GTP Cool Wall: 1981-1983 Ford Fiesta XR2

  • Thread starter Thread starter White & Nerdy
  • 130 comments
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1981-1983 Ford Fiesta XR2

  • Total voters
    117
  • Poll closed .
:yuck:

Seriously Uncool...

NEXT PLEASE!!!! :sick:
 
Unlike most all of the hot hatches of today, I find 70s and 80s hot hatches extremely cool. And a few 90s ones past the test too (Clio Williams I'm looking at you).

But yeah, cool little car, it's so 80s I want to get born again.
 
Even though its quite a bit quicker and probably a lot more fun than the average car of the era at first glance it still screamed econobox to me. Therefore I voted uncool due to my shallow first impression of the car, after further reading and realization of the cars fun factor it should have probably been a Meh.
 
I gave it a solid cool. It's a classic fast ford and a decent looking hot hatchback; hot hatchbacks are usually cool.
 
Soda01
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Looks pretty similar to me.
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?

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I don't see it. The Fiesta combines styling cues from the Mark I and Mark II Escorts pretty neatly, and the jaunty sweep of the greenhouse is a lot less boring than on the VW. (Let's face it... iconic though the GTi is, it wasn't really a very pretty car.

Unless we're saying that Volkswagen invented the hatchback shape...

Slash
Boring to look at, underwhelming power figures, probably crappy handling, ugly configuration, typically rust buckets, eh just nothing cool about this car for me. Just look at it. Nothing cool. Plus its a rip off car. Nothing is more uncool than that. Seriously uncool.
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At least you got the rust part right...

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Torn. On one hand, it's a Fast Ford that's kind of neat in that chintzy way neat things from the 80's are. And it's old enough that the idiots will have moved on to something newer and faster. The only people holding on to these nowadays will be people who really want one. That's cool.

On the other hand, it's not a Golf GTI.

Still... it's a Fast Ford.

But it's still not a Golf GTI.

Which means it'll never be more than cool.

Can't bring myself to vote lower than that. How can you vote "meh" on anything with pepperpot alloys and tacked-on fender flares? :lol:
 
homeforsummer
And that is why you're such a hideously bad judge of coolness. An inability to separate something you like from something that's cool.
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You shouldn't have to.
 
niky
?

DSC01184.jpg

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That's definitely not the same Ford shown at the start of this thread.
One is a hatch and this is not.

Another thing I'm still on the fence about is the "fast" part... I know Famine came up with some modern equivalence system to say the Fiesta would do 0-60 in 4.1 seconds but I still can't look at a car doing 60 in 10 seconds and get worked up (no matter how old it is). And for that matter I can't look at the hypothetical system saying it would be doing 60 in 4.1 seconds and get excited either, I'm sort of surprised a statement like that would even be taken seriously with a group of people who are so scientific and realistic in other areas of the GTP. :indiff:
Kinda makes me wonder what would happen with the same math on a bunch of other cars (like white&nerdy's sunbird).

Fact is, fast as it is, the Fiesta managed to grow up and make it to the 21st century and it isn't doing 60 in less than 5 seconds.
New-Ford-Fiesta-ST-13-plate.jpg
 
... meaning that the current Fiesta is proportionally slower than the Mk1. Which was the point - the Mk1 was closer in performance to the V8 Ferrari of the day than the current car is to the current V8 Ferrari. It was a quick little box and the current one is less so. And while you reach a point of diminishing returns with FWD, you reach one a hell of a lot sooner with outright acceleration (unless you stop using pneumatic tyres and driven wheels).

0-60mph times of 10s might not rustle your jimmies in 2014, but in 1981 it qualified as performance car territory. The XR2 was a fast Ford. Which was my point:
Kent
Not sure why people are calling this a fast Ford- it wasnt fast in any way.
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It may not be now, but it certainly was.


Also I drove that car and it gave me whiplash due to the appalling suspension and seats.
 
Hey, it's just how I see things :lol:
 
Slash
You shouldn't have to.
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Thank you for proving his point.

Kent
That's definitely not the same Ford shown at the start of this thread.
One is a hatch and this is not.
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You don't say?

His point was that the front end of the XR2 resembles that of the Mk II Escort more than the Golf. And that the Fiesta's lines have more in common with the Escort's. Except the saloon rear has been lopped off.
 
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Kent
That's definitely not the same Ford shown at the start of this thread.
One is a hatch and this is not.
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It's to point out the design history of the XR2.

CLF175.poster.jpg

Fiesta XR2

The Fiesta obviously takes a lot of cues from the Mark 2 Escort:
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...general shape (except for the lack of a trunk), greenhouse shape, rounded fenders, grille, lights, proportions of such, etcetera...

...mixed with a little homage to the Mark 1 grille:
1199px-Ford_Escort_MKI%2C_ca_1972%2C_Schaffen_Diest_Fly-Drive_2013.JPG


...seen in the jaunty dip of the hoodline between the headlights.

Not really seeing how it's a rip-off of the Golf GTi, which is an altogether more ungainly design (still an icon, though).

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Regarding speed... outside of America... a 0-60 mph time of under ten seconds at that time was pretty fast. Especially from a car that small.

To put it into perspective... though Famine already has, I think the new Fiesta is simply too big and too upmarket to compare to the old one... that would be like a Chevrolet Spark or a Mitsubishi Mirage doing 0-60 in about seven seconds... and not sucking around corners, while they're at it. Which ain't never happening, nohow. At least not with a stock car.
 
Noob616
I like watching professional gaming competitions. Therefore it is cool.

See how stupid that sounds?
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Just because I like something does not mean it is or isn't cool.

I like Chevy Vegas. They aren't cool cars to me.

I like Mustangs. Those are cool cars to me.
 
Slash
Just because I like something does not mean it is or isn't cool.

I like Chevy Vegas. They aren't cool cars to me.

I like Mustangs. Those are cool cars to me.
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That's exactly what they were saying Slash, you can't always say a car is cool because you like it. That's not what the cool wall is for.
 
I'm not saying every car is cool because I like it!

There are several cars I like that I won't vote cool.

I love the 288 GTO. It's not a cool car.
 
It depends on the car. I'll admit though that sometimes I do vote that way.
 
Noob616
I like watching professional gaming competitions and building computers. Therefore it is cool.
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I like listening to music which intentionally tries to sound as unpleasant as possible. Therefore that is cool.

I like an anime where a woman in her 30s tries and fails to seduce a 14 year old boy after her boyfriend dies.* Therefore she is cool.

I like to shove socks into the bra I'm wearing to make it look like I have absurdly large breasts. Therefore that is cool.

This is fun.






*This makes a lot more sense in context.
 
Roger the Horse
This is not a like wall.
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99% of my votes on here are only for if I like the car or not. :lol:


Also, Sub Zero because '80s hot hatch.
 
I don't understand how anyone can justify this as being a 'rip off car' or an 'instant SU'.

It's a Fiesta. 7 generations of this car have been built over the past 33 years and it is still being made today. That sounds pretty cool to me. People are just casting their votes based on the 'boring' appearance because they've never seen it before and don't really know anything about it apart from what it looks like.

Never judge a book by it's cover.
 
It's a hot hatch and that's instantly cool. Ok so the car is slow by todays standards but, it's still a fun car to drive and it's probably got more of a sense of speed at our speed limits than the new Fiesta.
 
JAHHAJ
it's probably got more of a sense of speed at our speed limits than the new Fiesta.
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Because you are closer to death in this one, should something go wrong.......

Seriously though, I voted "Meh", because I did miss the part that the voting was for the "XR2" model, and I didn't know there was such thing(thanks Cody). I'd go "Cool" with the facts I now have on this car.

P.S. Heated arguments on Cool Wall philosophy's so lame. Just go with it & @Slash, you gotta learn to stop digging the hole deeper & deeper. Don't shoot me, but quit while you're behind!

:p
 
Like the car BUT, resembles the golf way to much. Seriously uncool.
 
Roger the Horse
I like listening to music which intentionally tries to sound as unpleasant as possible. Therefore that is cool.

I like an anime where a woman in her 30s tries and fails to seduce a 14 year old boy after her boyfriend dies.* Therefore she is cool.

I like to shove socks into the bra I'm wearing to make it look like I have absurdly large breasts. Therefore that is cool.

This is fun.

*This makes a lot more sense in context.
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I'd like to know who you're buying from, they clearly have that good 🤬.
 
0-60 times are a stupid way to judge a hot hatch anyway. They're not about racing from lights to lights, they're for blasting down a twisty B-road. They have suspension tuned for keeping up momentum around a series of corners and they're light, or were light - the XR2 weighed only 850kgs - 100kgs less than a S2 Elise. As long as they've got enough 'squirt' to link the corners together. Thats where the fun is found from driving hot hatch.
 
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