21 February 2014
The complete package
The 2013 Ford Fiesta ST has been specially developed by Ford Team RS in Europe, with extensive testing of over 5,000km taken place at Germany’s world-famous Nurburgring Nordschleife race circuit.
The Fiesta ST features a commanding, Aston Martin style honeycomb mesh grille and a three-door body design as well as a rear diffuser and roof spoiler to give it a sporty edge. Inside, the aluminium foot pedals and the body-hugging Recaro seats confirm its athletic pedigree.
The previous generation Ford Fiesta ST that never made it onto our shores had a naturally aspirated 2.0L Duratec engine producing 110kW of power. But for the latest model Ford decided to bin the Duratec motor in favour of a smaller turbocharged powerplant for improved fuel efficiency and lower CO2 exhaust emissions. Smaller doesn’t translate to less power in this case as the new 1.6L EcoBoost petrol engine delivers 134kW of power and 240Nm of torque, that’s 24kW more than the previous 2.0L engine pumped out, and its claimed fuel economy is a frugal 5.9L/100km in a combined cycle with the use of a tame right foot. When the accelerator pedal is sharply depressed the EcoBoost engine has an over-boost function that briefly delivers an additional 15kW/50Nm to give the Fiesta ST an extra nudge that’s especially useful for overtaking manoeuvres.
The 1.6L EcoBoost motor is the identical engine that’s also used in the Ford Kuga and with less weight to carry around the Fiesta ST is claimed to sprint from standstill to our motorway speed limit in a quick 6.9 seconds which at only 0.4 seconds slower than its larger sibling the Focus ST, it’s pretty impressive stuff.
Car enthusiasts will be pleased that the force-fed powerplant is coupled to a six-speed manual gearbox, although sadly there is no quick shifting dual-clutch auto transmission in sight for those drivers that prefer two pedals at their feet.
Performance is nothing without good handling
The Fiesta ST is built on Ford’s global B-car platform with refinements that include a new steering system and brake components as well as being planted 15mm lower to the ground due to a specially tuned sport suspension. An enhanced version of Ford’s Torque Vectoring Control keeps the power transmitted to the wheel with all the traction to ensure nothing goes to waste.
The Fiesta ST’s 205/40 R17 rubber bands stick to the tarmac in the turns and the car feels nicely planted to the black top. The turbocharged powerplant provides a decent amount of power while the body hugging seats keep the driver from excessive sideways movement and the specially tuned torque vectoring assists with keeping understeer at bay.
On top of its class
Ford’s Fiesta ST comes with MyKey technology that allows owners of the Fiesta ST the ability to set certain driving restrictions to an allocated key. This is especially useful for parents with road-legal teenagers looking to drive the pocket rocket as they can limit the top speed to ensure the legal motorway speed limit isn’t exceeded and the maximum radio volume can also be set so that the driver isn’t distracted by blaring music.
Luggage space is limited to 276L but the rear seats can fold down to free up another 684L of loading space.
Competition in the compact sport hatch segment is tough with rivals such as Peugeot’s 208 GTi, and the Volkswagen’s Polo GTI all offering impressive levels of performance. But, bang for buck and pure driving pleasure the Ford Fiesta ST ranks highly with the only shortfall being there’s no five-door version or an auto ’box on offer.
The passive safety is provided by seven airbags and active safety features include EBD (Electronic Brakeforce Distribution), EBA (Electronic Brake Assist), HLA (Hill Launch Assist), DSC (Dynamic Stability Control) as well as rear proximity sensors. The Fiesta ST is awarded with a five-star ANCAP crash test safety rating.
The Ford Fiesta ST is available in one specification only with a price tag of $34,990.