Ford Fiesta ST news - TopGear exclusive: new Fiesta ST is go! - 2010

Just as you were getting juiced-up about the recently announced Ford Focus ST, TopGear has exclusively got wind that it will be joined by a mini-me. A Fiesta ST is even now being designed and developed.

But then, it had to come really. Ford is going World Rallying with the Fiesta next season. And James May's partner-in-motion-sickness (and YouTube gigastar) Ken Block is slithering up banked curves in a factory-backed Fiesta. To fail to provide us with a hotted-up Fiesta for road use would be a majorly stupid oversight.

The last Fiesta ST made do with a slightly weedy 150bhp naturally aspirated engine. No such issues this time. The brand-new EcoBoost 1.6 engine just launched in the C-Max makes 180bhp and bags of turbo-overboost torque. It can even be coupled with a six-speed manual or a six-speed DSG-type flappy-paddle gearshift.

That should put this baby well in contention with the Cooper S and Polo GTI.

Contain yourselves for a bit, people. The ST is still at least a year-and-a-half away. A top-of-the-tree Ford designer told us that "we're still working out exactly how" it will look.

But given the new World Rally Fiesta (previewed at the Paris show this very week) was designed in the same studios where they're now massaging the ST's shape, the design crew will be anxious to make sure there's a family resemblance.

Paul Horrell, Consultant Editor of TopGear magazine