Reading this a few years later and wanted to offer my thoughts to anyone else viewing.

 

I've had quite a few fairly quick cars over the years but during covid I unfortunately lost work and consequently a lot of money. Long story short I've now got a 1.1 Fiesta Ecoboost I think, 2013 model, no turbo, 4 doors, it's silver, bought it for 1.5k, done 110,000 miles, no idea how many HP, it's seriously slow and barely gets up hills, but I absolutely love it!

 

At first I hated it just for the lack of power, and I still do hence why I googled the same kinda questions and ended up here. But reading this thread, a lot of people are right in saying just stick with the car. However, whilst I agree you should be patient and get a new car, I realised that it's not strictly true that it is "slow" however. Yes it has lack of engine power, but by no means is it slow if you know what you're doing. Personally, I got to a realisation that I was kinda driving it wrong, or perhaps I didn't understand how to carry speed in general.

 

I've learnt there's a way to drive slow cars to carry speed and it basically involves timing stuff really well, mainly facilitated by leaving plenty of space between you and other cars. There's a way to be fast in this car and once you learn it, you can have a LOT of fun in it, especially on B roads. Yes, your ego will have to take a hit from 0-60 situations though lol. It's rarely a good idea to overtake in this car, and that can be very frustrating when you have a situation where a fairly slow car is ruining your fun but you don't have enough power to safely overtake. But actually, aside from the power frustration, you can get an even bigger ego knowing you can keep up with cars with double sometimes triple the power of yours and you can credit that to your skill. You realise that 9/10 people in faster cars completely rely on the fact they have more power and that they don't actually possess many skills for racing or carrying speed in general. I.e. they don't really know how to "drive" drive lol. 

 

Example, you can work out where in the gear the most torque is delivered and once you know that, you can start adapting your driving and learn to time your gears to optimise how much speed you can carry through turns. In traffic, make sure to leave plenty of space between you and the cars in front, so whilst they're doing basic people traffic things, you can be thinking two steps ahead and planning how to carry speed through the corner. As long as you leave a gap, it will allow you time to think. It takes a lot of practice but once you nail it people will think you're in a much faster car when in reality you've got zero power lol. 

 

When "driving" driving, I can keep up with most people in 2l cars in this car no problem, just except in straight lines. I can often be quicker than a lot of cars simply because this chassis is actually incredible. You can really point it and have confidence with it. You can seriously carry speed in a safe way in this car partly because of how small it is. You essentially have more road to play with in this car and so you can carry a lot of speed through corners assuming you know how take the "racing line" so to speak. I'm exaggerating a bit, you don't need to pretend be Lewis Hamilton, but just optimising your gears, perfecting throttle and steering application, timing it all right, turning off your AC.. you can seriously carry some speed in this car!

 

Most of the more powerful cars tend to be a bit bigger so on a typical British road, they tend to be limited in how much speed they can safely carry through corners. This is their major weakness and so if it were a timed lap, you probably could do it faster as long as the lap didn't have a lot of straights, or assuming the rules were you had to stick to no more than 70mph lol. This car isn't really doing more than 90mph anyway. You'd have a hard time getting past 70mph on the average B road. But you make up the time in the corners basically. All about timing and rhythm in this car and once you work it out, it's actually a really really really good car. I've had 2 bmw 3 series, a 2l Astra, an old 1.9l Audi A4, a Citroen DS3 Sport, and the sporty version of the Clio, and honestly, for pure fun factor, this Fiesta is the best, and maybe the Clio, actually the Clio is the best, or at least the most satisfying on driving on typical UK roads, and it did have quite a bit of power. But it's on par. I actually love mine, hence why I'm thinking about adding more power. In reality, I know it's really not worth it though, I'm defo going to get something else, mainly for the electronics and the comfort, but for a bit more power too. So it's a bit sad because the chassis is the best hatchback chassis in my opinion. The modern hatchbacks are way too heavy and assisted and just don't feel that good imo. Especially the steering. Way too power assisted. I like you can feel the tarmac in this fiesta. It's genuinely great.

 

So anyone reading, I know it's a bummer but stick with the car. I wouldn't bother with mapping, it'll just kill your fuel anyway. It will be completely inefficient at burning the fuel and you'll feel barely any results. You could find a way to add more power but honestly, in relative terms, the most speed you can get from this car is by changing how you drive it imo. Learn about racing driving techniques and always leave space if there's a car in front! It's a safe thing to do anyway but literally, give yourself as much visibility as possible and learn to time stuff, be okay with lifting off the throttle, compromising speed to ultimately gain it back later, etc. 

22 minutes ago, JadedBear said:

1.1 Fiesta Ecoboost I think, 2013 model, no turbo, 4 doors

That's quite a mixed bag you have there    An Ecoboost with no turbo would be an 'Eco' 🤣

The 1.1 Ti-VCT didn't come out until about 2018...  Guessing this is a 1.25 if it's genuinely got no Turbo.  They came with either 60 or 80bhp...

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

The 1.1 Ti-VCT didn't come out until about 2018...  Guessing this is a 1.25 if it's genuinely got no Turbo. 

Not to mention that the 1.1 is a triple and the 1.25 has 4 cy!inders. Engine capacity should be shown on the V5C anyway. To confuse matters further, in between there was a 1.0 non-turbo triple towards the end of the run of the Mk 7.5. We had a 1.25 82ps and, like Jon, I found it great fun to drive it you were able to keep up speed without being slowed by other traffic, and were very quick to anticipate downchanges.

Since the introduction in 2017 the naturally aspirated 1.1 Duratec TI-VCT engine (2017 -->) is available as a 70 HP and 85 HP version in the Fiesta MK8.

Its predecessor the naturally aspirated 1.0 Duratec TI-VCT engine (2012 - 2017) was available as a 65 HP and 80 HP version in the Fiesta MK7.5.

Both of these engines belong to the Fox engine family and are closely related to the turbocharged 1.0 ECOboost engine (which also belongs to the Fox engine family). Being related these engines also share the well known wetbelt problems of the 1.0 ECOboost.

It's true you can have a lot of fun in a small car with relatively underpowered engine. My Son's 1.25 82HP Mk7 is a blast if you rev it and anticipate other traffic properly. More than enough fun to take care of your licence and allow you to build a decent no claims. Give it another year and my lad can be a named driver on my car....

Now the fun I can have with my Mk7.5St3 with Revo Stage 1 and Super unleaded and 1.7BAR is a tad more. 230bhp in a Fiesta is impressive and I wouldn't think I'll ever need a stage 2 kit. However I mostly spend my time in my Fiesta commuting on the motorway at a steady 60mph. Fun factor zero..... I do get better fuel economy than he does for the same speed combo though!

Mine's a 100 ecoboost, but I do know what the JadedBear means by being able to go fast in a 'slow' car. 

I experienced the same feelings about keeping speed with little input and keeping a wide berth of others when I've done some trips hypermiling. The thing with that was, I knew on those twisty b-roads I'd perhaps normally get 30-40mpg, but I was solidly around 70mpg whilst also keeping safe, and fairly quick. It's a totally different way of driving, when you're not leaning on the accelerator and brake as much. I wouldn't call it leisurely, but you do feel a sense of pride and achievement after.

 

Anyway, that last big hypermiling trip was a year or so ago. The boost is too addicting on this little engine... 😅 But you can drive eco, too. 

Hi Jordon. I really do know your pain. When I was your age (in the 1960s) it was TR2/3s & original mini Coopers. We spent fortunes tuning them with Broadspeed/ Downton/ Oscelli etc tuning parts (no turbos then it was long centre branch exhaust manifolds bigger carbs gas flowed heads etc)

What I’m going to advise you is not what you want to hear but stick with what you have. Any extra money you get push it into a building society & build up your account for a mortgage for a house.

Later you can buy a faster car  ( you’ll still get the exhilaration later on I do now & Im 80.) I wasted hundreds of pounds on moded cars ( thousands in todays money) So there you are, you don’t need a fast car in todays traffic which must have quadrupled since my day. Good luck.

3 hours ago, Jak1 said:

Hi Jordon. I really do know your pain.

Jordon has big boy trousers now, that post is nearly 8 years old 🤣

9 hours ago, unofix said:

Jordon has big boy trousers now, that post is nearly 8 years old 🤣

Poor guy is probably stuck driving a Galaxy covered in raisins and Wotsits by now...  

🤣 ***** old age!!

On 7/3/2022 at 12:37 AM, JadedBear said:

Reading this a few years later and wanted to offer my thoughts to anyone else viewing.

 

I've had quite a few fairly quick cars over the years but during covid I unfortunately lost work and consequently a lot of money. Long story short I've now got a 1.1 Fiesta Ecoboost I think, 2013 model, no turbo, 4 doors, it's silver, bought it for 1.5k, done 110,000 miles, no idea how many HP, it's seriously slow and barely gets up hills, but I absolutely love it!

 

At first I hated it just for the lack of power, and I still do hence why I googled the same kinda questions and ended up here. But reading this thread, a lot of people are right in saying just stick with the car. However, whilst I agree you should be patient and get a new car, I realised that it's not strictly true that it is "slow" however. Yes it has lack of engine power, but by no means is it slow if you know what you're doing. Personally, I got to a realisation that I was kinda driving it wrong, or perhaps I didn't understand how to carry speed in general.

 

I've learnt there's a way to drive slow cars to carry speed and it basically involves timing stuff really well, mainly facilitated by leaving plenty of space between you and other cars. There's a way to be fast in this car and once you learn it, you can have a LOT of fun in it, especially on B roads. Yes, your ego will have to take a hit from 0-60 situations though lol. It's rarely a good idea to overtake in this car, and that can be very frustrating when you have a situation where a fairly slow car is ruining your fun but you don't have enough power to safely overtake. But actually, aside from the power frustration, you can get an even bigger ego knowing you can keep up with cars with double sometimes triple the power of yours and you can credit that to your skill. You realise that 9/10 people in faster cars completely rely on the fact they have more power and that they don't actually possess many skills for racing or carrying speed in general. I.e. they don't really know how to "drive" drive lol. 

 

Example, you can work out where in the gear the most torque is delivered and once you know that, you can start adapting your driving and learn to time your gears to optimise how much speed you can carry through turns. In traffic, make sure to leave plenty of space between you and the cars in front, so whilst they're doing basic people traffic things, you can be thinking two steps ahead and planning how to carry speed through the corner. As long as you leave a gap, it will allow you time to think. It takes a lot of practice but once you nail it people will think you're in a much faster car when in reality you've got zero power lol. 

 

When "driving" driving, I can keep up with most people in 2l cars in this car no problem, just except in straight lines. I can often be quicker than a lot of cars simply because this chassis is actually incredible. You can really point it and have confidence with it. You can seriously carry speed in a safe way in this car partly because of how small it is. You essentially have more road to play with in this car and so you can carry a lot of speed through corners assuming you know how take the "racing line" so to speak. I'm exaggerating a bit, you don't need to pretend be Lewis Hamilton, but just optimising your gears, perfecting throttle and steering application, timing it all right, turning off your AC.. you can seriously carry some speed in this car!

 

Most of the more powerful cars tend to be a bit bigger so on a typical British road, they tend to be limited in how much speed they can safely carry through corners. This is their major weakness and so if it were a timed lap, you probably could do it faster as long as the lap didn't have a lot of straights, or assuming the rules were you had to stick to no more than 70mph lol. This car isn't really doing more than 90mph anyway. You'd have a hard time getting past 70mph on the average B road. But you make up the time in the corners basically. All about timing and rhythm in this car and once you work it out, it's actually a really really really good car. I've had 2 bmw 3 series, a 2l Astra, an old 1.9l Audi A4, a Citroen DS3 Sport, and the sporty version of the Clio, and honestly, for pure fun factor, this Fiesta is the best, and maybe the Clio, actually the Clio is the best, or at least the most satisfying on driving on typical UK roads, and it did have quite a bit of power. But it's on par. I actually love mine, hence why I'm thinking about adding more power. In reality, I know it's really not worth it though, I'm defo going to get something else, mainly for the electronics and the comfort, but for a bit more power too. So it's a bit sad because the chassis is the best hatchback chassis in my opinion. The modern hatchbacks are way too heavy and assisted and just don't feel that good imo. Especially the steering. Way too power assisted. I like you can feel the tarmac in this fiesta. It's genuinely great.

 

So anyone reading, I know it's a bummer but stick with the car. I wouldn't bother with mapping, it'll just kill your fuel anyway. It will be completely inefficient at burning the fuel and you'll feel barely any results. You could find a way to add more power but honestly, in relative terms, the most speed you can get from this car is by changing how you drive it imo. Learn about racing driving techniques and always leave space if there's a car in front! It's a safe thing to do anyway but literally, give yourself as much visibility as possible and learn to time stuff, be okay with lifting off the throttle, compromising speed to ultimately gain it back later, etc. 

We’ll said, you can’t beat experience. And sometimes people don’t want to listen to experience and you have to let them make their own mistakes. And after years of experience , you then add in advance driving tuition and learn very quickly that you don’t need lots of power to hustle a well set up and balanced car through the twisties.