RE: Ford Fiesta ST: PH Fleet
Discussion
s m said:
blade7 said:
Back on topic, nearly £25k for a Fiesta
Seems that a lot of the little hot hatches are that money though - even the Citroen DS3 Performance is about 24-25k and you can pay 50k for a Fiat 500!LuS1fer said:
I had a brief look at the new ST which even the Ford salesmen thought looked a bit dull. There is no flair to the styling and time has not and will not change ?my view.
This ST looks plain and, while the diff may make the difference, I replaced my Mk 7 ST with another Mk 7 ST with the Mountune upgrade and still think it looks way better and it's a far nicer blue.
Out of interest, why would you change to the same car rather than upgrade your existing car?This ST looks plain and, while the diff may make the difference, I replaced my Mk 7 ST with another Mk 7 ST with the Mountune upgrade and still think it looks way better and it's a far nicer blue.
MK1RS Bruce said:
kuiper said:
WRC has lost the plot. It's gone steadily downhill since all the myriad of works manufacturer teams pulled the plug in the mid naughties and has been in the duldrums for some while - introducing the space ship aero doesn't help the cause and certainly won't temp them back.
I had a good look round the McRae Focus and Impreza at carfest this year and what was most remarkable is that other than the interior and stickers the shells were pretty much identical to the road going versions.
Firstly WRC has plenty of manufacturers in it at the moment, hyundai, toyota, citreon as full works teams then ford as a semi works team and skoda in WRC2.I had a good look round the McRae Focus and Impreza at carfest this year and what was most remarkable is that other than the interior and stickers the shells were pretty much identical to the road going versions.
The speed and performance of the current WRC cars is incredible and they are far more spectacular than a few years ago, they are as close to the likes of the group B machines as they have ever been which everyone seems to think was the pinnacle of rallying. The problem is that the coverage of WRC is rubbish so it doesn't appeal to the mass market.
Finally if you think McRae focus is anything like a road going version you are very much mistaken, yes the outline might be similar but the shell and running gear are completely different, I have a mk1 RS which is probably as extreme a focus road car as there ever was and its nothing like the WRC machines of 98-02.
I had to giggle at the Focus comment. Last time I saw a MK1 Focus WRC, I seem to recall it had carbon headlight cowls, M-Sport stamped glass and, when you look inside it, you could see that it was basically just some Focus-esque interior panels tacked to the outside of a bespoke chassis. Even in the Group A era, the rally cars might have looked like road cars, but barely shared a single component. I am lucky enough to own an RS2000 Formula 2 rally car and every inch of the shell has been modified in some way or another. About the only standard parts fitted to the whole thing are the rear light clusters, the water/oil pumps and the timing chain.
Let's face it, if the rally car looked anything like the road cars, no one would be interested and, if they tried to make a goad-going version, in order to make it vaguely workable, they would throw everything away. You'd end up with a Fiesta with a body kit and, most likely, some kind of Haldex (or similar) based 4WD system, so it would be nothing like the rally car anyway. Not to mention the fact that, as someone else posted, they would be so expensive that no one would buy them anyway. If Ford started selling a be-winged, 4WD Fiesta WRC rep, most on here would be slating it for being over-priced nonsense. I love the homologation era more than anyone, but it's dead and buried. Times have changed.
Edited by Jon_S_Rally on Friday 12th October 13:23
blade7 said:
s m said:
blade7 said:
Back on topic, nearly £25k for a Fiesta
Seems that a lot of the little hot hatches are that money though - even the Citroen DS3 Performance is about 24-25k and you can pay 50k for a Fiat 500!Otherwise you may as well stick with what you've got
neil1jnr said:
Out of interest, why would you change to the same car rather than upgrade your existing car?
Because my original one was black when i really wanted blue and the blue replacement already had the Mountune upgrade and was newer and didn't require the Ford 3 day recall or replacing a sticky handbrake mechanism. Overall, it was not an expensive upgrade for a newer and better car.LuS1fer said:
neil1jnr said:
Out of interest, why would you change to the same car rather than upgrade your existing car?
Because my original one was black when i really wanted blue and the blue replacement already had the Mountune upgrade and was newer and didn't require the Ford 3 day recall or replacing a sticky handbrake mechanism. Overall, it was not an expensive upgrade for a newer and better car.J4CKO said:
Limpet said:
J4CKO said:
They are very tempting, I keep borrowing my sons 2015 one and to be honest I much prefer it to my M135i as a drivers car, less so as a daily proposition but the confidence these things inspire is fantastic, dont think there is a more fun and engaging proposition, wrapped in a fairly economical, practical package out there.
They have plenty enough power to be fun and feel like you are making good progress as well, you can extract all of the performance and feel like you are getting the best out of it, natural habitat is B roads.
If you need a bigger hot hatch, the I30N has a similar vibe.
I'm not surprised, to be honest. I haven't driven an ST, but I have driven an ST Line (140PS 1.0) and a cooking 100PS 1.0, and they really do feel good, with great balance, and agility. It reminds me of Peugeots of a certain era, in that the base materials are fundamentally right, so the hot versions have a really good platform to build on. They have plenty enough power to be fun and feel like you are making good progress as well, you can extract all of the performance and feel like you are getting the best out of it, natural habitat is B roads.
If you need a bigger hot hatch, the I30N has a similar vibe.
When you get out of a shopping spec version of a car thinking "that drives really well", it always bodes well for the fast models.
I was going to mention certain Peugeot hatches, but decided not as people can get weird about anyone comparing anything that which has been cannonized and ascded to the Petrolheads hall of fame.
I drove 205 GTI's 'a few times and there is a certain echo with the ST, I used to enjoy driving XR2's back then but the 205 was on another planet, the XR2 did the go kart thing quite well but ran out of ideas in comparison, the ST feels more like a spiritual successor to the 205 than an XR2.
Dont get me wrong, the M135i does a great job but if I had to choose which to take down a winding B road, it wouldnt be the BMW, its a "Junior Supercar" whereas the ST is is every inch the dictionary definition of Hot Hatch, brought up to date, sort of makes the big power 4wd ones feel like overkill really, if you just want a fun car.
Need to scrounge a go in my brothers Focus ST for comparison.
I was tempted but three Fiestas on the drive would just be weird, 2 is bad enough.
A friend of mine pops round to take me out for a coffee every few weeks in his MK7 99BHP Ecoboost Fiesta and I am really bowled over at how well it drives. 2 Up its really quite nippy and has no trouble mixing it with the diesel brigade on the dual carriageways, but mostly, its the mix of softish ride but great handling I notice when he chucks it around a few roundabouts and the local roads. A really top car and I will happily have one as my daily driver once the kids have left home!
MK1RS Bruce said:
This is rubbish, you can walk up to M-sport any day of the week and buy anything from an R1 fiesta to a full on WRC car
Not quite true. You can buy anything from and R1 to R5 Fiesta, but the FIA insisted the manufacturers do not sell the WRC cars as they didn't want them appearing on smaller rallies and absolutely blitzing everything else.Jon_S_Rally said:
If Ford started selling a be-winged, 4WD Fiesta WRC rep, most on here would be slating it for being over-priced nonsense. I love the homologation era more than anyone, but it's dead and buried. Times have changed.
Well maybe I'm a dinosaur but if Ford sold a WRC lookalike with a proper 4WD system then I'd be first in the queue to buy it as it would be the obvious successor to both the Impreza WRX which is now getting too long in the tooth, and of course the RS500 which was beyond awesome in its day.But as we know, Ford won't be doing this until someone forces the FIA to bring back some form of homologation. After all how many Stratos-es, RS1800s or Manta 400s would have been built if it wasn't for this requirement ? The FIA has lost the plot, even though I accept the WRC has got a lot better since VW quit.
3yardy3 said:
Yes but that is not a standard Fiesta, that's an ST-Line which has the ST suspension and handling but the insurance friendly 1.0 engine. Its whole purpose is to look like an ST and the Fiesta has always had this as part of it's make-up in the form of the Zetec S.
Vauxhall did a similar thing, BMW "M" do a similar thing - all show, lot less go.
Ford have always sought to differentiate these models by the distinctive wheels the ST always gets.
So it's hardly a surprise.
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