Europe (secret location) - Ford has gone underground to promote its seventh-generation Fiesta ST.
Not underground in the guerrilla fighters or bootleg music sense of the
word, but literally.
A new film shows the compact hot hatch being taken
through its paces 400 metres below ground in one of Europe’s largest salt
mines.
Shot at a secret location with World Rally Championship
driver Elfyn Evans at the wheel, the Fiesta ST is seen slipping, sliding and
jumping in the dirt. The sound of the 1.5-litre EcoBoost engine is
amplified by its surroundings as it tackles a high-speed drop through the
narrow entrance tunnel.
“The salt is actually like fine gravel to drive on, quite
slippery to be honest, especially on road tyres,” said Evans. “You expect it to
be claustrophobic but actually it’s quite the opposite, a great place to really
enjoy the new Fiesta ST.”
The advert is part of Ford’s Europe's Greatest Driving Roads
series which puts a range of Ford performance vehicles -including the Ford GT,
the Ford Focus RS and the Ford Mustang Convertible in some of the most stunning
environments across the continent - from the Arctic Circle in Norway, to the
sunny climes of Mallorca.
So far, all the locations have been above ground.
The new ST is the flagship
of the seventh-generation Fiesta range, of which the bread-and-butter
derivatives went on sale in South Africa a couple of months ago.
The ST is hustled along by a three-cylinder 1.5-litre petrol
turbo engine with outputs of 147kW and
290Nm – the same as the old Fiesta ST 200’s 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo - but
now it gets a fuel-saving system that deactivates the middle cylinder to improve
fuel consumption by 20%.
It’s also the first Fiesta ST to get selectable driving
modes, namely Normal, Sport and Track. Launch control gives this spirited Fiesta the ability to
scoot from rest to 100km/h in just 6.7 seconds, while it will max out at a
claimed 232km/h.
Sadly, as far as local motorists are concerned the new
Fiesta ST may as well be underground as it’s not coming to South Africa, as it’s
apparently not compatible with our fuel.