniously