I made the mistake of taking him for a spin in the sporty hatch and it sent him all dewy-eyed like watching an episode of Life On Mars.
The ST is the kind of car he couldn’t afford when we were living that hiatus between park-life and getting into pubs and the experience has clearly set him off on something of a trip down memory lane which could prove costly.
But at least it’s a fast one.
The ST is Ford’s attempt at a retro revival of the XR2 rocket which ranked alongside ghettoblasters and Adidas Kick trainers as icons of our day.
Back then the sporty Fiesta’s competition came in the shape of GTIs like the fledgling Golf and Peugeot 205.
Today’s Fiesta faces far stiffer competition, with brilliant new cars like the Corsa VXR providing stiff competition.
But while my mate says “fantastic”, I initially say “plastic”.
Malarkey
All of this motoring malarkey down the years has made me somewhat harder to please and only time will tell whether I’ll be competing with him on the day that the next issue of AutoTrader comes out.
I’m part of the small minority which actually likes the look of the standard new Fiesta.
I even think it has something of the Golf Mark I about it, all straight sides and triangles on a small wheelbase.
The transition to ST brings with it all of the prerequisite skirts, spoilers and body-coloured trims.
The Fiesta’s weird bog-eyed headlights still spoil the overall look, but the little Ford actually does look pretty good in its running gear. You can opt in or out of the white stripes and I’m delighted to say that “my” red Fiesta does without them and looks all the better for it.
In fact, at the risk of sounding like a girl, it’s the best red paint I’ve ever discovered and is by far the best way to decorate a Fiesta ST.
The hatchback reveals a small-ish boot and I’m horrified to note that this little hot hatch is available with four doors.
Thankfully, mine comes in the two-door guise which was de rigueur when Chaka Khan was still on the tape deck.
Now then, what about that plastic? Mmmm. My mate says he likes the plastic.
But then there are purists who still listen to scratchy records on gramophones because they genuinely believe that vinyl sounds better than CDs.
Opinion
He’s welcome to his opinion, but he’s wrong. I like MP3 players – and cars which feel as tough on the inside as they do on the out.
The XR2 was a luxury item in its day, don’t forget.
This new ST feels a lot more budget than that.
I’m not overly convinced by the Fiesta ST’s 2 litre Duratec either.
A two-litre engine in a hatchback would have been excessive back then.
Today it feels a little gutless and has to be worked quite hard to emulate anything like the thrills of the turbo-charged VXR rival.
But, mated as it is to a modified, short-throw five gear manual box, it still makes me and my mate smile.
Back in my youth, had someone gifted me a Fiesta ST, I’d have been happier than a Roma fan attending a white collar boxing bout.
I think it looks great and offers fantastic value for money in its sector.
I wish my mate well in his quest to land the car of his dreams. At last count, he’d found something in the region of £8,000.
But while nostalgia’s a brilliant thing, I personally can think of more fulfilling ways of travelling down memory lane.
TECH SPEC
Model: Ford Fiesta STPrice: £13,595.0 to 60mph: 7.9 secsTop speed: 129mphInsurance Group: 13Consumption: 38 MPGEmissions: 177 g/km
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