Ford Fiesta ST - Returns To Ford’s Super-Mini

Lommel Warm ST badge returns to Ford’s super-mini after a five-year absence, aiming to provide a fun package that’s everyday-usable.

Lommel, Belgium, again. As is often the case, our first drive of a fast Ford is on Ford’s own terms, on home territory at its Flemish proving ground. You’d expect a car developed here to feel good here.

In our experience (of most quick Fords for a generation), though, cars that drive well on Lommel’s varied surfaces also drive well on the real roads that a proving ground is meant to emulate. Which means? It means I’ll be astonished if this car, the new Fiesta ST, turns out to be a duffer when we drive it on the road.

When you’re pushing on, the ST is happy to push on with you. In the dry it will apparently lift a rear wheel.

This is the latest fast Ford, then. The first hot Fiesta that’ll be sold globally, and the first production Fiesta to reach 62mph from rest in under seven seconds, it says here, which sounds particularly sprightly.

As well it might: it has 179bhp, which, although around 10 per cent less than the class’s fastest, should prove sufficient in a four-meter super-mini that will weigh around 1100kg (official kerb weight hadn’t been released at the time of writing).

That output - strong but not outstanding  gives you an idea of where Ford wants the Fiesta ST to sit.

Unlike Renault or Peugeot, Ford doesn’t have one sporting line. It has both ST and RS badges to use, giving the flexibility to let STs be daily drivers and RSs hardcore models. So, like the latest Focus ST, the Fiesta is meant to be enjoyable but not uncomfortable, fast but docile.

Unlike Renault or Peugeot, Ford doesn’t have one sporting line. It has both ST and RS badges to use, giving the flexibility to let STs be daily drivers and RSs hardcore models.

It costs from under $25,495 and is available in two trim levels: ST and ST-2, imaginatively, with the latter $1,500 more expensive and adding heated, part-leather seats, DAB radio and a few other things less notable.

Power comes from a turbocharged 1.6-liter Ecoboost four-pot that drives the front wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. There’s no flappy paddle option, and neither is there a mechanical limited-slip differential - the preserve of RS models, you feel. Instead, the Fiesta gets Torque Vectoring Control, an extension of stability control that brakes a spinning inside wheel, replicating some of an LSD’s work.

The suspension is 15mm lower than on regular Fiestas, and spring and damper rates are appropriately a mite stiffer, as is the rear torsion beam, while there are 17in alloys wearing 205/40 Bridgestone Potenza rubber all round.

What else? The power steering is electrically assisted and uses a different, faster (2.4 turns) rack, although it remains linear; unlike a Servotronic system, it doesn’t get faster as you wind on more lock to increase agility.

To the cabin. Around it are dotted a few highlights that mark the Fiesta out from the cooking models. Nothing you wouldn’t expect, mind, just a few jeweled highlights, including a pleasingly sculpted (and round) steering wheel.

The driving position is pretty good, but not ideal for yours truly. I found the seat squab too angled if you set it low, giving too much beef under the thigh, while the steering wheel doesn’t stretch quite close enough for me. Best to sit a little higher with a more upright seatback for easy wheel twiddling, I found. But it’s a small niggle; you can get comfy enough.

Mechanical detail, then. There’s a push-button starter on this ST-2, and the motor fires to a quiet idle. The clutch and throttle actions and gearshift are slick too. Ford apportions its control weights well, and the ST is no exception. There’s a tiny amount of mechanical resistance on the gearshift (like you’re dragging a stick through Rice Krispies rather than oil) but it’s very precise and easy, and throttle response is good, with little appreciable lag at low revs.

The driving position is pretty good, but not ideal for yours truly.

Out of the car park and on to a motorway-replicating stretch of track, the ride immediately feels firm but well damped. There’s a reasonable amount of vertical movement, but the ST doesn’t react harshly to the bumps that cause it. Yet it retains tight control of its body as a result of the tautness. Instantly it feels good.

It’s quick enough, too. The official claim is 6.9sec to 62mph, and that feels about right to me. Swapping cogs is easy and the engine revs with some enthusiasm to the 6500rpm redline, with responses that improve higher in the rev range (although, as with most turbo petrol units, it’s not really worth revving out the last few hundred revs).

Thanks to a sound Symposer (see sidebar, left), the 1.6 Ecoboost sounds pretty good, too - not five-pot-replicating like that of the bigger Focus ST, but powerful and smooth nonetheless, yet quiet enough on a tickled throttle that a motorway cruise is easy and quiet. It’s a good match for the car’s fine stability and sufficient comfort.

The Fiesta steers well, too. It’s slick and oily, with a decent simulation of the weighting you’d get from a hydraulic system: a gradual build-up of resistance, as if you’re beginning to ease lateral pressure onto the tires. You’re not really feeling it, mind; electrically assisted systems, improving daily though they are, are still less communicative than the best hydraulic set-ups. It’s a bit like listening to a digital piano rather than a real one: so clean and consistent that you can sense it’s a replicant. Still, it’s better than an even half-decent hydraulic rack. Let’s not kid ourselves, car makers can turn out good and bad steering systems regardless of die hardware, and Ford does them well.

ST-2's cabin upgrades include heated, part-leather seats - not complemented by the best driving position, but comfy enough.

And if you’re pushing on? The Fiesta ST is happy to be pushing on with you. It turns with agility and showed good traction even out of tight second-gear comers in damp testing conditions. Across challenging cambers and crests, even if they arrive mid-comer, the Fiesta’s body control is terrific and the chassis is composed and controllable. It’s not as keenly focused as the recently departed Renault Clio 200 Cup, but it isn’t really meant to be.

Eventually the Fiesta will push wade at the front on a steady throttle, and in the dry it will apparently lift a rear wheel. Not in die damp, mind, but with some provocation (more than the Renault would ask) it’s happy to over steer controllably on the way into a comer. The stability control has three modes: on, sport (which will allow sufficient slip for most drivers, even on a track day) or all off.

Body control is superb, with firm but well damped suspension giving comfort and agility

So it’s a giggle. Yes, it’s less hilarious than the outgoing Clio 200, but it’s also less wearing. In short, the ST is just where Ford intended it to be.

Which means that, if you’re looking for an entertaining hot super-mini that you could happily drive daily without it doing your head in, the Fiesta is as competent and capable as they come. They might come more competent and capable in the next few weeks (we’re due to drive Renaultsport’s new Clio RS 200 Turbo and Peugeot’s 208 GTI within the month), but they will do well to be as good as this.

Decent rear seating means the three-door Fiesta ST happily takes four adults inside

Pipe of no peace: the sound symposer

As in the Focus ST, the Fiesta ST has a sound symposer under the bonnet to increase induction noise. In essence, it’s a pipe running from the air inlet system to the dashboard, situated along which is a box containing a membrane, like a loudspeaker’s. It just amplifies the noise of air entering the engine, so it isn’t an artificial noise; nor is it actively controlled like in a Focus ST, which valves it depending on throttle and revs. It’s just on, mutedly, all the time. I liked the noises it piped into the cabin: sucky but not boomy.

A boot capacity of 276 liters becomes 960 liters with the rear seats folded down