Ford today announced prices for the the 2013 Fiesta ST and much like the previous incarnation it’s not exactly a monster. Looks wise it’s nothing spectacular either. However there’s one very interesting thing - it will be powered by a 1.6 turbocharged EcoBoost engine. Turbos in small cars are back and our beloved Fiesta has just got one. Can you say potential?

In my Ken Block feature I wrote “Hopefully Ford’s usage of the Fiesta for WRC will trickle down some technology and see us with a 1.6 EcoBoost Turbo powered Fiesta” and that’s exactly what we have here.

In standard form the ST’s 177bhp and 0-60 in just under 7 seconds won’t be troubling rivals such as the Clio 200 Turbo, Citroën DS3 (204bhp) or the (still a concept) Peugeot 208 GTI (200bhp), but seeing as few of us here are concerned with standard, this doesn’t really mean much. The mk3 RS Turbo wasn’t that great straight from the factory but it didn’t stop a plethora of aftermarket tuning parts and specialists up and down the land more than happy to fit them.

At £16,995 it’s quite a bit cheaper than any of the above too.

Any chance of an RS?

Now that Ford are using the Fiesta as their weapon of choice for the WRC, rather than the Focus, Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see the next RS being a road going approximation of the FWRC? The same 1.6 as the ST, but bumped in power to say 220-250bhp, with a fancy diff, fat arches, 18s and a chunky rear spoiler

Regardless of whether we actually see an RS or not, the bottom line is it doesn’t really matter how the standard specs for the ST read - Ford + turbo = potential.