Geneva 2012: The Fiesta ST Is Ready For The Road

Good news and bad news from Ford stand. The good news is that the Fiesta ST you see here is the one you can actually buy. The bad news, for anyone eagerly wanting to get their hands on it, is the hot Fiesta won't be in showrooms until this time next year.

Under the bonnet of the new ST is a 1.6 EcoBoost engine. Putting the word 'eco' in a hot hatchback's engine is a fantastic example of an oxymoron but in this case, that's no bad thing since the turbocharged unit delivers 178bhp and 177lb ft of torque yet it only produces around 142g/km of CO2 which makes it cheaper to tax than the previous car. It uses the same technology that gives the 1.0 Focus enough pull. The power takes the Fiesta ST from 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds and up to a top speed of 130mph.

Making sure your buddies know your Fiesta is a special one shouldn't be too difficult, especially with that large trapezoidal grille, but it also sits 15mm lower than the standard car as the chassis was developed by Ford's Team RS. Inside, Recaro sports seats come as standard and you can get them in five different colours including Performance Blue, Race Red and even Molten Orange.

Prices are predicted to start from around £18,000 making it competitively priced against the Renaultsport Clio 200 and Volkswagen Polo GTI but it is more expensive than a Skoda Fabia vRS.

Images courtesy of Autoblog