Ford Fiesta

The Ford Fiesta is a mid-class supermini car designed by the Ford Motor Company in Europe, and also manufactured in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, China, India and South Africa. It is now marketed worldwide, including Japan and Australasia, but was only sold briefly in North America. It is one of Ford's most successful cars with over ten million sold in seven distinct generations since 1976 and production continues as of 2006, with an eighth generation expected.

Two Ford Fiestas famously starred in the 1979 Monte Carlo rally — the British entry driven by Roger Clark and aided by co-driver Jim Porter and a German entry piloted by Ari Vatanen and co-driven by David Richards.

Both cars were highly modified with special motorsport components throughout and featured pioneering Limited Slip Differential (LSD) technology. The cars were powered by competition tuned versions of the 1600cc Kent crossflow engine — a later version of which appeared in the Mk1 Fiesta XR2.

The 2 cars worked well in the arduous ice and snow that year. Roger Clark did not set any records but the German car achieved 9th position overall - a very encouraging result which sparked demand for sportier Fiestas.

Since this there have been sporting and "hot hatch" editions. Versions include Supersport, XR2, S(Sport), XR2i, Si, RS Turbo, RS1800, Zetec S and ST. All of these were powered by a range of engines from the Ford Kent engine to the Ford Duratec engine.

The Fiesta SportingTrophy is the new Ford Rally One Make Championship; ready to start in his 1st season in March 2006. It combines keen competition with equal performance and leaves the decision about winning or losing to the drivers and co-drivers capabilities. The driver, co-driver and mechanics work as a team to compete against the toughest adversary of all — the clock.

The Fiesta SportingTrophy will be based around the Fiesta ST Group N car. The car has 165 PS from the 2-litre Duratec ST engine which when combined with the conversion kit from M-Sport, has been designed to provide all of the safety equipment and performance upgrades to enable the car to be competitive and reliable at any event around the world.

In March 2007, the Pirtek Rally Team introduced the Ford Fiesta Super 2000 rally car, which will compete in the Australian Rally Championship.

Awards

* Winner Australia's Best Small Car in 2004.
* Winner of UK Design Council Efficiency Award for "exemplary contribution to the reduction of running and maintenance costs" in 1978. The award was presented by Prince Philip.
* Winner of Business Standard Motoring Jury Award, 2006.

* What Car's Best Used Supermini for 2006 - 1.4 Zetec 3dr 2003 - Runner Up Toyota Yaris 1.0 T2 3dr 2003