Ford’s “ST” sports badge has normally been reserved for the Focus line-up, but not anymore. Meet the Ford Fiesta ST: the sporty little hatchback bound for Australia’s roads and corners.
The new Fiesta ST is quite the looker. It takes a departure from the Aston Martin-esque grille that we’ve seen on the regular Fiesta and throws on the honeycomb design we’ve seen on the Focus ST. It rolls on 17-inch alloy wheels with a snowflake design.
Behind that grille, the new Fiesta ST is packing the same EcoBoost engine technology its lower-specced predecessors have, powering a 1.6-litre petrol engine that produces 134kW and 240Nm of torque. Using the Overboost function will allow the engine to produce 147kW and 290Nm of torque, with a fuel economy of 6.2-litres per 100km. All this power was refined at the famous Nurburgring track in Germany, before being punished at the Nardo Technical Centre in Italy where it was flogged to near-death in scorching conditions.
There’s a 3-mode Dynamic Stability Control system, six-speed manual transmission and rear-disc brakes on board, too.
Inside the cabin is the familiar Sony head unit in a new “high-contrast” design, as well as a “Sound Symposer” designed to pump the car’s premium engine note back into the car when you give the accelerator pedal a bit of boot.
The car will also feature Ford’s Emergency Assistance technology, which sees the Sync system use your mobile phone (via Bluetooth) to phone 000 if it detects an airbag deployment, a roll, or other accident variables.
It will also support the clever new MyKey technology designed to annoy younger drivers into being safe. All that tech is on top of the new Sync system which supports voice commands, navigation, Bluetooth audio streaming, CD and digital radio functionality.
The Fiesta ST will go on sale in September with a recommended price of $25,990.