For forty years, the Ford Fiesta has sat at the top of the pile as one of Britain’s favourite cars. Not only is it the best-selling car in the UK today, it recently overtook the Escort as the best-selling car in Britain of all time.
But there’s another reason the Fiesta has been cemented for years as one of our favourite cars: Ford has always known how to make a ruddy good sporting version.
Just last week, the latest version of the fan-favourite Fiesta ST was unveiled, with modern additions like a downsized three-pot engine and selectable driving modes for the first time ever.
But before the ST moves forward, let’s take a look back through the decades as we pick out five of the very best fast Fiestas of the past forty years, and what’s made each so special.
Fiesta Supersport
Though the Supersport wasn’t the first fast Fiesta – that title goes to the 1300 Sport released back in 1977 – it was probably the best of the first-generation sporting Fiestas.
Powered by an 89bhp 1.3-litre engine, its output seems ridiculously tame by today’s standards, but given that it weighed in at only 775kg it was extremely lively and agile for a car of its time.
It also looked fantastic, complete with racing stripes down the sides, chunky alloy wheels and those rally-style spotlights mounted on the front grille.
Mk2 Fiesta XR2
Although to the yoof of today the names ‘ST’ and ‘RS’ will be more familiar, if you’re a hot hatch fan of a certain vintage you’ll know that ‘XR2’ was the badge that you originally lusted over.
Essentially equivalent to the GTi models (both Pug and VW) of its day, the Fiesta XR2 was a good bit more powerful than the Supersport which directly preceded it, with 96bhp courtesy of a 1.6-litre engine.
It wasn’t as powerful as many of its rivals, but it was great to look at and even better to drive. Given that it was so small and light, it actually ended up being quicker than some of the fast Fiestas that came after it too.
Fiesta RS Turbo
There was a time when slapping a great big turbo on your car was all about making it go faster, rather than trying to make it any more efficient. Of those late-80s and early-90s turbo cars, Ford’s RS range was king.
You’ll recognise the badge from bedroom wall posters of the Sierra and Escort RS’, but Ford also made an RS-badged Fiesta based on the third-generation car.
It was a brutal little thing too, but what it lacked in handling characteristics it more than made up for in terms of sheer power. The RS Turbo made 130bhp and could blast its way to 62mph from a standstill in 7.9 seconds, hugely impressive numbers for the era and even by today’s standards.
Mk6 Fiesta ST
Unfortunately, Ford found itself in the doldrums during much of the 1990s and early 2000s, pumping out some rather unhappy cars. Thankfully, the Mk6 Fiesta changed all that in 2002, particularly with the introduction of the first Fiesta to wear the ST badge.
Its styling was a breath of fresh air after the boxy cars that preceded it, and it was properly fast too given that it was powered by a 148bhp 2.0-litre engine, which meant it could do 0-62mph in around eight seconds.
Although it wasn’t the sharpest-driving hot hatch around at the time, it was still an extremely entertaining car. Also, the fact that its rock-solid engine was so eminently tuneable means that you’ll still see plenty of these on the roads and parked up at car meets today.
Mk7 Fiesta ST200
The latest, greatest fast Fiesta is the hottest production model ever made, or at least until the new one comes out later this year. As our review of it states, you’ll struggle to find a more fun car in any price range.
Power comes from a 197bhp version of the 1.6-litre turbo engine found in the standard Mk7 ST, but it’s the way the car handles that cements the current ST as the absolute pick of the bunch in the current small hot hatch market.
Like the Supersports and XR2s before it, we’d bet that the ST200 will become a real collectors’ item in a few years, not just because it’s limited edition, but because we reckon this is the one that’ll be seen as the last of the proper purists’ Fiestas.
