The Ford Fiesta in rallying and rallycross

Yesterday the last Ford Fiesta rolled off the production line in Cologne, so it's perhaps a good time to reflect on the car's use in rallying and rallycross. This is very much a story of two halves, with a huge gap in between, and it's fairly easily told.

The Fiesta launched in 1976 as part of a new generation of front wheel drive 'superminis'. But whilst it's rival and contemporary the VW Golf was already a hot hatch (although not yet imported into the UK), Ford only produced the boring versions of the car for several years.

Things started to change on the 1979 Monte Carlo rally. Two specially prepared Fiesta ran in Group 2, driven by future world champion Ari Vatanen and a rather frustrated Roger Clark. They were the support act to Ford's attempt to win the event with a pair of seriously hot Group 4 Escorts for Hannu Mikkola and Bjorn Waldegard. An overall win was prevented by the French police and French spectators respectively, but the Fiestas did well enough, easily beating a pair of Fiat Ritmos, the car that was sold in the UK as a Strada, driven by Per Eklund and Antonio Bettega. Vatanen came a respectable ninth, but it was Jean Ragnotti's pocket rocket Renault 5 Alpine won Group 2.

It was a decent result in the circumstances, but Ford it seemed had greater expectation. Having thrown a lot of money at the Fiesta project they then let it die, and that was basically that for the cat at the top level of rallying. Some of the special bits and bobs from the rally car, including the tuned Kent engine, made their way into the XR2, which was the starter hot hatch for a whole generation of boy racers.

It was a different story in rallycross though. The division of the British series into under and over 1.6 litre categories meant the car was perfectly placed to eclipse the Mini as the top vehicle in the smaller class. In 1981 a very special space-framed works Metro gave them a hard time, but despite that the Fiesta cleaned up. What was under the bonnet was usually a BDA and not a breathed on Kent, and in the hands of Trevor Hopkins and Keith Ripp they not only took class but championship honours in 1981, 1982 and 1983.

By then four wheel drive and turbo charging had arrived in rallycross and the days of rear wheel drive Escorts mixing it with front wheel drive Minis and Fiestas were over. In rallying Ford abandoned the RS1700T project for the RS200, which in turn had to be abandoned when Group B died and they had to try to make the two wheel drive Sierra Cosworth a winner. This was followed by the Escort Cosworth and Focus RS, which were both amazing cars, although neither was ultimately as successful as they should have beeen. All those vehicles, except the RS1700T, made it into rallycross, where they were outright winners, whilst the Fiesta remained the preserve of the odd privateer.

All this changed in 2011, when rallying rewrote the rules and 1.6 litre turbos became the norm. The Focus was retired and the Fiesta, now on its sixth iteration, became the main Ford rallying machine. The Fiesta ST had been completing in Group N, and its own one make series, and Malcolm Wilson's M Sport had produced a championship winning Super 2000 car, but now the Fiesta moved up to the next level with the Fiesta RS WRC.

Everything started well with a 1-2-3 on the opening round of the 2011 season in Sweden, but after that it was all downhill. There were also wins in Australia and Wales, but once again the championship went to Loeb and Citroen. In 2012 there were wins in Sweden, Portugal and Wales, but it was again the French championship winning combination was unbeatable, this time by a country mile, and Ford pulled the plug. This was probably wise as VW were about to rain on everyone's picnic. In 2013 Fiestas were still popular cars, but there were no more wins.

In 2017 the rules were reworked again and wings came back. M Sport went to work again, this time turning the Mark 7 Fiesta in the Fiesta WRC. With Ford money behind them and reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier behind the wheel the Fiesta finally had a shot at the top spot. Again it started well, with wins in Monte Carlo for Ogier and Sweden for Jan Mari Latvala. Then Thierry Neuville and Hyundai fought back and the championship caught alight. It was all decided on Wales Rally GB. Elfyn Evans took a very popular home win in the Fiesta, ahead of Neuville in his Hyundai, who'd recovered from visiting a ditch on the first day. Third was Ogier in his Fiesta, which gave the blue oval it's first world championship since Ari Vatanen in 1981.

2018 was more of the same. Ogier and Neuville swapped wins until the final round in Australia, where the Hyundai hit a tree and gave Ogier his sixth world championship. For 2019 though Ogier went back to Citroen, Wilson stepped down as M Sport boss and Ford were winless and came fourth in the manufacturers championship. Ford were again winless in the Covid affected 2020 and 2021 championships, but in 2023 they signed Sebastien Loed and 43 years after Vatanen had pedalled his Mark 1 Fiesta to ninth, Loeb won the Monte Carlo in his. That was the car's only win of the year though and at the end of the season the Fiesta was retired and replaced by the Puma.

Whilst all this had been going on rallycross had hit the big time with the launch of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in 2014. Amongst the wide variety of cars that started that debut season were Fiesta STs for Andreas Bakkerud, Reinis Nitiss and Bohdan Ludwiczak. WRX provided great entertainment straight out of the box and wins were shared amongst four different teams. Bakkerud won at Lydden Hill and in Turkey, whilst Nitiss won in Norway and scored consistently enough to come third in the championship.

For 2015 there were seven drivers in Fiestas. Only Bakkerud managed a win, but consistent performances by him and Nitiss secured their team second place overall. For 2016 and 2017 Bakkerud joined Ken Block's Hoonigan team, which moved back to driving Focuses. There were still Fiestas entered, but they rarely troubled the top order after that.

The Fiesta still soldiered on at a national level though. In the UK, for example, Fiestas driven by Pat Doran and Julian Godfrey won every year from 2009 to 2015. In 2019 it was Godfrey again and in 2021 Derek Tohill in his Fiesta. Then in 2022 Patrick O'Donovan slipped and slided from last place to win the final of the 2022 Five Nationals Championship at Lydden Hill in his Fiesta. 

POD swapped to a Peugeot for his attempt at the 2023 European Rallycross Championship, although as I write the championship leader is Anton Markland in a Fiesta. However, with production now at an end, the Puma Ford's main car on the rally stages, this could well be the Fiesta's swan song. It's a pretty unusual record, and nobody younger than me remembers both halves of it, but the car has its place in rallying and rallycross history.