Fiesta ST185?

[TheRealDC]

Having run out of quality reading material, I purchased a copy of Auto Express this week

Lo and behold, they had a scoop on the Fiesta ST185. Reason I found this interesting is that I know the ST chaps down South had originally planned to have their engines chipped to beyond 150bhp, but Ford had blanched at this, allegedly due to concerns that the gearbox wouldn't cope.

This article made no mention of changes to the gearbox to cater for this increase in power ....

Anyone else with more inside or direct knowledge care to comment??



DC

[Blair]

Not sure about the ST gearbox, but the power in my diesel Zetec S Fiesta is very close to the torque limits of the gearbox. Mine is around 204Nm and I think the ST has slightly less torque.

[awsponsor]

That article is here:

www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/214500/fast_ford.html

More here:

media.ford.com/newsroom/release_display.cfm?release=27472

[NS-R]

Dave - that is correct. M-sport originally upgraded the ECUs on the first two STs but Ford got involved and were unhappy about it due to the gearbox allegedly being unable to cope (the upgraded rally cars have the sequential box).

Ford has just announced this new upgrade for road STs so they must have done a lot of testing over the past year.

I don't know whether this will become an option for the race series or not - we'll have to wait and see...

Nick.

[TheRealDC]

Fingers crossed!!

[Mike Strong]

I'd imagine that the strains on the gearbox using slicks would be greater than using road tyres.

[NS-R]

Mike - yes, I think you're bang on there - we had major problems with the power steering and I think it was down to the slicks - we sorted it by fitting a mini cooler in front of the radiator - the STs are impossible to drive without the power steering on slicks - well, I managed it but had popeye arms afterwards!!! ;D

Nickh