In its short yet violent life, the Goodyear tire had moments that burning rubber is made for. I had managed to overcook it at C2 on the Sriperumbudur track and in the expectation of the car correcting itself, eased off the steering and uttered a quick prayer. Alas, I was carrying too much speed over what is nearly an 80 degree right hander, and a line, ER, that would have made even an end-of-the-grid F1 driver choke in disgust. Finding the perfect pointy section of the concrete kerb, the left front tire blew in the face of amateurish driving and that literally took the wind out of my sails.

It didn’t take long before a profusely apologetic but stranded driver and car were picked up by the lead car and taken for several more rounds of the track. My 25 minutes of fun were over- I was now a passenger with Con Balais, Fords senior chassis development engineer, who calmed me down by saying “Oh, back home, we have got Kangaroos that lie on our test track, and I have managed to nick the tails of some of them. You are alright.”

Con was here to demonstrate why, in the last nine years, he had found himself on a Boeing to India from Australia nearly 30 minutes. As part of Ford, Australia and a key figure in the development of the Ford Ikon, and then the Ford Fiesta for India, he just had to show me what Ford had done to bring the 1.6S upto speed. Yes, you have read everything we wanted to know about the Car over the last two issues, but Ford thought it was not enough. So to reinforce the S in the 1.6S Fiesta, they called us back to show us how it handles around a track. Now who wouldn’t want to throw a car around in controlled conditions?

You know that the facelifted Fiesta has been through small changes with its chassis, steering and suspension settings. While you can make out the differences on a road if driven hard, the same changes get amplified around a track. Con was keen to demonstrate the finer nuances of the new steering setup for instance. The steering rack ratio has been through minor alterations. Also, it has been fine-tuned to meet Ford DNA world wide standards, which means even if you got off a Ford GT and into a Ford Fiesta 1.6S, you would instantly recognize it as a Ford setup. Or some such. Ford also contacted Goodyear tires to develop a tire specifically for the 1.6S and now import the rubber compound just to meet the new standards. Additional stiffening of the chassis at certain points, coupled with a wind tunnel tested and validated body-kit were part of the programme-all of these making up the satellites revolving around the Ford’s “fun-to-drive” fulcrum.

This differences fly in your face on the track like dry leaves in a dust storm. Around some of the tighter and flatter corners, one would expect the Fiesta to top at 90kmph before letting go off its tail. But no, it held its line at 100kph so beautifully that apart from some amount of tire squeal, there was nothing else to complain about. Grip has now become fantastic, so good that just two days prior to our drive, someone came with an Audi TT and the Ford Fiesta 1.6S for a private tack day, and the Fiesta turned up just 13 or 14 seconds off the TT, a great performance by no small measure.

For all its ability around corners, grip and all those things that make it a fine handling car, it lacks just a bit of power and a little birdie tells us that Ford is keen to bring out an even more powerful version of the 1.6S to cater to enthusiasts like you and me. Of course, that would mean more chassis development work (probably) and more time for Goodyear to develop an even better tire. Hopefully, by then, I would have learnt the finer art of driving a Fiesta, if Ford oblige and send us a long-term 1.6S.