This ST ‘Ford Performance Edition’ is a £26k Fiesta

A year on from the launch of the Fiesta ST - a two-time Top Gear award-winner - Ford has given the world a special one. The ST ‘Ford Performance Edition’ goes on sale in June, and in the UK will be limited to 600 cars. Not many, given more than 5,000 of the things have been sold here in the last 12 months.

Prices haven’t been released, but Ford says it’ll cost “at least” £3,000 more than the top-spec ST-3 on which it’s based. That’s around £26,000 - or about as much as another TG fave, a boggo Hyundai i30N.

You do at least get some things for your £3,000. Good things. Deep Orange paint and lighter, flow-formed 18in alloy wheels are the most obvious changes, but the really expensive stuff is underneath.

Namely, the manually adjustable coilover suspension, with its powder-coated blue springs and stainless steel damper housings. The new set-up - which Ford says has been “extensively tested at the Nürburgring” - offers 12 bump and 16 rebound settings, and lowers the car by 15mm at the front and 10mm at the rear.

And of course you get all the kit you would on a normal ST-3 - LED headlights and a B&O stereo - plus the ST Performance Pack, which gives a Quaife limited-slip differential and launch control.

Far as we know the drivetrain is unchanged. Fine by us - the 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine, which can run on just two cylinders to save fuel, makes 197bhp and 214lb ft, good for 0-62mph in 6.7 seconds and 144mph. Power is sent to the front wheels only through a six-speed manual transmission.

Interested? Or at this level of pricing would you opt for the bigger, also tremendous Hyundai?