What is the fastest Fiesta?
The fastest road-legal Ford Fiesta is the ST200, delivering about 200 horsepower and a top speed in the low 140s mph. Rally- and race-spec Fiests are faster still, but they are not street-legal.
To understand what “fastest” means here, this article distinguishes road-going production Fiests from limited-run variants and rally cars, and it lists the top-performing road cars Ford sold to customers, followed by track-focused and rally cars built by Ford’s partners.
Fastest road-legal production Fiests
The following entries cover factory-rolled, road-legal Fiests that Ford marketed to the public, measured by horsepower and official performance figures.
- Fiesta ST200 (Mk7, introduced around 2017): about 200 horsepower from a 2.0-liter EcoBoost, top speed around 143 mph, 0–60 mph in roughly 6.7 seconds.
- Fiesta ST225 (Mk5, late 2000s): about 225 horsepower from a 2.0-liter turbo, top speed around the low-to-mid 140s mph, 0–60 mph in the high 6-second range.
There were other performance-oriented Fiests, such as the ST170 variant, that offered brisk pace, but the ST200 and ST225 are the main pinnacle of road-legal speed Ford marketed across generations.
Rally and race variants (not road-legal)
For speed in competition, rally- and race-spec Fiests are engineered for stages and circuits rather than public roads, and they routinely outperform road cars—but they require licenses, safety equipment, and event-specific environments.
- Fiesta RS WRC (World Rally Championship spec): a highly tuned turbocharged rally car built for competition, not street use.
- Fiesta R5 (Rally2 spec): FIA-regulation rally car used in national and international events, also not road-legal.
In competitive settings, these cars achieve speeds and acceleration far beyond road-legal Fiesti variants, but they operate under very different rules and safety requirements.
Important context
While rally and track variants boast impressive performance, they are not eligible for public roads and are typically restricted to events, testing venues, or race circuits. For everyday driving, the ST200 remains the fastest Ford Fiesta customers could legally purchase and drive on public highways.
Summary
In short, the fastest road-legal Fiesta is the ST200, with about 200 PS and a top speed around 143 mph. The ST225 is a close high-performance predecessor from an earlier generation. If you include non-road-legal competition cars, rally-spec Fiests such as the RS WRC and R5 are faster in their respective contexts, but they aren’t street-legal. For most buyers seeking peak street performance, the ST200 is the benchmark.
