Ford Fiesta ST 2013 Review

Price Guide: (not including statutory and delivery charges): $25,990
Options fitted: (not included in above price): Prestige paint $385
Crash rating: Five-star ANCAP
Fuel: 91 RON ULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 6.2
CO2 emissions (g/km): 145
Also consider: Holden Barina RS (from $20,990 plus on-road costs); Peugeot 208 GTi (from $29,990 plus ORCs), Skoda Fabia RS (from $27,990 plus ORCs); Volkswagen Polo GTI (from $27,990 plus ORCs)

Evocative badges don’t always evoke what they promise.

You would run out of fingers counting the cars bestowed over the years with extra badges implying they had something special in the dynamics department over their regular-spec peers.

However, the title – usually something entirely unimaginative, like ‘Sport’ – normally signals little more than a cosmetic workover: A chrome exhaust tip here, a touch of faux carbon fibre trim there, maybe a rear spoiler or, sometimes, slightly bigger wheels in the search of extra showroom attention.

More often than not, the upgrades stop there. When it comes to the crunch, your Sport Pack hatch is usually no livelier on the road than its less pretentious stablemates.

Not so with Ford’s new Fiesta ST. The new three-door hot hatch is about as far removed from the basic Fiesta shopping trolley as you could imagine – and not so much the way it looks, as the way it is able to get out there and wrestle with the bitumen.

The company called in the services of Ford Team RS, which is the European arm of its Global Performance Vehicle Group, to grab the humble little hatch and rework it into a barely recognisable micro-beast.

Starting with an eager, turbocharged direct-injection 1.6-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost engine developing 134kW at 5700rpm and 240Nm between 1600 and 5000rpm, the Fiesta ST reveals a whole swag of changes running through the drivetrain, suspension, steering and braking systems. It’s no light workover.

The engine uses variable camshaft timing as well as direct, high-pressure fuel injection to give what Ford says is a 34 per cent power boost over the previous 110kW/190Nm 2.0-litre Fiesta XR4. And there’s an overboost function that, for as much as 20 seconds, is able to jump power to 147kW and 290Nm.

As well as new software for the stability control system, which allows three settings to offer full intervention, delayed intervention or no intervention at all, the ST also gets what Ford calls eTVC, in which braking of the inside front wheel settles the car mid-corner and reduces understeer at the same time.

Suspension work includes a modified front steering knuckle, a stiffer rear torsion beam, new settings for rear springs and dampers and a 15mm lower centre of gravity.

The steering also gets a faster 13.69:1 ratio that swings the wheel from lock-to-lock in a brisk 2.2 turns and is made more direct via a shorter steering arm. The ST’s rear disc brakes, served with the rest of the system by a bigger tandem master cylinder, are a Fiesta first.

What all this translates to is a mighty feisty Fiesta, altogether different to the regular versions and a legitimate hot hatch able to rub shoulders with the best of its competitors including Volkswagen’s Polo GTI, Skoda’s similarly-engined Fabia RS and Peugeot’s new 208 GTi.

There’s very little evidence of an everyday Fiesta as you settle into the Recaro seat and relish the purposeful buzz of the carefully sound-engineered EcoBoost engine. The new, specially calibrated six-speed transmission snicks into gear nicely and the clutch asks for little more than normal pressure as you gaze at the soft-touch dash with its 6800rpm redline tacho chunky ST-specific steering wheel and generally intuitive controls.

And the sweet sounding engine delivers pretty much from the get-go, dishing up plenty of torque and telegraphing straight away that this is about to be something far removed from what you’d normally expect of a light hatch.

The acceleration is scintillating, and the power is delivered in a linear, powerful rush that makes it easy to believe the claimed 6.9-second zero to 100km/h figure.

The engine’s flexibility is evident in its strong part-throttle response and its ability to pull strongly at just about any point above 1700rpm – all encouraged by the hearty buzz from the intake system.

While all this is going on, the nicely weighted steering and (decidedly) firm suspension inspire confidence.

The 17-inch wheels with their 205/40-series tyres ensure the ST is well planted, even if there is some sign of front-end push when it is really being hammered -- in this case on a racetrack in Gippsland, Victoria.

The ST’s roadholding can’t be criticised, but we couldn’t help but wonder how it would feel (and look) with wheels one size larger. The already-firm, short-wheelbase ride would undoubtedly be harder again and would exacerbate a tendency to display what sounded like front shocker top-out on rough roads.

All this, plus a claimed average fuel consumption of 6.2L/100km (we recorded 7.0L/100km on test) and CO2 emissions of 145g/km is pretty remarkable when you think about it.

What it all boils down to is that the Fiesta ST potentially resets the benchmark for light-class hot hatches. It is tighter and altogether sportier than the Peugeot 208 GTi, and more spectacular to look at.

It’s also around $2000 cheaper than a Volkswagen Polo GTI or a Skoda Fabia RS. For a before on-road cost a little south of $26,000 it delivers an altogether unlikely amount of stimulation.