# The Ford Fiesta in Motorsports

The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car that was marketed by Ford from 1976 to 2023 over seven generations. It has been used to compete in various motorsports.

## Rallying

Two Ford Fiestas were entered 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 technology. The cars were powered by competition tuned versions of the 1,600 cc Kent crossflow engine – a later version of which appeared in the Mk 1 Fiesta XR2. The two rally cars performed 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, sporting and "hot hatch" editions have been introduced, including Supersport, XR2, S(Sport), XR2i, Si, RS Turbo, RS1800, Zetec S, Zetec RS, and ST. All of these were powered by a range of engines from the Ford Kent to the Ford Duratec engines.
The Ford RallyeConcept in 2002 has been realised through an intensely close collaboration between Ford RallyeSport, the motorsport experts behind the Puma Super 1600 and the Focus WRC rally cars, and Ford Design Europe, the creative team responsible for the new three-door Fiesta on which the RallyeConcept is based. Ford RallyeConcept's marriage of the motorsport engineer's objective for performance functionality with the eye for detail of the designer has been so effective that Ford has committed to an engineering development programme to bring a Fiesta-based rally car to reality. Aiming for FIA homologation by mid-2003, Ford RallyeSport is hoping that it will become Ford's next success story in national and international rallying. The Fiesta Super 1600 debuted at Rally Greece 2004.
The "Fiesta Sporting Trophy" is a One Make Championship; beginning its first 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 Sporting Trophy is based around the Fiesta ST Group N car. The car has 165 PS (121 kW; 163 bhp) from the 2 L 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 was to compete in the Australian Rally Championship.
On 18 November 2009, Ford with M-Sport unveiled the Ford Fiesta S2000 Mark VI. Although not due for homologation until January 2010, it was set to make its debut as course car on the final round of the IRC series, Rally Scotland. The car had been built to compete mainly in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship. In 2013, M-Sport developed the Ford Fiesta R5, the successor of the Fiesta S2000; this was based on the 1.6-litre Fiesta ST, and was designed for the Group R5 class of rallying. Fiesta R5 got Evo update in early 2016. With new WRC regulations coming in 2011, M-Sport developed the Fiesta RS WRC, based on Fiesta S2000. It won six WRC rounds in 2011 and 2012, driven by Jari-Matti Latvala, Mikko Hirvonen and Mads Ostberg, but since M-Sport lost most of its manufacturer support for the 2013 season the car hasn't been able to win. In 2013, Thierry Neuville was the world championship runner-up, being a M-Sport junior works driver. Fiesta RS WRC has been very popular among private drivers, due to its good driveability, reasonable price and good availability.
The WRC regulations will be altered for 2017 and M-Sport has thus started developing the Mk7 Fiesta World Rally Car.

### Fiesta ST Group N specifications

| Engine | 1,999 cc (122.0 cu in) Duratec engine. Four cylinders in line, DOHC, 16 valves, alloy cylinder head and block. Electronic multipoint fuel injection. |
| Power | 165 PS (121 kW; 163 bhp) at 5,800 rpm |
| Torque | 202 N⋅m (149 lb⋅ft) at 4,500 rpm |
| Transmission | Five-speed 'dog' engagement gearkit fitted to standard ST road car casing. Upgraded driveshafts fitted as standard. Plated LSD. |
| Suspension | Upgraded suspension of ST road car includes revised front knuckles and strengthened twist beam rear axle. Reiger dampers, adjustable for rebound, and revised spring rates. Uprated suspension bushes. |
| Brakes | Standard ST road car front and rear disc brakes. |
| Wheels | Gravel: 15-inch OZ Racing wheels Asphalt: 17-inch OZ Racing wheels Wheels manufactured in both Super T and Rally Racing style. |
| Bodyshell | Multipoint roll cage designed by M-Sport, complying with FIA regulations. Includes three X braces in rear and twin tube door bars with no cross-over. |
| Electronics | 'Piggy back' loom supplements standard loom. Includes electronic circuit breaker and wiring for additional requirements. |
| Fuel tank | Standard 45 L (9.9 imp gal; 12 U.S. gal) tank with Kevlar composite moulded guard. |
| Dimensions | Length: 3,921 mm (154.4 in). Width: 1,683 mm (66.3 in). Height: 1,468 mm (57.8 in). Wheelbase: 2,486 mm (97.9 in). |

## Rallycross

The Fiesta Rallycross Supercars version is a racecar with a 2.0 L Duratec turbocharged four-cylinder engine, running on petrol or E85 (85% ethanol/15% petrol). It produces over 550 bhp (410 kW; 560 PS) and 820 N⋅m (600 lb⋅ft). That propels the 2,600 lb (1,200 kg) rallycross-prepped Fiesta up to sixty in 2.2 seconds. The cars were more powerful (another 200 bhp) than WRC cars.
The Fiesta Mk6 Rallycross cars made their US debuts in the 2009 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado. Swedish team Olsbergs MSE announced the cars would later appear in ESPN's X Games 15 on 2009-08-02. The two Olsbergs MSE Fiesta Mk7 Rallycross cars were based on the Fiesta hatchback model road cars, one with 3 doors, the other one a 5-doors version, but with all-wheel drive, powered by 2.0 L Duratec Ford engines capable of more than 800 bhp (600 kW) (for PPIHC only).
British company M-Sport also builds Fiesta Rallycross Supercars to Global Rallycross Championship teams Hoonigan Racing Division, Chip Ganassi Racing and Bryan Herta Autosport.
Driving a Fiesta, Tanner Foust won the 2011 and 2012 Global RallyCross Championship and was runner-up in the 2011 and 2012 FIA European Rallycross Championship. Toomas Heikkinen won the Global RallyCross Championship in 2013 and Joni Wiman in 2014. Other notable drivers include Marcus Grönholm, Ken Block and Brian Deegan.
An Olsbergs MSE RX Supercar Lite from FIA Rallycross Lite is also based on Ford FIesta.

## Circuit racing

In the UK, the Fiesta is commonly used in club level motorsport series but has its national one-make series called the Ford Fiesta Championship. During its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, it had manufacturer support and it even was a support race to the British Grand Prix and numerous British Touring Car Championship rounds. The series has gone through numerous name changes including Ford Credit Fiesta Championship, Ford Fiesta Zetec Championship and BRSCC Ford Si Challenge and is nowadays run by the BRSCC (British Racing and Sports Car Club) as a club racing championship. The organisation also run the other series that consists of Fiestas.
* Ford XR Challenge, for XR2 and XR2i models, also consists of the Escort XR models.
* Ford Saloon Championship, mainly for a wider range of Ford models but Fiestas are mostly seen in classes C and E with a Mk 4 example winning the title outright in 2006 at the hands of Ollie Allen.
The car has also been raced in the Touring-Light division of the Russian Touring Car Championship.
Fiesta drivers won the Super 1600 class of the European Touring Car Cup seven times from 2008 to 2016.