RE: New Fiesta ST gets LSD

RE: New Fiesta ST gets LSD

Tuesday 13th March 2018

New Fiesta ST gets LSD

Quaife locking differential will now be offered as an ST option - hurry up with the drive already!



It's not an exaggeration to say that the three-cylinder Fiesta ST is one of the most eagerly anticipated performance cars of 2018, at any price. After years of quite ordinary supermini hot hatches, the last Fiesta ST finally delivered on the promise - and set the bar very high for this one.

Driven: read our first drive of the new Ford Fiesa ST

As we wait patiently to drive it, so news comes from Ford of a few tasty add-ons that will be offered to ST customers. Most exciting of which is a Quaife limited-slip differential, which will be optional on the upcoming three-cylinder car. Working in conjunction with the 'Torque Vectoring Control' brake nibbling technology, the diff will "optimise front-end traction for enhanced cornering ability", according to Ford.

In addition, the Quaife LSD is said to offer "optimal grip on dry surfaces and smoothness on wet surfaces." Certainly we know from the likes of Peugeot Sport's 208 GTI just what a positive effect a locking differential in a front-wheel drive car can have (with some suspension changes too, granted), so it will be interesting to see just what influence this Quaife hardware will have.


Ford has also announced Launch Control as an option for the Fiesta ST, allowing drivers to "achieve maximum satisfaction with consistently fast standing starts." Using steering wheel controls to initiate and a combination of the various chassis electronics to execute, the Launch Control should make it a tad easier to hit the claimed 6.5 seconds it takes to reach 62mph. Ford claims no measured advantage for the Launch Control, though, but it's there to try and match if you're feeling racy...

What will be standard on the ST (but has only now been confirmed by Ford) are "force vectoring springs"; said to be the first small hot hatch to benefit from the tech, the Fiesta uses "non-uniform, non-interchangeable, directionally wound springs to apply vectoring forces to the rear suspension." It should permit increased lateral stiffness, which promotes sharper turn in response without a ride quality or refinement penalty. It's also lighter (by 10kg) than a Watt's linkage, that's often used to achieve the same benefit in torsion beam cars.

As opposed to the previous generation ST, this one will be available from launch with both three and five doors. Seven colours will be offered - Frozen White, Magnetic, Moondust Silver, Performance Blue, Race Red, Shadow Black and Silver Fox - and the first drives are in a couple of months. Bring it on!

Author
Discussion

RumbleOfThunder

Original Poster:

3,557 posts

203 months

Tuesday 13th March 2018
quotequote all
Hmm shaping up nicely. Gonna stick my neck out and say the LSD won't be worth the 1.5-2k premium. The current generation doesn't cry out for it for 99% of daily duties.

RumbleOfThunder

Original Poster:

3,557 posts

203 months

Tuesday 13th March 2018
quotequote all
Oh and those pictures are vomit inducing quality PH.

RumbleOfThunder

Original Poster:

3,557 posts

203 months

Tuesday 13th March 2018
quotequote all
Krikkit said:
RumbleOfThunder said:
Oh and those pictures are vomit inducing quality PH.
The top one is particularly awful.

Good looking car though, even through ludicrous compression.
Those are press release images offered for download at a lovely 4000 x 2667. Shame PH butchers them.

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/feu/en.re...

RumbleOfThunder

Original Poster:

3,557 posts

203 months

Tuesday 13th March 2018
quotequote all
Turbobanana said:
RumbleOfThunder said:
Oh and those pictures are vomit inducing quality PH.
Looks alright for a "news"-type article to me. What are you planning to do with it - blow it up as a poster for your bedroom wall?
The quality is awful, even on my small screen work laptop. These websites are from the 1st page from Google alone, and all carry the press release images in much better quality.

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/motorin...
https://www.motormag.com.au/news/1803/new-ford-fie...
https://drivemag.com/news/2018-ford-fiesta-st-is-q...
https://www.carscoops.com/2018/03/hot-new-2018-for...
http://autobuzz.my/2018/03/13/ford-fiesta-st-gets-...

No excuses for PH.

RumbleOfThunder

Original Poster:

3,557 posts

203 months

Tuesday 13th March 2018
quotequote all
Wow, who knew p1key was in the swear filter? laugh

RumbleOfThunder

Original Poster:

3,557 posts

203 months

Friday 16th March 2018
quotequote all
Mr2Mike said:
rb26 said:
Right bruv, da st MK8 FiSt ain't no match for da MK7 FiSt la! Da MP215 kit is propah wicked m8, and shuld have be deffo bean sold like dat from da factory m8. rolleyes

Better?
Not better as such, but that's what I'd expect to hear from a Fiesta ST driver.
Your profile says you drive an EP3 Type R, the single chaviest car in the world currently.

RumbleOfThunder

Original Poster:

3,557 posts

203 months

Friday 16th March 2018
quotequote all
blade7 said:
The one we've got has only done 14k. I'd rather have it mapped for a few hundred quid than spend another £8-10k for the emperors new clothes.
A few hundred? Sounds like a st plug-in map to me, Superchips lad. Keep kidding yourself that you have something better than the new model, just because you won't or can't come up with the cash to pay the difference.

RumbleOfThunder

Original Poster:

3,557 posts

203 months

Saturday 17th March 2018
quotequote all
I think all can agree on that. The mk7 is a 200ps car by any reasonable definition.