Let’s face it, hot hatches might be slow, but the kind of kick you get pushing their limits on the mountain passes is unexplainable. Jakub and Yuri of Straight Pipes yet again put the Ford Fiesta ST against the Abarth 500, but this time, with a few mods for a rematch, to an unfinished friendly duel.
The Ford Fiesta ST comes from a family of wicked racers but only reigns in the shadow of its older, brutal brother, the Ford Focus RS. It’s a fun hatch, loveable, with an approachable manual transmission, more like a daily driver with zest. It comes with a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine making 197 hp.
The Abarth 500, on the other hand, is like a piranha. It might be small, but it bites like a razor. It’s a tiny car with a humongous attitude. There’s nothing cute about this Italian hatch. It is not the sort of hatch that goes for picnics, but rather, it has an insatiable appetite for asphalt. With a 1.4-liter turbocharged engine making 160 hp, the Abarth 500 presents more than it can offer.
But Jakub and Yuri Ford Fiesta ST and Abarth 500 are not your ordinary pair. They now have a tune and boast more horsepower than your regular stock. How will they compare against each other?
The Ford Fiesta ST has a Cobb Stage 3 tune. It includes a carbon fiber intake, downpipe, and exhaust. After the tune, the Fiesta ST makes 242 HP instead of 197 HP. The Abarth 500 has a Eurocompulsion Phase 3 tune that includes a bigger turbo, downpipe, suspension, and brake pads. After mods, the Abarth 500 makes 244 hp from 164 hp.
On the drag race, the Abarth 500 takes an early lead but gets destroyed by the Fiesta ST toward the end. The roll race was close, and the Fiesta ST won by a whisker.
Yuri still wants to keep working on his Abarth 500, the new mods are worth it, and he feels he can pull out a little more power. Jakub, on the other hand, enjoyed his Ford Fiesta ST but plans to get rid of it soon.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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