The idea of a hot hatchback is a quintessentially European one, a recipe made for winding narrow roads in the Italian alps or Yorkshire moors. As such, it's fitting that the premier hot hatchback manufacturer is based in Michigan.
Wait, what? Yep, in North America at least, there's only one company that will sell you not one, but two legit hot hatchbacks, both scrappy little front-drive terrors with four-door practicality and turbocharged punch. Surprisingly, it's not VW, and it's not Fiat - it's Ford.
For anyone who makes regular trips across the pond, the idea of a fast
Ford that's not a Mustang is nothing new. Particularly in the UK, there's a whole culture of hot-rodded compacts from Ford's subsidiaries in Essex.
Even so, it may be a bit of a surprise to walk into your local blue-oval outlet and find two beaky-looking hatchbacks parked between the rows of F-150s. We'd been clamouring for a European-style Focus ST for ages - they finally gave us one, and it's great.
However, for a little less money than the Focus, you can get this little snarling micro-pod, the Fiesta ST.
Design:
Compared to its larger cousin, the Fiesta ST is compact, narrow and upright, and has a friendlier face. Where the Focus grimaces like a melancholy catfish, the Fiesta seems to have at least the ghost of a smile on its aggressive little grille.
Other changes over the standard Fiesta include a lower ride height, and aerodynamic treatments that extend to a rear spoiler, diffuser, and chin splitter. It's also available in something called Molten Orange, a three-stage colour that makes the little car look like a mad-scientist cross between a Doberman and a mandarin orange.
Environment:
As one slides behind the seats, the Fiesta ST immediately makes friends by pinching your butt. Whoa, hey, hang on there lil' buddy - no need to get fresh!
Like the heavily-bolstered Recaros in the Focus ST, Ford has plonked in a pair of the wildest race-buckets you'll ever find in a frontwheel-drive car. They're incredible in terms of lateral grip, and challenging if you haven't shed the Christmas pastry-weight yet.
The ST version or not, this is a cheap little car with a big engine, which normally means a nasty, plastic-fantastic interior with all your hard-earned cash packed under the hood. Happily, Ford has been quite clever with its Fiesta, and it's really quite nice in here.
Highlights include the softtouch material on the upper part of the dash that isn't faux-printed to look like fake leather, but has some sort of digitized pattern that's attractive and slightly upscale.
Performance: The power packed in the nose of this hyperactive jumping bean isn't really important, but if you insist, it's a 1.6L turbocharged four-cylinder that makes 197hp and 214lb/ft of torque. That grunt is available from an impressively low 1600rpm, and while it's best to wind the engine up to get any real thrust, it's also easy to just leave the six-speed transmission in top gear and motor up the cut without downshifting.
