A few days ago, I found myself woefully out of place in a multi-million-pound queue while waiting to enter the grounds of Blenheim Palace for Salon Privé. The cars ahead of me were a mix of Lamborghini Revueltos, Ferrari 488 Pistas and the odd Porsche 911 GT3. I, on the other hand, had brought along my 2005 Ford Fiesta ST, gently roasting inside while the broken air conditioning failed to keep the cabin cool during a late-summer heatwave.
“Hi, I’m clearly not in the same group as them”, I told the impeccably dressed official directing traffic onto the main lawn. “No”, was the answer I got back, along with a look of confusion and mild disapproval. And that’s probably what the supercar owners lined up ahead of me were thinking, too. Little did they know, however, that in just a few hours the roles would be reversed and I’d be judging them in what has become one of the most prestigious concours events in the country.
Oh, the irony. If you’ve been to one our of Sunday Services over the past couple of years, you’ve likely seen my ST parked up next to Ben’s RS3 (or his many previous cars) and, perhaps, thought it looked like it was in need of some TLC. Which it most certainly does. To cut a long story short, I bought my ST back in 2017 as a fun station car for not a lot of money, given that it was fast approaching six-figure-mileage and had a few imperfections (keyed door and wing, scuffs on bumpers, scabby wheels and so on). Most of these I’d planned to rectify in my first year of ownership, before chopping it in for something a bit more sophisticated (I fancied an E92 Alpina B3 at the time) a couple of years later.
Inevitably, life got in the way with a house purchase and wedding ultimately leaving me with just enough to keep on top of the car’s relatively inexpensive servicing and maintenance. It’s on over 130,000 miles now, and despite a handful of blemishes and a few tired components (I’ll get to those in a bit), it’s in fine condition. And that’s one of the reasons that led me to it in the first place: a Renaultsport Clio 182 was similar money seven years ago and would have been the better driver’s car, but the ST was (as is) still huge amount of fun to drive and felt better put together - and that’s hugely important for a completely skint grad.
Anyway, back to Salon Privé. The organisers had kindly invited PH to be on the judging panel for its new-for-2024 Concours Masters event, which was focused less on the nitty gritty (matching numbers, spotless engine bays etc) and more on the subjective stuff (i.e. how much do you want to take it home). So while there was a degree of impostor syndrome - and it did feel a bit rich marking a car down for patches of swirling paint - an exquisite spec or rare colour far outweighed anything as trivial as carbon sills having a few bits of gravel stuck in them.
Most of the cars up for judging were sublime, with an Aston Martin V8 Vantage N430, immaculate Mercedes SLS AMG and a beautifully restored V12 Jaguar E-Type all getting the nod for awards in their respective categories. However, one car stood head and shoulders over the rest: a dark blue One-77 paired with matching diamond cut wheel and a gorgeous midnight blue leather interior. Its owner came over for a chat after we’d finished marking it up, telling me it was one of only seven right-hand drive cars made and that he’d upped the mileage by a factor of ten (400 to 4,000) in his year-and-a-bit of ownership. What a hero. Naturally, he and the Aston were handed top honours.
After a day of decadence poring over multiple millions of pounds worth of supercars, a trip home in a 20-year-old ST, Duratec screaming at 4,000rpm in fifth, will snap you back to reality rather abruptly. In all fairness, I'm not sure if I'd have as much fun driving home in an ultra-limited Aventador SVJ 63 Roadster than I would my scabby Fiesta. I’ve been fortunate enough to drive some incredible cars in the last few years and almost all of them have been more capable than the ST - yet only a few have been genuinely more enjoyable to drive. There’s no traction control in my Ford, the steering is packed full of texture, it sounds magnificent and you have to change gear very manually. Yes, it’s a bit noisy on the A40, but it's a price worth paying for a car that plays the rorty, fun to drive hot hatch so well.
That said, with house and wedding boxes now ticked, I should crack on with sorting it out. The dampers and bushes are knackered, the engine mounts could probably do with being refreshed and the wire mesh around the down pipe has split, causing a buzzing sound when you start it up. Not to mention the numerous scuffs and bits of faded paint that need addressing. It’ll never be a concours car (obviously) but I am finally getting a bit fed up with people saying “It looks great; from a distance."
As for my long-term plans, I’m a bit torn. It’ll soon be retired from daily duty, as I’m on the lookout for something four-door saloony and automatic for my wife to drive (X350 Jag XJR, F30 BMW 335i currently on the shortlist), but whether it remains stock or gets treated to some light upgrades is something I’ve yet to decide. Alternatively, I’ve got a plan for a project car that probably qualifies as a pipe dream at the moment, but one I think the fast Ford lot would be rather keen on. More details in the next update…
FACT SHEET
Car: 2005 Ford Fiesta ST
Run by: Cam Tait
Bought: April 2017
Mileage: 130,000-ish
Last month at a glance: concours judging in the world’s tattiest Fiesta ST
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