Ford may no longer be offering the Fiesta in North America (as of the 2018 model year), but the Fiesta ST hot hatch continues to have fans all over the world. However, if you ask this gearhead, the most desirable Fiesta ST is not the current one, despite its poky 1.5L EcoBoost being one of the very few desirable 3-cylinder engines out there. Instead, I’d choose the OG Fiesta ST of the 2000s over the present one any day. So, you can imagine the surprise I had when I found out this example can do 135 mph (217 km/h)—slightly over the official top speed—while going backwards. So, let’s see what the catch is, shall we?
Turbocharging is king and has been so for quite a few years—and not just in the hot hatch segment. But nearly two decades ago when the first Fiesta ST came along, this tiny thing, which weighs a mere 1,150 kg (a little over 2,500 lbs) packed a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated engine. With 150 PS (147 hp) on tap, this isn’t the most impressive unit in the segment (the considerably higher output of the Renault Clio RS’ 2.0L takes that title). However, the overall package is still mighty impressive, since it mixes respectable power for that weight with the chuckable nature small Fords have always had.
Besides, how could I think of any other B-segment hot hatch of the era when Mihnea kept threatening he would buy one of these STs and even came pretty close once? At the time, neither of us owned a car, so the sheer talks on the topic were important.
How this Ford does its trick
With that out of the way, I’ll get back to this British example of the Fiesta ST and its “reverse gear” 135 mph maximum velocity. You see, this is a stunt car (have you seen this ex-NFS movie Bugatti stunt car that’s become a mid-engined ’67 Mustang?), the kind you can never fully trust. And opening any of the two doors reveals why: the Blue Oval hatch basically had its body removed and mounted back-to-front.
It’s all been done for Terry Grant, a British stunt driver whose shenanigans you’ve probably seen—if not live, then perhaps thanks to the multiple Guinness World Records the precision driver holds. More recently, Grant, who is turning 60 next year, visited Saudi Arabia. His main goal was to teach women over there, who were only recently granted the right to drive, some performance driving moves.
We found out the story from another Brit who’s mad about cars, namely Sam of the Hard Up Garage YouTube channel. And you know what else connects the two enthusiasts? Sam bought the stunt car from Terry Grant’s team. In addition, as he explains in the VINwiki video below, this may just be the only surviving example out of a small fleet of four such Fiesta STs.
The interior will give you the giggles
Once you open the hatch, the 2.0L motor instantly shows up (as some of you can tell, that big piece of hardware sitting over the engine in the video is just the battery booster—presumably, the Fiesta ST hadn’t been driven in a while—as it often happens with stunt vehicles—and its battery was dead at the time when this segment of the clip was recorded.
Of course, there are one or two challenges that come with such a car. For starters, the cabin can only accommodate two, while the new position of the pillars might cause some visibility issues.
However, Sam can’t be bothered by any of that. In fact, with the vehicle basically having no headlights (or keeping them in the wrong place), the daredevil wants to make this road-legal in the UK, albeit just for daytime driving. We’re not sure how that’s going to work out for him, but if you happen to get passed by a Fiesta ST going “backwards”, now you know better than to panic…
