The Ford Fiesta may have been discontinued last year, but it remains an incredibly popular vehicle on the used car market, as well as a staple in the hearts of driving fans everywhere. The Fiesta has also proven to be an incredibly capable rally machine, and even though Ford no longer builds it, The Blue Oval did supply its rally partner M-Sport with enough parts to keep those efforts going for years to come. In this recent video, the prowess of the Ford Fiesta as a rally machine is on full display, too.
This clip comes to us from the folks at Team O’Neill, a car control and racing school based in New Hampshire that routinely puts all kinds of vehicles through track tests – including the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor on a rally course, as well as the Ford Fiesta ST on a paved circuit. This time around, we’re looking at a nearly-stock Ford Fiesta equipped with the five-speed manual transmission – the perfect combination for rally newbies given its light weight and front-wheel drive.
In fact, the Fiesta is so good at rallying out of the box that Team O’Neill has 50 of them in its fleet, which it uses to teach folks the art of this kind of driving. Thus, the question “will it rally” is something we already really know the answer to, as this particular platform was simply born for such purposes. In this case, the rally school Fiesta has been treated to a skid plate and a heavier-duty suspension to better handle the abuse it’s subjected to – plus some safety equipment like a roll cage – but is otherwise pretty bone stock.
Considering one can pick up a car like this for around $5,000 or so, it’s hard to find a better alternative for anyone that wants to learn the art of performance driving in general. It’s a great way to learn all of the basics, as our host points out, and gives one the best starting point for honing those skills before jumping into something larger, heavier, and more powerful.
We’ll have more cool videos like this to share soon, so subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford Focus news, Ford Fiesta news, and ongoing Ford news coverage.
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