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Best Driving Roads – The Drive Of Your Life in a Ford Fiesta ST200
FORD FIESTA ST200
BEST DRIVING ROADS – THE DRIVE OF YOUR LIFE
Words: Alessandro Marrone
Photography: Gian Romero
My job always satisfies that innate desire to talk, to explain things and to characterize them with digressions and stories, but when non-car guys ask me that common question, I find myself almost in trouble answering. Yes, because you often take for granted getting excited about the roar of a V12, or staying awake the night before a road trip or a shooting day. Those keep asking me – What do you find so special in a simple road? – an apparently simple asphalt strip, with the sole purpose of linking one place to another. Then if anyone who had to link point A from point B, crossing a mountain rather than simply passing through it, has sculptured a path that has come to life with an explosion of emotions, I do not think I’m the strange one here, but those that they do not go mad at the sight of a picture of those magical places. It’s just like looking at a battlefield where soldiers will soon fight for their Country – the grave-like silence before the storm and then everything will be seen with different eyes. There are roads that are not just places, but real introspective paths that cross our desires as a diamond arrow sinks its sharp tip into a pulsing heart. These so-called pleasure roads are celebrated and not driven, you have to taste ‘em a little at a time and visit them sporadically, so as not to damage the “shining” that shines in their inner-self.
If we all have secrets and think twice before revealing them, we often find out how liberating and enjoyable is to tell the world what we have inside and so we anticipate the first half of the trip that will see us accompany a small number of you on one of the most beautiful roads in the world, a road that does not even have a real name and is indicated by a sterile alphanumeric nomenclature. We found it during one of our many journeys and after having cruised a few kilometers, we decided it would become the battleground for a whole new event, the 250 Km GT. On this unprecedented initiative in the automotive landscape, Auto Class will bring you in the ultimate driving direction, strolling on the Gorges de Daluis and on the Col de la Cayolle, to reach Savines-le-Lac. During the event, reserved for a few and selected cars, the day will alternate between a classic driving tour and a real shooting for the cars and attendees who’ll keep an even more indelible memory of it thanks to the photo books we will give shortly after this crazy adrenaline day that will fill our bodies. But a road must also be celebrated with the right car, which does not necessarily have to be a supercar with hundreds and hundreds of horses, which could maybe end being too clumsy between the narrow and winding Red Rock Road gorges, only exploiting a small part of their potential. The ideal thing is to drive something with good performance, designed for a pure and enjoyable driving involvement up to 100% of its capabilities, and so we took the new Ford Fiesta ST200, the enhanced version of one of the most acclaimed sports cars of the last few years. We took it and threw it into that throat of curves, hairpins and pitch black tunnels, reaching the limit of our mechanical aces, halfway between the endless amazement for the landscape that stood on the horizon and that for the behavior of the best XS size sports car on the market.
The Fiesta ST200 is a fresh hot-hatch and adds itself on the Ford list, a step above the classic ST. The difference can be seen in several aspects, from a handful of more horses that go up to 200 – just as the name suggests – at 5,700 rpm and becoming at least 215 during overboost. At cosmetic level, we have new matte black wheels, Solid Silver paint, honeycomb black front hood grille, a more pronounced spoiler at the back, red brake calipers and the excellent Recaro sports seats, very muscular but also comfortable for long distances . The 4-cylinder 1.6cc changes only slightly, but the perceived performance gain is evident, especially when turning off traction control – which you can turn off partially or completely – so you will be the “Sport” button, not here on the dashboard, but perfectly operable when you decide that your right foot will act way more convincing. The ST200 comes with a torque vectoring system that does nothing but act as a self-locking differential, preventing power waste when you call into question the 290Nm of torque. But the good thing happens when you find enough confidence to start playing with weighing balance, or I should say unbalancing it – so the ST200, just like a completely different kind of car, tends to behave like a rear wheel drive, widening the tail and allowing to make you slide it while holding the gas flat out. You need space, you need the courage to overcome that barrier that many, too many front wheel drive have imposed us in recent times – disapproving victims of an understeer that has killed the pleasure of driving.
This Fiesta behaves like an Escort Cosworth, less dramatic but with equal effectiveness. The lightness and perfect calibration of the suspension/chassis wedding make the transition from one corner to another as a game where the harder you go, the more you get rewarded. Also thanks to a fully adjustable seating position, it almost seems to be able to further lower the center of gravity of the small hatchback, something that with the normal Fiesta does not seem to have anything in common. Ford took the Fiesta ST and made it even better – yet it seemed like an impossible mission. After driving the first miles reaching Entrevaux, the road becomes narrower and the landscape changes, passing Daluis it seems to enter a completely new and unexplored world. On the sides, red rock walls delineate a stunning path with curves that kiss a perfectly vertical cliff on one side and a series of single lane tunnels that amplify the 4-cylinder voice on the other. Getting out of one of these harmonic boxes and you are thrown into a succession of bends that seem to penetrate the rocks, almost as if the wind was outlining its contours. If this is man’s work, there is still hope for humanity. The same hope I have for the exciting hot-hatches, daughters of much more exclusive cars with more demanding prices, but that when it comes to give emotions and fun do not want to be behind- without even forcing the photographer to sacrifice the thousand backpacks of equipment in the name of lightness or aerodynamics.
The ST200 runs strong and the absence of an appropriate soundtrack loses a couple of points on it, but we know very well that installing an aftermarket exhaust is a joke and that you would probably have done that anyway. The 6-speed manual gearbox is close to the driver and the lever is precise and straightforward, while both clutch and throttle would be preferable with a few grams of weight more, but all of this goes to the benefit of being able to use it in the city without efforts. The ease with which you gain speed is impressive, torque has been appreciated on the motorway – coming into play at just 1,600 rpm – but here on the mountains, it allows you to play with weights and the steering wheel without ever having to turn a hand to look for the previous gear. After passing what I thought was the most scenic part, we started climbing up to the Col de la Cayolle, with snow taking the place of nude rocks – then the white on the road gets more insistent, the little traffic becomes virtually non-existent and we close the windows, realizing that the temperature has now fallen below the zero. The excitement and the voracity with which we are devouring what is most probably the best road I ever drove on brought us on top and at a dead end. It is time to turn off the engine and get off the small Fiesta and as the photographer faces the cold wind taking his fingers uncovered, we look at what’s around and we can’t describe the feeling that unite car guys like us. It’s amazing how a small sports car from around € 25,000 is able to make you feel, certainly helped by one of the world’s most singular roads. Try to ask me what I mean and I will never be able to reply to you by completely transmitting what I actually tried here – take a look at the photos – try somehow to immerse yourself in all this, or rather come to live this life changing experience in first person at the 250 Km GT. You will understand how you can have a bite on your stomach for the will to return to that enchanted valley, that battlefield that is now silent waiting for the next knights to break its gates and experience the journey. Cars like these area created for this purpose and this purpose only – to drive on stunning sceneries. And each time will be different, each will always be special – but it will probably remain the most beautiful road I’ve ever seen.
FORD FIESTA ST200 (2016-)
Layout – front-engined, front wheel drive
Engine – 4 cylinder 1.597cc – turbo
Transmission – 6-speed manual gearbox
Power – 200 hp @ 5.700 rpm
290 Nm @ 1.600 rpm
Weight – 1.170 kg
Acceleration – 6,7 sec.
Top Speed – 226 kph
Price – from € 25.000
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