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My first impressions

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abilene
#1
As I am in the process of finding a buyer for my BMW before I can get into a new fiesta I have been doing a lot of reading and youtube watching about the ST. So today when I got a friend at work to let me try out a small drive in his 2014 ST I had high expectations. I had a 2014 fiesta for a little while and the car was okay for the price and met all my expectations. But today I was blown away but this little car.

200hp and 200 ft/lb of torque.... I will admit, I wasn't excited by those numbers. I got in the car thinking its going to be like a stock STi (heavy underpowered and rather boring) but when i pressed the gas pedal in second gear... that tiny little turbo spooled up at a stunning speed and the car just went, and it didn't want to stop going. I came to a traffic circle and didn't have to slow down at all. felt perfectly comfortable and reasonably stable taking the circle at the 50kph speed limit. sadly we only had time for me to take a very short 5 minute drive today but it was enough to know I'm going to get one.

There are two things that really did kind of turn me off though. 1) the baby seat barely fits in the back. my wife's knees will be pressed close to the dash. 2) the torque steer in second gear around the traffic circles was annoying but something to get used to. it is a FWD car after all so that is not really avoidable.

I now understand why this car has the following it does.

anyway sorry for it being all over the place my thoughts are a little scrambled due a new prescription. have a nice day y'all.
 


OP
S
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3
Location
abilene
Thread Starter #3
what blows my mind is how cheap stuff is to mod this car. I need to really dig in to it though. I live an hour away from hockeneim and 2 hours from nurburgring so pretty much as soon as I get it I will end up moding it to be a flawless track terror.
 


Messages
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59
Location
Metro Detroit
#4
That sounds like a huge baby seat, but then again most compact cars don't have that much above-the-knee room, which is what baby seats soak up in spades.

A big facet that many people discount or forget when pouring over a spec sheet is how visceral the car feels. The sensation of speed is much more exhilarating than a number on a dial. Going 25 MPH in a go-kart is a thrill yet 120 MPH in a Lexus LS is an absolute bore. This is why certain sports cars will always have a passionate following; they feel fast.
 


OP
S
Messages
5
Likes
3
Location
abilene
Thread Starter #5
That sounds like a huge baby seat, but then again most compact cars don't have that much above-the-knee room, which is what baby seats soak up in spades.

A big facet that many people discount or forget when pouring over a spec sheet is how visceral the car feels. The sensation of speed is much more exhilarating than a number on a dial. Going 25 MPH in a go-kart is a thrill yet 120 MPH in a Lexus LS is an absolute bore. This is why certain sports cars will always have a passionate following; they feel fast.
yeah the baby seat is pretty big. soon she will be in a regular boost seat though so its not a major issue. It will bug me driving more than whoever is sitting with their knees on the dash.

to your second part I couldn't have said it better. size weight and overall feel make much more difference than the numbers on paper. Every car is its own experience.
 


Waterfan

Active member
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171
Location
SoCal
#6
A lot like you said before: Boring on paper. Has to be experienced to be appreciated.

For me, I am constantly amazed how capable (fun) the stock suspension setup is (well beyond what is needed in a daily driver) and/or how perfectly it is matched to the power delivery. Entire package "feels" better than anything I drove in comparison (mk7 GTI, 2015 WRX, BRZ - all of which can be considered a segment "higher")

Coming from a VW experience, yeah, the FiST is dirt cheap to mod and with many more vendors willing to do so. (COBB/Mountune are considered "expensive", LOL)
 




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