Ford's decision to use this 1.5-liter engine might have been considered controversial a few years ago. You see, it's a 3-cylinder, so it's not as naturally balanced as the 1.6-liter it replaced. But cutting cylinders is now the industry norm in Europe.
The engineers did a good job fixing the refinement problems and even gave the new car a fantastic soundtrack, similar to half a V6. But the only question is: can a smaller engine be faster?
And the answer is "yes," as this drag race by Carwow will prove. The team pits the brand new 200 horsepower model together against the older 182 HP version of the Fiesta ST that was so popular. Also, there's a 50 Nm advantage in favor of the 2019 model.
Since the two are very similar in many ways, we honestly expected the results to be pretty close, but the new model ran away with the race, pulling away cleanly all the way to the finish line. Its quarter-mile time of 15.1 seconds is a full second quicker.
A second rolling race was also carried out where the two seemed even for a moment, but only before the turbochargers started kicking in. After that, the new Fiesta ST pulls away as a Golf GTI would from a Polo GTI - no competition.
As far as we know, the new model is still based on that older Fiesta, so we're not surprised that the side windows look the same. However, horizontal taillights and sleeker headlights are in line with the latest design trends. You also can't go wrong with that new interior, decluttered of all the buttons.
Unless we're mistaken, the Fiesta ST now has the smallest engine in this class. Care to see how it handles against a Polo GTI with a 2-liter turbo and a supercharged Toyota Yaris GRMN? There's a drag race for that too. But when you watch it, keep in mind that it's a bargain car as well.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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