To paraphrase Nino Karotta, I’ve just driven the Fiesta ST quite hard. I get it now; I understand why the media is goo-goo over this red hot hatch. But I haven’t run home and bookmarked Craigslist or Autotrader searches for the cleanest, prettiest example in a 500-mile radius; no, the Fiesta ST has not captured my heart. So, why doesn’t it have me wrapped around its finger?
The Fiesta ST is Ford Performance’s smallest sporting car. This mighty mite packs a diminutive 1.6L turbocharged (excuse me, “Ecoboost”) four-cylinder engine under its hood, good for 197 hp. That may not sound like much but with a curb weight of just 2,740 lbs, the “FiST”—as the boys on the web forums call it—has more than enough grunt to get out of its own way. In fact, the Fiesta is one of the lightest cars sold in America today and isn’t much heavier than semi-exotics like the carbon-tubbed Alfa Romeo 4C. The FiST is also engineered to the highest European standard for a hot hatch; its highly-competent FWD chassis is quick, nimble and—most importantly—fun. It also largely manages to banish understeer while providing oodles of steady-state cornering grip.
If this all sounds great, then you’ve read me right, because it is. Still, there are a few sacrifices required from the owner of this hotness. First, the ride is Euro firm, which means the short wheelbase Fiesta ST does the jitterbug on Los Angeles’s blemished roads and concrete slab expressways. I didn’t find the ride uncomfortable or harsh, just firm and a bit busy. If you are a die-hard enthusiast, you won’t mind either. Next, the ST is somewhat noisy. After 52k miles, my Fiesta had squeaks in the doors, a major rattle at the rear, and plenty of wind noise leaking past the seals. As the buyer of a cheap Ford—starting at just $22,000 new!!!—you’ll accept these imperfections. You might mind that the red cloth inserts in the seats collect blue jean dye and other stains and look perpetually dirty, but I suggest you defy the boy-racer stereotypes and transition your wardrobe to khakis.
But why am I wasting characters on the compromises inherent to all small economy cars? You’re likely cross-shopping the Fiesta ST against even less practical vehicles like the Subaru BRZ or Mazda Miata. Let’s get back to what you’ve really come here for, hearing about how the Fiesta ST performs when driven hard.
Figuring the small, nimble FiST would shine brightest on supremely twisty roads, I’ve plotted a test route to the tightest stretches of tarmac in the Santa Monica Mountains: The Snake of Mulholland Hwy, Westlake Blvd/Decker Rd, and Latigo Canyon.
This morning The Snake is a bust. A low misty fog slickens the road surface and hides a dozen suicidal bicyclists who are slowly grinding their way up the hill. I drive The Snake twice anyway, but I don’t get much joy from the experience because the traction control cuts in frequently with braking and throttle reductions to stop the front tires from spinning to oblivion on the wet pavement.
The top of Westlake Blvd is equally wet and treacherous. Driving down the mountain, I’m holding my breath at every corner entry, hoping that I have enough grip to hold my lane. I stay on the road, but only because I am driving extra cautiously. Ford’s choice of Bridgestone Potenza 050A tires fails to impress in wet conditions.
When I drove the Fiesta ST’s big brother, the Focus ST, Westlake Blvd was the highlight of my day. The FoST scrambled its way up the mountain, masterfully controlling its body motions through the rapid-fire corners and then riding a wave of torque (and torque steer!) down the short straights. “Rally car! Rally car!” I shouted. The Focus ST chassis seemed so agile, flat-cornering and composed that I likened it to that of my 2011 E90 M3. The Fiesta ST is not giving me the same impression of unflinching composure. The FiST is rollier and needs time to settle its weight before it really grips for a corner. As such, the FiST does not relish frenetic back-and-forth transitions. It’s not very good either at leaving the tightest corners either; standing on the power with the steering cranked results in a one-tire burnout.
The bottom of Westlake Blvd is open and loping (and dry!), and here the Fiesta ST is finally in its element. I find a rhythm in setting-up the ST for the coming corner by loading the suspension with gentle turn-in and trail braking, easing into a high-G cornering stance (enjoying how well the suspension soaks up dips and rises), and then finally spooling the turbo to ride the surge of torque out of the turn. The way the Fiesta tracks as the power smoothly builds is lovely; the car actually pulls forward in the direction of the sweeping curve, putting the finishing touches on a perfectly carved corner. It is not the RWD sensation of the rear digging and tail rotating, but rather a pawing forward with the outside tire pulling that much harder. I like it much better than the typical FWD push, including the push that the Fiesta showed earlier in the wet.
After two laps of Westlake Blvd, I turn onto Mulholland Hwy West. Long straights and broad sweeping turns fly by. Flogging it down the straightaways, I notice a short wait for the boost to rebuild after each upshift. The bigger Focus ST had white-knuckle torque steer at WOT, even when it was first pointed in a straight line. Thankfully the Fiesta ST has not inherited its brother’s character flaw. With the throttle buried in the Fiesta, I can feel little nibbles of side-to-side pull through the steering wheel, but the car stays true to its course, and I can guide it with the light touch of one hand.
The 6-speed shifter and clutch are easy to use; they are both light and intuitive. When I ace my rev-matching, the shifter is practically sucked into the correct gate. My main quibble about the shift quality is that it does not feel as mechanical as manual transmissions from the Mustang GT or Evo IX MR. The Fiesta is easy to heel-toe downshift, though I am actually using the left and right halves of my foot rather than my toe and heel.
Rolling into Mulholland’s sweeping corners, I can feel the ESP nibbling at the brakes to help pivot the car towards the apex. The body roll/chassis set will actually assume different attitudes for entry (when the ESP is helping with the turn), steady-state cornering to the apex, and exit under power. In each stage, the Fiesta’s body weight is redistributed among its four corners, and the pitch and roll of the car adjust. I can read the attitude of the car through its pitch and rake. The ST is adjustable mid-corner too, lifting off the power or brushing the brakes tucks it deeper into the turn.
Not wanting the fun to end, I pull a U-turn before reaching the ocean and bury the gas again as I climb back up the hill. From the driver’s seat, I get a strong sensation of accelerative pull, but a glance down into the gauge cluster reveals that the Fiesta is not actually building speed (or RPM) quickly. Ah, so this must be what the car magazines are all talking about when they coo about being able to drive the Fiesta ST at full-throttle for long periods of time without breaking into jail-worthy velocities. It’s the joy of driving a slow car fast, savoring a sporting drive without being antisocial, and all that!
The Fiesta’s little 1.6L engine is buzzing like an angry swarm of hornets when reality bursts my driving bliss bubble. A pair of walkers are shooting death-glares at me from the edge of the road, and one of them is pointing at me and furiously mashing his palm into an imaginary brake pedal. He clearly thinks my pace is antisocial. Oh well, I guess the ST does not fly under the radar after all!
Undeterred, I continue on, exploring the cornering grip through Mulholland West’s broad switchbacks. There is good, clear feedback coming through the Fiesta’s steering wheel. I can tell at all times what the front tires are doing. Impending understeer and changing grip over bumps can be sensed through the wheel, as can tire slip on corner exit that causes the helm to lighten and gently pull to one side. This is the excellent steering feedback for which the Fiesta ST is lauded! I have all the information I need for driving at the limit, and I also have great control through the quick rack and lightly weighted wheel. However, there is one component of excellent communicative steering missing in the Fiesta ST; the high-frequency vibrations that let me know the tarmac grain are absent. A Lotus Elise, this Fiesta is not.
Through the morning, Fiesta’s brakes have had good stopping power and reassuringly firm pedal feel. However, the ST heavily relies on its brakes for torque vectoring (it lacks an LSD) and traction control, so even a run up a canyon can soak the brakes with heat. Thusly prewarmed on Mulholland, I am only halfway down Decker Road’s 1,600-foot descent when brake fade rears its ugly head. It’s mild fade; the pedal is still firm, but the car takes 10% or 20% longer to stop. When Decker finally terminates at the Coastal Hwy, twin plumes of smoke rise from the front wheels. Judging from the plumes’ thickness and the way passing drivers are staring, I suspect that the front brake pads are literally on fire. This isn’t the first ST product to suffer on Decker; the Focus ST also faded on this tortuous road. A relaxed cruise on the PCH cools the brakes. No damage is done; the smoked rims just look a little smokier!
My plan of driving Latigo Canyon is foiled by a bicycle tour that is clogging the road. Recalling fond moments flogging the Focus ST up and down Piuma Rd in the long shadows of an autumn sunset, I go there instead. Alas, the Fiesta ST does not shine on Piuma. The hairpins have me wishing for RWD so that I could play with the car’s tail, and the more open pavement at the top of the hill is slick with foggy drizzle. I take it easy as I am not excited about butting heads with the traction control program again. Plus, the Fiesta ST today does not sound as sweet as the Focus ST did in my memories.
Stunt Rd—my perennial favorite for suspension testing—is my last blast. I find that the little red hatch is not perturbed in the least by the large undulations it encounters at high speed. I drove my E90 M3 here last weekend, and versus the M3, the Fiesta feels a little more on its tiptoes than the ever-grounded BMW. Still, both cars can take Stunt’s largest dips and drops under full power with nary a sideways squiggle. In fact, both cars are so unwaveringly competent that Stunt is almost boring.
Driving home in stop-and-go freeway traffic, I reflect on the Fiesta ST. Its competencies are its excellent, rewarding, limit feedback from the chassis and steering, and the blissful balance with which it navigates a sweeping curve and then pulls, torque-steer free, onto the following straight. It also pleases with high-quality driver interfaces (steering wheel, seat, shifter and pedals), ample low and mid-range torque is exploitable in town as well as in the mountains, and stellar fuel economy. I got 17 mpg in the mountains and 32 mpg on the highway today.
Sadly, the Fiesta’s list of weaknesses is just as long as its list of strengths. In the tightest corners, the Fiesta ST struggled too much for accelerative traction, leaving me wanting a Subaru BRZ (or any other rear-driven sports car) so I could at least enjoy playing with oversteer instead of spending my time fighting the ESP. I’d also want something with more traction in the wet, though that may just be a set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports away. On long straightaways, I’d rather be thrilled by a big, sonorous V8s like the one in the Mustang GT or (for twice the money!) the Corvette Stingray. And the steering snob in me wants more road texture communicated through the wheel, à la Lotus Elise or Evo IX.
Then there is the mismatch between the perceived and actual practicality of the Fiesta ST. The Fiesta has five doors and seats for five, but I cannot get my young family of three in the car simultaneously. Once the driver’s seat is adjusted to my 6’ 2” frame, the rear seat becomes unusable. And when I install my daughter’s rear-facing infant seat on the remaining half of the backbench, I have to slide the front passenger seat all the way forward, rendering it unsafe for my wife…because she has knees. I don’t think the stroller is going to fit into the trunk either.
Overhyped? Under delivering? Not really. I’m just disenchanted because the Fiesta ST, while excellent in many regards, is a different car than I expected and doesn’t accommodate my life.
Mike's Steering Column 