The final Ford Fiesta will roll off the production line today, so let's look at how this icon was born - from its expensive inception to receiving our universal praise
Predicting that energy anxiety, inflation and stagnant standards of living would send mini cars’ market share as high as 30%, Ford had sought to make the Fiesta as affordable as possible in terms of purchase, running and repair – but vitally a ‘proper car’ scaled down, not a spartan econobox.
Transverse mounting of the engine would give the Fiesta Escort-equivalent space inside but made aerodynamic optimisation challenging. Yet some 250 tweaks from wind tunnel work yielded a rating of 0.42Cd – 0.6 less than the comparable Datsun Cherry. This was linked to a new four-speed manual gearbox, remarkable for its compactness. As in the seminal 127, the layout resulted in the two driveshafts being of unequal lengths.Suspension was by a very simple MacPherson-strut layout up front, familiar but for new-style bearings that reduced the required amount of steering effort, and a dead axle at the rear to avoid extra weight and ensure consistent handling.
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