Wednesday 10th February 2016

Ford Fiesta ST Plus coming?

No RS just yet, but a faster ST sounds pretty damn good nonetheless!

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Any manufacturer producing a fast car somewhere near £20K must loathe the very mention of the Ford Fiesta ST now. From Suzuki Swift Sport to Toyota GT86, there are dozens of cars that must count the fast Fiesta as a very tough rival. It's cheap, it's quick and it's tremendous fun. It is the go-to supermini hot hatch, in fact the go-to performance car for that money.

This but a bit more so? Yes please

So while its competitors won't appreciate the sound of a Fiesta ST Plus, it sounds great news for hot hatch fans. The rumours come from our colleagues at Autocar, building on conversations from the Detroit show.

What will it be? Well it certainly won't be an RS, the Plus very much an evolution of the ST rather than a ground-up Rallye Sport rework. The 1.6-litre Ecoboost will remain, but hopefully with additional performance and attitude. We know the Mountune MP215 kit wakes the Fiesta up nicely, and it didn't feel unruly with a quoted 240hp from Revo either. Given the Renaultsport Clio now comes with 220hp in the Trophy, a figure that just pipped that - say 225hp - would seem about right.

Expect a few suspension and brake tweaks to accommodate the additional power, but again nothing drastic. In fact, the ST Plus sounds like it will fulfil a similar role to the Clio Trophy in the Renaultsport line up; something a bit sharper and louder, but without being too far removed from standard. The Clio arguably needed that edge more than the Fiesta does though, so it will be interesting to see what the final product becomes.

Aftermarket shows Fiesta's potential already

It has been suggested that the Fiesta ST Plus could be on Ford's Geneva stand in a few weeks, but again this is simply conjecture at present. Before then, we will have a drive in another faster Fiesta, this time the M-Sport Fiesta ST. Yes, that same M-Sport that runs Fiesta WRC cars. On top of the Mountune upgrade it has a Quaife limited-slip diff, Eibach springs and an exhaust from the same guys who make the rally car system. So there could well be another Fiesta ST coming from Ford, and there's yet another option in the aftermarket - good news!

 

[Sources: M-Sport, Autocar]

[GTEYE]

Knowing Ford, it will be at Geneva 2016, with a projected on sale date in the UK of somewhere around Winter 2019.

Maybe a slight exaggeration!