Now we all know the ST is the performance Fez (could be driving one now but needed to save money big time). There's always a bigger fish out there so to speak (unless you have a veyron supersport I guess).

I came from a diesel freelander SD4 with 315 lb ft of torque but diesels don't rev which is annoying no matter how fast they are. All of which brings me on nicely to the 125ps ecoboost.

Here we have a car with cost savings in mind with free road tax, cheap insurance and excellent fuel economy. Normally, all that comes at a cost of boredom but not here!

I have the ZS in red which is great to look at, brilliant to drive, comfortable, well equipped and more than quick enough for the real world. The fact it's petrol and turbo means there is low down shove and a chance to enjoy high revs. Yes it can and has been modded by people (I just plumped for a new panel filter) but its excellent as standard anyway.

The key thing I want to highlight though is 3rd gear. Bearing in mind this isn't meant to be a performance king, I can tell you that it's the best 3rd gear I have come across in cars I've owned and I had a Fez ST mk1 a few years ago.

I have the perfect place to test 3rd gear, on a short A38 slip road near home. On the old ST, 3rd at 30 provided a more gradual build up and needed 2nd to pounce so to speak. In the ZS, I have rounded the tight turn and floored it in 3rd to be met by turbo boost and just left it there until I saw 70 legally but 80 in my mind.

Not economical driving at all and it will actually pull well from 50 in 5th but the broad spectrum of 3rd is fantastic.

Great all rounder and hats off to 3rd gear. Any other 125ps ecoboost owners sampled 3rd gear abilities?

Oh by the way, even after a foot down blast such as this and air con running, the MPG only dipped down to 39 and I still haven't got 1500 on the clock yet. Magnificent!

I've noticed this too Dave. 3rd gear is absolutely amazing.

My previous car was a mapped Focus ST and was extremely worried I would never like the low powered 3 cylinder engine but this little thing is amazing :)

There was me worrying about downsizing from a 300bhp cupra, looks like I need to try the zs, I'd like the st but want to be able to put a towbar on the back, the st doesn't have a towing weight so thas pretty much rued it out. Then with the zs if I could get near to 160bhp I'd be happy :)

30 will see you to 90mph + I had 85-90 outta it but was only just past. 5500rpm

Wonder how much bhp the box can take, would make an interesting track car to say the least, just depends on ease of turning it RWD.

Steve, towing small things such as small trailers is quite feasible indeed. The 1.0 engine is meaningless because the turbo is the key. The torque matches the ZS tdci. Also, hill hold is a standard feature. Take your foot off the brake on a hill and it won't roll back for a few seconds which allows you to apply power before having to worry about the car rolling back.

My previous motor with the autobox was stated as being able to tow 2.2 tonnes braked and it felt like it could do so effortlessly. I once towed a mondeo estate up a snow covered hill. Still miss that car but had to save money with the Uni fees etc

Thanks, I don't intend to tow, it's just for a bike rack :)

Wonder how much bhp the box can take, would make an interesting track car to say the least, just depends on ease of turning it RWD.

Probably more than anything a vag car can take, we'll the clutches are very weak. I wonder how much the engine could be pushed :)

Really 170bhp would be enough, which I doubt would be difficult, it's just the problem of it being FWD :P

FWD don't matter, 300 going through the front of the leon was fine, if you abuse it the tyres will spin but the same can be said about RWD, the only way around it is 4 wheels drive, having had a play in the new RS5 cabriolet last week i really don't care how good RWD is, the noise and 8500rpm change up was more than enough to make up for it, along with the well built cabin. In fact I prefer the Audi S7 to the R8 :)

Yeah but the engine and box would be going into a custom built Caterham-style racer, so no front wheel drive in that :P

I way prefer driving FWD over RWD.

Hasn't the1.0 already found its way into a cateram ? I'm sure i've seen something on the interweb

Hasn't the1.0 already found its way into a cateram ? I'm sure i've seen something on the interweb

They put the 1.0 litre ecoboost in a formula ford,made it road legel etc. and took it to the nurburgring and it was the 11th fastest round the track (think they managed to get 200bhp out of it.

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/286480/ford_ecoboost_racer_sets_ring_time.html

They put the 1.0 litre ecoboost in a formula ford,made it road legel etc. and took it to the nurburgring and it was the 11th fastest round the track (think they managed to get 200bhp out of it.

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/286480/ford_ecoboost_racer_sets_ring_time.html

Yes, i think it did an amazing MPG as well