All In One

This show-quality Mk1 Fiesta packs a punch like no other, thanks to an ST170 turbo engine mounted in the back that’s putting over 500 bhp to the rear wheels.

- Simon Holmes

Achieving huge performance yet keeping a professional finish is a hard trick to pull off if you’re building a project.

Usually, one will suffer long before the other is accomplished. But this ultra-tidy Mk1 Fiesta happens to manage both and with no halfhearted measures either. The show car look of the perfectly-fitted arches and immaculate paint is backed up with a colossal 526 bhp, thanks a neat ST170 turbo engine mounted in the rear. As the whole car weighs in at a featherweight 820 kg, that equates to a monstrous 642 bhp per tonne, which is a figure that puts virtually every supercar ever made to shame. What’s more, this Fiesta is fully road legal, ready to hit drag strips and showgrounds in equal measure.

To get to this level, the build took two long years and at a great financial cost, extensive hands-on labour and a large amount of headache tablets, reckons the owner, Ben Gibbs. But that was the price to pay in order for everything to fit nicely, work correctly and look as good as it does.

It’s certainly one of the most insane projects, let alone Fiestas we’ve come across in some time and the tale began over three years ago when he saw the rear-wheel drive Fiesta, complete with a spaceframe rear end, for sale.

“I had to have it,” Ben says. “It was fitted with a Kawasaki 1200cc bike engine back then and the plan was to drive it, use it and abuse it on the road and track. I travelled up north from London to view it and it looked great, so was happy to part with the money for it.”

However, that plan soon changed when Ben realised that although the car looked fine on the outside, it wasn’t quite ready for the hard use he expected of it underneath. Sure enough, after giving it some stick he found it slowly started falling apart.