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Cars and Car Conversions - Road Test: Fiesta Series-X & Janspeed & Datapost
"Ford Fiesta. A EuroKid comes of age..."
September 1980
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Road Test: Fiesta Series-X & Janspeed & Datapost




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Ford Fiesta. A EuroKid comes of age...

Inception... With the announcement (any day now) of Ford's new front wheel drive Escort - the car which Ford Europe boss. Sir Terrence Beckett, describes as the company's most significant launch since the original Cortina - we think that now is the time to examine some of its background. And that means Fiesta. Apart from being Ford's first successful front driver, the Fiesta is developing into a significant competition car. We investigate the whys and wherefores of Ford's baby on road and track and, just for good measure, we've thrown in a glimpse through CCC's crystal ball.


A question which seems to cause great waves of controversy and brings out the most verbose dissertations from normally tight lipped, reticent, enthusiasts is "what are the Ford Motor Company's plans regarding competition, and rallying in particular?"

Well, we can't give you The Answer, and at the time of compilation, this writer doesn't believe that there are any journalists (as opposed to certain scribes and media-persons with known affiliations to the US multinational) who can provide that sort of under-the-counter information. It appears to me that Ford hasn't yet made up its corporate mind -or, at least, in which basket, if any, to place its eggs for incubation - and that Ford's favoured scribes are, at best, doing a nice line in red herrings. So much for the cliches. What concerns us here is Ford's front wheel drive Fiesta, alias Bobcat, which, with production heading towards two million units, is - very definitely - an important competition car to Ford.

It may be that the new Ford Escort front wheel drive series (alias Erika) will be the vehicle chosen in place of Fiesta. The fact that there will be a coupe version of the car (might Ford use a Capri tag on it?) adds some fuel to that synopsis, but the argument is dampened somewhat when one remembers that the Fiesta is smaller and lighter and is, therefore, surely an intrinsically more suitable base product.

International regulations are due for a complete re-hash in 1982 and, apart from the "200-off club" which would seem to mean, and could well mean in practice, a flood of pure competition machinery in the Renault 5 Turbo idiom; the most obvious 'majority rule" will favour less highly developed rally cars with their emphasis on reliability - a new, less exotic mainstream 'Group Two' as currently personified by the SAAB Turbo, Sunbeam Lotus etc.

So, whether Ford chooses front engine and front wheel drive, front engine and rear wheel drive (a Cortina derivative?), or mid engine with rear or four wheel drive, it is unlikely that the sales impetus behind the Fiesta - and new Escort, Ford hopes - will be ignored on the competition front. And, as we can see, there is a Fiesta programme.

Ford's recent competition history indicates that the company moves - relative to the the most obvious of its opposition - fairly slowly, very steadily, and with plenty of "customer involvement" and individual brand loyalty. Ultimately, in the context of Ford's switchover to cost-effective fwd, that would indicate nothing too dramatic or potentially alienating to Ford's long standing and extremely loyal performance car customers; although rumours as diverse as new "in the pipeline" saloons with re-jigged GT70 Mk2 chassis should not be totally discounted.

It is most likely that Ford is keeping a finger in every pie, but that the company's history of rational thinking and progress by stages will win through. The success of the Fiesta is now too big to be ignored in a corporate fashion.

The Fiesta can be regarded as Ford's greatest gambit, probably since the 'slab-sided' post WW2 Consul and 100E series. Ford has too much to lose as an establishment car maker, and we're not just thinking of the unique UK fleet market. We're thinking of such typical moves as independent rear susension, introduced with the Mk4 'battleships' and achieving respectability on the Granada, and double wishbone front suspension introduced to Ford's large and medium (Granada and Cortina) ranges.

The Fiesta was Ford's rather late, but very carefully considered move into the Twentieth Century, if, that is, you consider it to be Ford's first mass produced model without any line delineation, however spurious, to the Model Tl

We won't mention the ill-fated Taunus 12M.

To properly appreciate how far Ford advanced with the Fiesta, don't compare it with similar - like the VW Polo, Renault 5, or Fiat 127 - compare it with a two door 1100 or 1300cc Escort or Popular; only then will you come to properly assess how dramatically Ford has moved from the past into the present. It's the chess equivalent of a bit of skilful castelling, at the very least.

In the casual performance orientated world (non-specialised), Britain probably has a worse opinion of the suitability of front wheel drive than any of our European neighbours. From the manufacturing point of view we are only just beginning to change our opinion, which is initially surprising in view of the near-22 year old Mini, but basically, that buzz-box has in part, caused such resistance. It's best explained by putting the latter point first.

What we had with the Mini, launched in 1959, was a compact front wheel drive car for the masses. Comparatively few other volume European manufacturers were so equipped, and most spent more than a decade "catching up". But they effectively overtook the UK product long before their first fwd models were released, f they learned from our mistakes. It was o) same with ships, aeroplanes and just about every other sphere of manufacturing and engineering demanding new technology. We always had the brains and the ability, but we suffered, and are now enduring the consequences of an enormous lack of foresight, planning and investment in new plant and ideas.

The successful manufacturer is always putting a very large part of its turnover into research and development and into new, less labour intensive, plant. We did neither for far too long. Consequently, the Mini's competition heyday was soon over, and to rub salt into the wound, its mantle was taken by a thoroughly conventional but very well developed front engined, rear drive car - the Ford Escort: just like the Cortina Ford had been campaigning, but smaller, lighter; more suitable.

Considered purely in business terms, the Mini and its stable mates have not been a great success. Yes, a few million have been made, but we never had the industrial planning or plant to "learn" to make them more cheaply (for a considerable time, 'BMC' made less than £10 on each - nothing in carmaker terms) and for a long while we didn't seem to possess the necessary wherewithal to make them reliably.

Problems with tie bars, driveshafts, subframes, water ingestion etc., should have been designed-out much earlier on the time scale we're talking about. That, incidentally, is basically why the British car-fleet manager is one of the most timid automotive animals around - he's had to pay the bills, suffer cars off the road and answer to angry bosses. It's also, ironically, why the Marina/ltal (which embodies the most basic Ford thinking of.....