Now in its 7th iteration, the Ford Fiesta has been part of Ford’s model range – and a familiar sight on our roads – since 1976, with over 16 million sold worldwide, making it Ford’s best-selling car after the Escort.
The early 1970’s saw the creation of a new class of small car – the so-called “supermini”. The first supermini? Well, that depends to a degree on what you think a supermini is, but it’s generally accepted that the term applies to cars bigger than a Mini but smaller than a typical family car. It’s also generally assumed that supermini’s are hatchbacks. For me, that would make the Austin A40 Farina a strong contender for the title of “First Supermini”, although its tailgate was split horizontally across the middle.
Among the early 1970’s small hatchbacks – the term “supermini” didn’t come into regular use until c.1985 – were the FIAT 127 and Renault 5, launched in 1971 and 1972 respectively, followed a few years later by the likes of the VW Polo and Vauxhall Chevette/Opel Kadett. Driven in part by the oil crisis of 1973, Competition in this sector became more intense with the introduction of cars such as the Chrysler Sunbeam in 1977 and British Leyland’s great hope, the Austin Metro in 1980.
Supermini’s – an increasingly competitive market segment
In the middle of all this, Ford decided that it, too, wanted a piece of this growing action and announced its contender, the Fiesta, in 1976. It was the smallest car built by Ford up to this time, and was a completely new design, with the final design proposal coming from Tom Tjaarda at Ghia, (Innocenti 950 S Ghia Spider, Fiat 124 Spider, Ferrari 330GT 2+2 and many others) and the first cars went on sale in France and Germany in September 1976, with the UK following in January ’77.
Engines were a 957cc and 1117cc 4-cylinder units, producing 45bhp and 53bhp respectively, driving the front wheels, with trim levels initially being Base, Popular, L, Ghia and S, with GL being added in 1978. The Fiesta was also produced as a small van. Cars for the US market all had the bigger 1597cc powerplant to cope with extra equipment such as a catalytic converter and air pump to handle US, and particularly Californian, emission regulations, as well as standard air conditioning.
Press reaction to the Fiesta was generally positive – the little car looked neat, and sold well, especially in the UK, where in 1981 it came third on the best-seller lists.
In a group test that included the more expensive Opel Kadett LS and VW Polo GLS – the former with a 1297cc engine, the latter 1093cc, in Popular Motoring magazine in May 1980, the Fiesta 1100LS reached a top speed of 84mph/&&&km/h with 0 to 60mph taking a pretty pedestrian 18.8 seconds (Ford claimed 15.2 seconds, quite a difference) – slower than the Kadett and Polo GLS by both criteria, but nevertheless held its own in terms of handling, economy, comfort, but still came third of the three in the eyes of the testers.
A five-car group test carried out by What Car magazine in May 1979 pitted the 1.3 Ghia version of the Fiesta against the Polo GLS, Colt 1400, Chrysler Sunbeam, Mazda Hatchback 1.4 and had the Ford and VW competing neck-and-neck for to honours.
So there’s no doubt the Fiesta was a perfectly good small hatchback in it’s original incarnation, and as the market became more crowded, Ford saw fit to add new variants, including the subject of our Prime Find feature this week, the limited-edition 1.3 Supersport which led eventually to the ultimate Mk1 Fiesta, the XR2.
Ford Fiesta XR2 – boy racer heaven
Based on the Fiesta 1.3S, the Supersport was introduced in 1980 and was a smart upgrade on the standard car, adding accessories from the Series-X catalogue such as cool 13-inch (as opposed to 12) four-spoke alloys, wheel arch extensions, front splitter, small rear spoiler, front foglights and most important of all, distinctive go-faster side stripes.
Colour choice was limited to Diamond White, Strato Silver, Sunburst Red and at extra cost, Black, and interior trim featured seats with chevron-patterned centres in red or grey. However, it wasn’t all about the cosmetics – the Supersport sat on a wider track, lowered and uprated suspension and was given a rear anti-roll bar. It certainly looked the part, even if it wasn’t quite the pocket rocket that the XR2 became.
The 1.3-litre Kent Cross-flow engine pushed out 65bhp, enough to take the Supersport to a maximum speed of 99mph/160km/h and reduce the sprint from standstill to 100kmh to a very respectable 11.8 seconds.
The Fiesta Supersport has acquired cult status among Ford and particularly Fiesta fans. Only 3,000 were built and few survive – in the UK there are just 22 on the road, with another 98 SORN, and prices have risen steeply over the past few years, some might say to extraordinary levels for a mid-range Fiesta.
Only last June, CCA auctions sold an immaculate low-mileage silver 1980 example for £20,900, and the TV programme Salvage Hunters:Classic Cars recently sold a Supersport they had worked on for no less than £24,250. It looked admittedly near-as-dammit perfect, but still…you can see what they did here:-
So values would appear to be on quite an upward curve, even more so when one considers the asking price of £10,995 for what I believe is the same car as our Prime Find as recently as 2017. All of which makes the fact that “our” car, up for sale at Anglia Car Auctions over the weekend of February 27/28th, is on offer without reserve slightly surprising, to me at least, although I understand some auctioneers believe having no reserve encourages bidding, and of course endures the car will be sold.
According to the auctioneer’s details, this Supersport had been extensively restored back in 2011. It’s finished in Sunburst Red with black side stripes and has had the original front seats replaced with Recaro’s trimmed to match the original rear seats, which are still in situ – I would venture this might be a mistake, at least in terms of the potential sale price, as one would assume that for such a rare car, originality was paramount. Still, it looks exceptionally tidy and has just 81,315 miles under its alloys – a figure that the MOT certificates in the history file would seem to confirm.
As usual, we’ve borrowed some photographs from the auctioneer’s website, and you can see the full lot listing here – this is the only example currently on sale in the UK that I can find, so this is a rare opportunity to join the Cult of the Supersport.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk