Ford Fiesta ST

The ST is a car you feel at one with – its steering is sharp and perfectly weighted, and body control is excellent. It’s agile, alive and entertaining on a twisty road, while the manual box is lovely to use. The engine sounds great and the ride isn’t too bad, either.

Ever since the latest Fiesta made its debut in 2008, fast Ford fans have been crying out for a hot hatch version. The standard model has all the right ingredients for a thrilling performance car, with its agile handling and rakish looks. So, does the new ST live up to these expectations?

First impressions are good – the ST sits 15mm lower than the standard Fiesta, while the unique grille, rear diffuser and edgy side sills add just the right amount of extra aggression.

Our car featured the £275 Style pack, which adds red brake calipers and 17-inch alloys painted gunmetal grey. The £725 Molten Orange paint stands out, too, but it’s arguably the £16,995 price tag that will get people’s attention the most.

Even the £17,995 ST-2 tested here is £1,000 cheaper than its nearest rival in this shoot-out and comes with heated seats, privacy glass and a DAB radio.

Meanwhile, the solid and likeable Fiesta cabin is brightened up with metal pedals, ST-branded floor mats and leather trim on the steering wheel and gearlever.

The comfortable and supportive part-leather Recaro seats really set the ST’s interior apart from its rivals, and the driving position is perfect. Overall, the Peugeot feels a little more upmarket, but the Fiesta’s plastics and trim quality are a step ahead of the Renault’s.

Rear passenger room is similar to both rivals, although you have to pay £50 for a third rear headrest. Plus, the Fiesta has only three doors to the Clio’s five – that puts it at a slight practical disadvantage, as does its 290-litre boot, which is 10 litres down on the Renault’s.

However, these small differences aren’t the deciding factors in a hot hatch test – what matters here is the driving experience, and on paper the ST looks good. The 1.6-litre EcoBoost turbo produces nearly 20 per cent more power than the last-generation Fiesta ST’s 2.0-litre engine, while Ford’s enhanced Torque Vectoring Control (eTVC) electronic differential set-up delivers excellent traction.

On top of that, the chassis has been treated to increased roll stiffness, revised damping and faster steering. But in an age when so many cars have sport or dynamic buttons, the Ford is refreshingly free of adjustable driving settings. And this beautifully engineered simplicity makes it very rewarding to drive.

The positions of the brake and accelerator pedals are ideal for blipping the throttle as you downshift, complementing the slick six-speed gearbox. The standard car’s superb steering is even better in the ST, too, with a faster ratio for sharper response.

On a twisty road, the car entertains for corner after corner. Turn-in is accurate and fast, and the nose tells you precisely how much grip is on offer, while body control is superb. It’s easy to tighten your line and, although the rear of the car feels alive and involved, it’s never snappy or unsettling.

To help you feel the chassis’ mechanical magic, the stability control can be placed in a limited intervention mode or disengaged altogether. And with the help of the eTVC, traction is superb across the board, with little wheelspin or torque steer. The ST also resists following cambers in the road, feeling very stable under hard acceleration.

Which is just as well, because the punchy EcoBoost engine produces 240Nm of torque at 1,600rpm, while an overboost facility briefly lifts this figure to 290Nm for overtaking. A slight power deficit means the ST trails its rivals by a fraction from 0-60mph, completing the sprint in 7.5 seconds.

Yet out on the road, the sharp throttle and responsive engine make the Ford feel like the quickest car to react here, while it lapped the Anglesey Circuit in 68.7 seconds – that was a full second faster than the new Clio, and matched the time we set in the previous Clio Cup.

The ST is also just as easy and relaxing to drive slowly as any other Fiesta and, while the ride is firm, it’s never uncomfortable. Plus, despite a clever sound symposer, which channels a snarl from the engine into the cabin, it’s not noisy on the motorway.

As the fastest car on track and huge fun on the road, the ST is going to take some beating.