Ford Fiesta News

The little car, unveiled at Frankfurt motor show on the heels of the Ford Focus ST, is strongly tipped to go on sale.“The Fiesta has a rich history of high-performance models so a new ST performance model is a logical next step in our performance vehicle strategy for our global small cars,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford group vice president, Global Product Development. “The Fiesta ST Concept continues that tradition by showing how a global performance version of our best-selling B-car can be both technically advanced and dramatically styled.“With a racing silhouette inspired by the global Fiesta race and rally cars currently competing on the world stage, and influenced by the unique appearance of the all-new Focus ST, the new Fiesta ST Concept is an exciting demonstration of the road-going Fiesta’s future potential.”The Fiesta ST on the show stand carries a turbocharged 1.6-litre EcoBoost four-cylinder engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission.Like the rest of the Fiesta range, the ST will be front-wheel drive. And while there are no firm details yet on the outputs that will be going to the front axle when it goes on sale, the car at Frankfurt  develops 132kW of power and 240Nm of torque, getting it from 0-100km/h in under  seven seconds, and to a top speed of 219km/h.Ford claims CO2 emissions under 140g/km, and while there's no official confirmation of fuel economy, it could be expected to get about 6.1-6.3L/100km -- unless you drive it like a hot hatch.The car will be part of the Blue Oval’s ‘One Ford’ plan, which means we can pester them to bring it to Australia.The queue starts here.

…that also comes with an Econetic green kick in Australia, but in future it will also be a go-faster star to rate against the Volkswagen Polo GTI.Work is well advanced in Europe on the turbocharged Fiesta ST, complete with a 1.6-litre EcoBoost petrol engine that makes 130 kiloWatts.It will be ready for Europe very late this year and is headed downunder in 2012, with no decision yet on production in Thailand - source of regular Fiesta and Focus models - or somewhere in Europe.

NICK Percat is the early leader in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar championship after two strong results at the Clipsal 500. Cancer fighter Jason Richards and youngster Andrew Thomson took the individual heat wins but Percat's 2-3 weekend for Walkinshaw Performance gave the Commodore driver the overall lead ahead of Tim Blanchard with 4-4 results in a Falcon and Scott McLaughlin with 7-2 finishes in his Ford.DAVID Brabham came home second for Acura as the fancied Audi and Peugeot factory cars stumbled at the Sebring 12-hour sports car race in the USA. Brabham has a mix-and-match race program this year, including V8 Supercar duty with Stone Brothers Racing, and started well with Highcroft Racing as the privateer Peugeot driven by Olivier Panis-Loic Duval-Nicolas Lapierre won at Sebring.MARCOS Ambrose is up to 18th in the NASCAR championship after a solid 15th place in the gruelling 500-lap contest on the high-banked Bristol oval last weekend. Ambrose qualified 14th with his Ford Fusion and led a lap in a race won by Kyle Busch.YOUNGSTER Tom Williamson was a race and round winner in the Formula Ford contest at the Clipsal 500. Cameron Waters won the first heat but Williamson's victory in the second-heat crashfest got him maximum points for the weekend ahead of Jesse Fenech and Nick Cassidy.CHAD Reed is now second in the AMA Supercross standings and closing on series leader Ryan Villopoto after another podium for his TwoTwo Motorsports team last weekend. Reed finished second in Jacksonville Florida on his Honda as Villopoto failed to score.JOHN Bowe took top points from the opening round of the Touring Car Masters series at the Clipsal 500 meeting. The former V8 Supercar star was the pacesetter on the streets of Adelaide with his Ford Mustang and finished on top of a quality field including fellow legends Jim Richards and Andrew Miedecke.A huge hit in the rain-lashed fourth race didn't stop David Sieders taking first-round honours in the V8 Utes championship in Adleaide. He limped over the line in the final race of the weekend to take top points ahead of Ryal Harris and Chris Pither.Aussie youngsters Molly Taylor and Brendan Reeves begin their junior challenge in the World Rally Championship this weekend as part of the Pirelli Star Driver Academy. Both are driving Ford Fiesta R2s in the Rally Portugal, Taylor with Rebecca Smart as her co-driver and Reeves with his sister Rhianon Smyth alongside.

A street version of its Fiesta RS World Rally Championship weapon for 2011 is "under consideration'' - the first sign that the Blue Oval is prepared to rekindle memories of the XR4 edition of the early 2000s. "We would love a high-performance Fiesta,'' says Ford Australia's general marketing manager David Katic.  "We're looking at al opportunities (the WRC car can bring)." He describes the XR4 as a "great car''.  But no-one at Ford Australia is talking about timing, pricing or even the name. It is possible it could wear the ST moniker to share with the hot Focus hatch that is also a possible for Australia. The talk in Europe about a hot Fiesta is stronger. Spy shots show a three-door hatch with twin exhausts and an intercooler peeking through the front bumper inlets. It is believed that adding the turbocharger and intercooler to the 1.6-litre engine will produce up to 130kW. That should be sufficient for a 0-100km/h time of about six seconds. The hot Fiesta would be built in Europe, alongside the ECOnetic diesel. Other Fiesta models for Australia are now made in Thailand.

Molly Taylor, 22, of Armidale in NSW, and Brendan Reeves, 22, of Wedderburn in Victoria, have won two of six coveted spots to race a Ford Fiesta R2 in six World Rally Championship events next year. They won their places in the WRC Rally Academy with impressive performances in a 16-team Pirelli Star Driver Shootout in Spain at the weekend."I am overwhelmed and incredibly excited," says Taylor who drives with her mother, Coral, reading the pace notes. "It's not every day an opportunity like this comes along! I don't think it has fully sunk in yet. My focus has always been working towards the WRC, so to be sitting here today knowing that this is actually a reality is surreal. This is just the beginning and the hard work starts now, I'm buzzing."Taylor began rallying in 2005 and has won two state titles, two Australian Rally F16 Championships and is the 2009 British Ladies Rally Champion. Reeves also started rallying in 2005 after karting and has won several rallies, scored a class second in Targa Tasmania last year and has been racing this year in the Australia Pacific Rally Championship with navigator Rhianon Smyth, 29. He was the first selected to join the inaugural WRC Rally Academy, a new series replacing the Junior World Rally Championship."This is a dream come true for me," he says. "I'm still pinching myself but I realise that the hard work hasn't even started yet."The global Pirelli Star Driver Shootout involved three days of lectures, driving tests on gravel and tarmac, and media presentations.

And that’s exactly the point, says Jeremy Hart of the Ford Fiesta global trek that finished on Saturday in Sydney with a cruise around the harbour on a barge. “It’s not that challenging to drive around the world in a 4x4,” Hart says. “But to take a car that is essentially viewed as a city car on such a long drive … take it out of its comfort zone … now that’s a challenge!” Hart says that while the epic adventure largely went smoothly, there were some sticky points along the way. And some very high points. “We didn’t have any great disasters or dramas and there were a few issues crossing some of the borders in the Middle East,” he says. “We had to change plans as we crossed from Greece into Turkey because they wouldn’t allow us to bring some of our filming equipment across the border. “The longest day we did was 1522km across Saudi Arabia because we only had limited visas to get through there. And that was one of the hottest drives, with 48C – along with Death Valley in the US. “The most challenging driving was in Asia, firstly because we hit a typhoon in southern China, and also because there are a lot of people on the roads in that part of the world who are buying driving licenses, not necessarily earning them, so there were some challenges there. “But we came through unscathed, with the only problem being a puncture in China. Otherwise the cars did their job perfectly.” Hart says any hard days were more than offset by the long list of high points on every continent they crossed. “Some of the most memorable points were the artist in Texas who did the art on the dirt on the back of the car, and the belly-dancing cab driver in Istanbul… he got bored in a traffic jam so he got out and started belly-dancing and has become a bit of a youtube hit. “We got an elephant in Northern Thailand to write the name Ford Fiesta on a piece of paper. The elephants up there paint. But we told them the day before we were arriving and in that time they managed to train the elephant to write the name of the car.”  He says the trek across the Australian Outback ranks high on the list of memories. “Driving across the Outback is still a huge thrill, and Australia is a great kind of place to finish.  We got the car painted by a couple of fantastic Indigenous artists in Alice Springs, and we ended up at Daly Waters which was Australia’s first international airport, between Katherine and Tennant Creek. “But it was weird coming up over from Bathurst into Sydney and knowing it was the finish. “It was really something to see top of the sky-scrapers in Sydney and then finally the bridge - which is our official finish line because we started on the Pacific Coast in the US and we wanted to finish on the water here.  It was quite emotional, actually.”

Ford has segued the production of the dimunitive Fiesta (left) from Europe to Thailand, with which Australia enjoys a free trade agreement in a move that will see safety, performance and value levels ll boosted in this quality car. The additions are numerous - a new sedan version will go on sale alongside the the existing hatch.  We'll see a high-tech six-speed dual-clutch transmission added, together with as many as seven airbags in the some models plus the life saving benefits of electronic stability control and voice-controled bluetooth added across the range. Australia's most fuel efficient car - the 3.7 litres per 100km 1.6 litre Thai-built Ford Fiesta in LX and Zetec trim levels will also be on offer.  The entry level CL will be upgraded from two airbags to five. Ford is also paving the way for a four-cylinder turbocharged 'Ecoboost' Falcon, for the efficiency conscious customer, as well as a more robust LPG Falcon offering a diesel engine for the Territory. The moves represent a $230 million local investment in keeping the Falcon relevant to the Australian consumers until the planned retirement date of the model in 2015.

The three brands are all gearing-up for a major attack on next year's new-age world championship, which will be open to smaller cars with smaller 1.6-litre turbocharged engines.Downsizing in the series means Citroen is switching to its C3, Ford is moving from the Focus to the Fiesta, and Mini is coming back to rallying for the first time since the 1960s with its Countryman.Ford already knows it has a winner in the Fiesta, which claimed the Monte Carlo Rally this year without a turbocharged engine. It is shown in Paris just a week before Ford begins testing for next year's championship, when it will try to snap Sebastian Loeb's six-year run as world championship with Citroen."Countless hours have gone into the Fiesta RS WRC to reach this point, and for the car to be unveiled in public for the first time is a proud moment for us.  We are right on track with our development and the team is delighted with testing to date," says Ford's rally boss, Malcolm Wilson.Its Citroen rival is already testing and picks up the basic mechanical package from the successful C4, with aero tweaking to the DS3 body including wider guards, a giant rear wing and cooling vents in the body.  But the rally star in Paris is the Mini, which is unveiled by FIA president and former rally co-driver Jean Todt.“The response to our announcement that Mini will return to the world of rallying next year was very positive. The FIA World Rally Championship is the pinnacle of rallying, making it the ideal platform for demonstrating the competitive spirit of our brand," says Mini's global marketing boss, Ian Robertson.The Countryman is massively tweaked for rallying and is displayed in Paris with giant front and rear wings, a bank of bonnet-mounted spotlights and a stripped-out cabin.The car is developed by Prodrive, the British motorsport operation that also runs Ford Performance Racing in the V8 Supercar championship, and has already run well in testing.  But Mini is unlikely to challenge Citroen and Ford in the early events of the 2011 WRC, which begins in Sweden in February.

It's a mix of motor shows, motorsport, new-car arrivals and showroom selling silliness.  Already we've got news of new price leaders from Ford and Volkswagen, with a bottom line of $16,990 for the updated Thai-built Fiesta and a $21,990 Golf.But the real action this week is in Paris, where the world's carmakers are gathered for the biggest motor show of 2010. Detroit in January was reasonably solid, and Los Angeles in November promises to be optimistic, but the Paris Auto Salon is all about the ongoing recovery of the big brands and the design enthusiasm of the major European makes.Electric cars top the bill but there are also newcomers from Ferrari and Lamborghini and Maserati, all sorts of city runabouts, and technology that highlights the improvements we can expect over the next 10 years.  Carsguide has a full coverage of the show next week, with early news on www.carsguide.com.au, but by then we'll be into the build-up to The Big One at Bathurst.This year's Mount Panorama classic promises to be an all-action event and no-one is betting against a sentimental victory by veterans Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes. The pair have already won the traditional Bathurst 1000 curtain-raiser at Phillip Island and have everything they need to take the V8 Supercar grand final.But there are at least another six crews who are capable of fighting through the final hour, with James Courtney promising something special in his Jim Beam Falcon and two-time champion Jamie Whincup doing all he can to take maximum points in his fight for a third straight title with TeamVodafone.Just days after the Bathurst 1000 the motoring spotlight shifts to Sydney and the first running of the Australian International Motor Show.  The first truly national show is looking like a boomer, with all sorts of previews and new releases. The calendar is so crowded that Toyota will reveal its show star, the FT-86 sports coupe concept, on Monday of show week, a full five days before the public opening.Once the show is done the action gets back on track with the Gold Coast 600, a new-age V8 Supercar contest that promises to re-write the rules. Nineteen of the world's top drivers are coming to take guest spots with the the teams - including former world champion Jacques Villeneuve and transplanted Aussie stars Will Power, Ryan Briscoe and David Brabham - in an event that will revitalise what was previously the Gold Coast Indy event.While all this is happening, Mark Webber is out fighting for the world championship.  The long-time Formula One underdog finally has a winning car in 2010 and has been doing plenty of good stuff, even salvaging third place - and defending his title lead - in the Singapore Grand Prix despite a weekend he describes as the worst of the season.Webber is basing himself in Australia for the next few weeks, to make an easier time-zone transit to races in Korea and Japan, and is looking more and more like our first world champion since Alan Jones.

He gets to live in one. And it doesn’t have rails… Having amazed audiences with his insane driving skills for years, Ken Block’s latest video Gymkhana THREE is an absolute thriller! Showcasing Block’s immense talent for driving a car on the absolute edge, his new Ford Fiesta gets closer to walls at high speed than you’d feel comfortable with in the supermarket car park. The stage is the l'Autodrome de Linas in France, where Block spins, jumps and smokes the 650 horsepower all-wheel-drive Fiesta. The circuit features stunts on l’Autodrome’s oval track which was chosen specifically due to its 51 degree banking, a feat which had not been attempted before. “When Ford partnered with Ken Block for the Fiesta and WRC rally programs, the opportunity to participate in projects like Gymkhana THREE was an attractive part of the overall package,” said Jamie Allison, Director Ford North America Motorsports. A 2011 Fiesta was used as the starting point for Block's new car, with extensive modifications including aggressively flared wheel arches, a six-speed sequential paddle-shift gearbox, and the purpose-built 650hp engine (detuned from its maximum 850hp) that can propel the car to 100kph in 2 seconds. With over 5 minutes of non-stop madness, Gymkhana THREE will knock your socks off!