We’re now a little jealous of Ford UK as the automaker has unveiled a new performance flagship for their range of Fiesta hatchbacks. Based on the ST-3 variant, the Performance Edition has just been announced to celebrate the hot hatch’s first anniversary of the car hitting British roads, and features some improvements we reckon are too good to not be shared with global versions.
Hence, Ford expects it to be on sale starting in June, coinciding with that one year mark, though deliveries are only due to begin in September. So far, though, Ford has already sold more than 5,000 units of the three-door pocket rocket.
Of course, Australia is overdue to receive the option of a vanilla Fiesta ST at the moment, but that just means there’s more noise to be made before our demands are met. The Performance Edition, though, makes a statement with its bold Deep Orange exterior, an exclusive body colour.
The car’s suspension has also been lowered over the standard-spec Fiesta ST by 15mm at the front and 10mm at the rear, and new coilovers all round mean that it can be further adjusted manually to the owner’s whims with 12 bump settings and 16 for rebound.
On all four corners there are a set of new lightweight 18-inch alloy wheels that shave a 7kg off unsprung weight. All this, paired with its already standard Quaife limited-slip differential, mean that there are some marked dynamic advantages that come with the Performance Edition.
Prices have not been confirmed, but is expected to be in the region of AU$5,000 more than the standard car when it does make its UK debut. Only 600 examples are expected to be built, sadly.
In terms of its engine and powertrain, the Performance Edition shares an identical set of ingredients to any other Fiesta ST, meaning its 3-cylinder 1.5-litre EcoBoost turbocharged petrol engine will kick out 147kW and 290Nm that’s able to shove the hatch to 100km/h from rest in 6.5 seconds while also managing 6.0-litres/100km on a combined cycle.
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