Back
Classic Ford - Feature: Fiesta Turbo
"Generation Game"
July 2006
Next

 

 

Home » Magazine Articles » British UK » Classic Ford »

Feature: Fiesta Turbo




Classic Ford - Feature: Fiesta Turbo - Front Cover

Classic Ford - Feature: Fiesta Turbo - Page 1

Classic Ford - Feature: Fiesta Turbo - Page 2

Classic Ford - Feature: Fiesta Turbo - Page 3

Classic Ford - Feature: Fiesta Turbo - Page 4

Classic Ford - Feature: Fiesta Turbo - Page 2

Copy of Article Text Below


.....OK, Final warning... time's running out if you want to get hold of a prime example of Ford's first generation of fwd cars for decent money. There's little doubt Mklll Escorts and Mkl Fiestas are reaching full classic status on the scene and, as a result, prices for rot-free examples are climbing faster than Spiderman on a promise from Kirsten Dunst.

George Sulley, of Darwen in Lancashire, has got no worries with price hikes though, as he's already seen the future and turned a £225 bargain into one of the best Fests we've come across to date. Out has gone the 1100 pushrod motor and in its place sits a 132-horse Mklll RST powerplant. Readers of May's CF got a taste of the car in our Bruntingthorpe Group Thrash report.

Now, while all this makes George out to be some kind of clever sod with loads of foresight and luck on his side, the truth is somewhat different. The Fiesta Turbo that should have been on these pages was a Sunburst Red one, bought ready-built with no hard work to do. All he needed to do was go a bit careful after fitting some new brakes...

Testing Times

"My first car was a dog of a MklV Escort which I had for two weeks before demanding my money back and that was followed by a Zetec Fiesta," George begins. "In 2005 I went for something retro and bought the red Mkl from Chorley Street Garage in Bolton. It had taken a Y-plate 1.1, created an XR2 look-alike and transplanted the engine from a Mklll RST into its bay.

"The car was spot-on," he continues, "but after a couple of months I was told by a mechanic that the brakes needed sorting. This was done, but perhaps the new pads hadn't bedded in because out 'testing' after the work had been done, I had a head-on with a tree (when I should have slowed enough to get round a corner). It wasn't really worth claiming on insurance so the only thing to do was take the loss, find a decent shell and start again."

Fortunatly, George knew there was a 1.1 Ghia with potential at a local dealership and got it up on a ramp for inspection. "I could see it was a really good car, despite having a dodgy red respray over the original yellow. The price was £500 but I talked them down to just £225. The only ffiing that the bodywork needed was a few dents sorting, so you can-see that was quite some bargain." So the day after the crash George had his raw material and cracked on with stripping out and raising the dead.

"In all the project took about six months to complete," he says. "I did much of the donkeywork prep, then the shell went to a professional sprayshop in Oswaldtwistle where it was coated in Canary Yellow with some glass powder to give it a very subtle glitter effect, all for £350."

Fitting up the Fiesta with its turbo motor and associated upgrades was relatively easy and was carried out at Heys Lane Garage also in Oswaldtwistle. "Heys Lane had done work on the first car and I'd become mates with the owner Pete," says George. "He was kind enough to lend me a corner of his workshop for the build so got the gig for the work."

Before the paint went on Pete had seam welded the rear end of the shell, filled over the original petrol cap aperture and prepared the engine bay for the CVH and five-speed box - kits are available to do this but George just used one as a pattern to make his car's out of thicker 5mm plate......

Captions -

Top-Middle - "I realised it was a really good car despite a dodgy respray and I talked them down to just £225 - the bodywork only needed a few dents sorting"
Top-Right - At our recent thrash the blown Mkl rattled off 60 mph from standstill in an impressive 6.6 seconds and didn't stop until it'd passed 120 mph!