RE: Ford Fiesta RS Turbo: Spotted

[MalcolmSmith]

These were rubbish back in the day and I recall being quite expensive too.

The French and Italian alternatives were far better and cheaper.

Getting too caught up in the ‘Fast Ford’ bubble at that price.

[Drive Blind]

i've got a mental block about anything with the cvh engine.

how such a horrible engine sold in so many numbers is beyond me.

[andymc]

I had a black one, it was two years old, it was "chipped up" to 165BHP, Alpine head unit and Alpine 6x9 in the back, best car experience of my life, serious rose tinted glasses however

[s m]

MalcolmSmith said:

These were rubbish back in the day and I recall being quite expensive too.

The French and Italian alternatives were far better and cheaper.

Getting too caught up in the ‘Fast Ford’ bubble at that price.

They weren’t as good handling wise as the Peugeot and Renault class leaders by all accounts

Expensive though? Price wise they were less than the 1.9 205 Gti and a bit more than a 1.6 205gti so I wouldn’t say they were any more expensive than anything else in that era. Certainly quicker too on smooth roads ( I had the Peugeot so can speak from experience! )

[J4CKO]

Five grand, maybe, fifteen, god no.

So many better ways to spend fifteen grand on cars than one of these, get a MK7 ST which is actually good, I only ever drove the Escort but struggled to see what the fuss was about, looked great but didnt seem that fast, these dont really even look that great.

Would have to be one of the fast Ford faithful to put 15 grand into one of these.

[Hotel Indigo]

My uncle bought one of these new and as a 10 year old it scared me witless.

For reference, my dad was driving an Orion 1.6D at the time.

[s m]

J4CKO said:

Five grand, maybe, fifteen, god no.

So many better ways to spend fifteen grand on cars than one of these, get a MK7 ST which is actually good, I only ever drove the Escort but struggled to see what the fuss was about, looked great but didnt seem that fast, these dont really even look that great.

Just for reference, CAR mag back in the 80s/90s used to time most sporty cars round Combe. When it was new the Escort RS turbo was the fastest hot hatch they’d timed round the bumpy circuit, faster than the Astra GTE 2.0, Fiat Strada Abarth, Golf etc
Also beat the Mk1 MR2 they twin tested it with

Once the actuators soften off they lose boost which often explains slow feeling ones

[rossub]

J4CKO said:

Five grand, maybe, fifteen, god no.

So many better ways to spend fifteen grand on cars than one of these, get a MK7 ST which is actually good, I only ever drove the Escort but struggled to see what the fuss was about, looked great but didnt seem that fast, these dont really even look that great.

Would have to be one of the fast Ford faithful to put 15 grand into one of these.

No doubt there’ll be a thread on here circa 2045 where someone will be telling people to buy the current electric autonomous Fiesta instead of the MK7 ST that is available for the same price

I do agree that £15k is silly though.

[the_hood]

andymc said:

I had a black one, it was two years old, it was "chipped up" to 165BHP, Alpine head unit and Alpine 6x9 in the back, best car experience of my life, serious rose tinted glasses however

I remember that billboard ad. Ford had a knack at the time off adding kerbside appeal to fairly plane looking cars.
Drove my friends XR2i courtesy car. It felt fast back then.
This one's for fast Ford fans only.

[J4CKO]

s m said:

J4CKO said:

Five grand, maybe, fifteen, god no.

So many better ways to spend fifteen grand on cars than one of these, get a MK7 ST which is actually good, I only ever drove the Escort but struggled to see what the fuss was about, looked great but didnt seem that fast, these dont really even look that great.

Just for reference, CAR mag back in the 80s/90s used to time most sporty cars round Combe. When it was new the Escort RS turbo was the fastest hot hatch they’d timed round the bumpy circuit, faster than the Astra GTE 2.0, Fiat Strada Abarth, Golf etc
Also beat the Mk1 MR2 they twin tested it with

Once the actuators soften off they lose boost which often explains slow feeling ones

I think I was expecting a bit much, I had a MK1 Golf GTI at the time, so 110 bhp, was expecting a turbo to feel three times as quick, and sure, it was quicker but not as much as I was expecting.

These just seem a bit of an also ran to the Escort, they look nowhere near as good to my eyes.

[bloomen]

Looks like the RS freight train has no plans to stop. I'd call that a £1500 car all day long.

[aaron_2000]

I see the people that don't realise that nobody is going to buy it for trackdays are already here with their "You could buy this many Clio 182's for that" You could also buy 1000 dodgy drag Skylines from MotorHub for the price of a McLaren F1, why not ask a collector if he'd prefer that too? The fact old Fords sell for such stupid prices all the time suggests it's not overpriced at all, even if none of us normal people could ever justify the price.

[E65Ross]

s m said:

p4cks said:

So what, this isn't a road test is it?

True, but it would be nice if they’d read some of the road tests themselves or actually tried one rather than regurgitating rumours and speculation into the write up

Didn't they quote Autocar?

[Gixer_fan]

s m said:

J4CKO said:

Five grand, maybe, fifteen, god no.

So many better ways to spend fifteen grand on cars than one of these, get a MK7 ST which is actually good, I only ever drove the Escort but struggled to see what the fuss was about, looked great but didnt seem that fast, these dont really even look that great.

Just for reference, CAR mag back in the 80s/90s used to time most sporty cars round Combe. When it was new the Escort RS turbo was the fastest hot hatch they’d timed round the bumpy circuit, faster than the Astra GTE 2.0, Fiat Strada Abarth, Golf etc
Also beat the Mk1 MR2 they twin tested it with

Once the actuators soften off they lose boost which often explains slow feeling ones

I recall (I think !) a Hot Car hot hatch test round Castle Combe where the MG Maestro recorded the fastest lap ...
It seems that £15K is not a lot of money nowadays. Only yesterday I saw a Mini 1275GT advertised for the same price !

[Pericoloso]

I had one of these ,in the same red as this car from 92 to about 96.

It was "okay".

I tried to drown it but that's another story.

Beard fact....the front bumper isn't the same at an XR2i as there was a little cut out to make space for the front

mounted cooling fan......

I binned off the awful 3 spokes and fitted some spokey MIMs.

[GOATever]

Any reasonably quick car, that is likely to go into the MOT / Tax free bracket anytime soon, is going to start going for silly money. The car’s only going to fetch what someone will pay for it, retro ‘fast fords’ seem to fetch daft money, no matter what anyway. I can see why, they are ‘hairy arsed’ so don’t cost much to run ( relative to today’s horse poo offerings) and they are engaging to drive. So many new cars have loads of expensive, flakey kit on them, if you don’t buy it new, under manufacturers warranty, it could seriously damage your bank balance, should it go wrong. They are also ( bar a few rare exceptions) controlled / governed by more computers than the ISS, which makes them dull IMO. If you can get 2/3rds of the giggles, at 1/1000th of the cost, why wouldn’t you?

[lee_erm]

I had an XR2i 16v for a while. It was probably a bit rubbish too, bloody good fun though. It had a charm to it. The Zetec engine was good.

[howardhughes]

andymc said:

I had a black one, it was two years old, it was "chipped up" to 165BHP, Alpine head unit and Alpine 6x9 in the back, best car experience of my life, serious rose tinted glasses however

Love it. Great pics

[rtz62]

Had one of these new, white, J929TCY (currently SORN and no MOT)
Have to disagree with the turbo lag talk, it had a small turbo that span up quicker (was it a Garrett T02?) and had EEC IVengine management so always felt more responsive than my previous Escort RST, but was also hampered by the small compressor.
For me there was a lot to like, especially as mine was fitted with a Superchips clip-in chip which gave it circa 165bhp.
My only real complaint was that despite having supremely comfortable Recaros, the driving position was a bit too high.

[s m]

Gixer_fan said:

s m said:

J4CKO said:

Five grand, maybe, fifteen, god no.

So many better ways to spend fifteen grand on cars than one of these, get a MK7 ST which is actually good, I only ever drove the Escort but struggled to see what the fuss was about, looked great but didnt seem that fast, these dont really even look that great.

Just for reference, CAR mag back in the 80s/90s used to time most sporty cars round Combe. When it was new the Escort RS turbo was the fastest hot hatch they’d timed round the bumpy circuit, faster than the Astra GTE 2.0, Fiat Strada Abarth, Golf etc
Also beat the Mk1 MR2 they twin tested it with

Once the actuators soften off they lose boost which often explains slow feeling ones

I recall (I think !) a Hot Car hot hatch test round Castle Combe where the MG Maestro recorded the fastest lap ...
It seems that £15K is not a lot of money nowadays. Only yesterday I saw a Mini 1275GT advertised for the same price !

Yes indeed, the Maestro Turbo was faster still at Combe .......some 4 years later remember though!