Ford Fiesta ST: hottest, fastest Fiesta unveiled

By Tim Beissmann
Original Article

The Ford Fiesta ST will go on sale in Australia in around 18 months’ time, giving the blue oval a flagship hot hatch to rival the Volkswagen Polo GTI and the Suzuki Swift Sport.
The production version of the Fiesta ST has been revealed in Geneva in three-door form for the first time. The racy light hatch will hit the European market in 2013, and is set to land down under around mid to late 2013.
Although considered a no-brainer, today’s unveiling of the Fiesta ST production car is our first official confirmation that Ford will build the car. A three-door Fiesta ST concept premiered last September in Frankfurt, and was followed by a five-door concept in November.

Like the concepts, the Ford Fiesta ST is powered by a turbocharged 1.6-litre EcoBoost petrol engine that produces 132kW and 240Nm of torque – putting it just 10Nm off the pace of the Polo GTI.
Ford promises acceleration from 0-100km/h in under seven seconds and a top speed in excess of 220km/h, while fuel consumption and emissions are also 20 per cent lower than the previous Fiesta ST.
Developed by Ford’s Team RS, the Fiesta ST gets a specially tuned chassis that sits 15mm lower than the standard Fiesta. Torque Vectoring Control and three electronic stability control modes contribute to significant ride and handling improvements, proven over more than 5000km of testing on the Nurburgring.

Along with the go-fast exterior design, the Fiesta ST comes with Recaro sports seats, SYNC voice-activated in-car connectivity system, and MyKey, which allows owners to limit the car’s performance when less experienced drivers are behind the wheel.
Ford Australia’s Sinead Phipps says the local manufacturer has not yet finalised if it will offer the Fiesta ST in three-door or five-door form, or both. As there are no three-door models in Ford Australia’s standard Fiesta range, the Fiesta ST five-door appears most likely for our market.
Although it’s still more than a year away, the Ford Fiesta ST is likely to be priced around $25,000 when it arrives in Australia.

Contact Etheridge Ford for more information on this great car!

Ford Focus: 1.0-litre Ecoboost to rule engine roost

By Jez Spinks
Original Article

The Ford Focus range will become dominated by a 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo as Ford starts to phase out its normally aspirated units for downsized forced induction petrol engines.
The pint-sized engine, which has a block footprint the size of an A4 sheet of paper, has recently been launched in the Focus small car in Europe, with Ford Australia expected to introduce the Focus 1.0 EcoBoost in late 2013.
The three-cylinder punches well above its weight, producing either 74kW or 92kW from two engine tunes while slurping as little as 4.8 litres of fuel per 100km in a five-door Ford Focus.
It brings an improvement of about 20 per cent in fuel efficiency compared to the 1.6-litre four-cylinder found in the entry-level model of the Ford Focus range in Australia.

Ford’s vehicle line director for C-segment (small car) vehicles, Gunnar Herrmann, told CarAdvice at last week’s 2012 Geneva motor show that although the engine isn’t cheap to produce, its performance and efficiency makes it an obvious choice to become the dominant Focus engine in developed markets.
“The majority of the European market will start to substitute [with this 1.0-litre EcoBoost] so get out of the [1.6-litre] 160 iVTC,” he says. “[The 1.0-litre] is so refined, so characteristic, it’s quiet, [and] with overboost offers up to 230Nm. That’s performance you normally get with a 2.0-litre engine.
“I think [the normally aspirated 1.6-litre petrol engines] will disappear. It is certainly more technology [with the three-cylinder] but subsequently there is more cost, so you have to take this into consideration.
“But for the more sophisticated markets especially where prepared to pay it will clearly end up 100 per cent. Certainly in the C segment, if you want to downsize dramatically you have to go this route.”

The 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine is expected to make its Australian debut in the Ford EcoSport baby SUV  that will launch about mid 2013.
A Focus 1.0L EcoBoost model should follow after that, though the engine will also become available in the Fiesta range.
EcoBoost engines combine turbocharging and direct injection for effective performance and economy, and they’re gradually becoming the primary petrol engine family for Ford.
A 1.6-litre turbo EcoBoost engine is also available for the Focus, with a version of it also powering the new Ford Fiesta ST hot-hatch.
In April Ford Australia will release a Falcon variant powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost engine.

Contact Etheridge Ford for more information on this great car!