Editor’s Note: No, we won’t be getting the new Ford Fiesta ST in the United States. But a car this hot deserves attention on a global scale, and we know you readers enjoy a tasty bit of Forbidden Fruit as much as we do. Enjoy this First Drive from the Motor1.com UK team, and try not to get drool all over your keyboard.

It’s a two-fold concern, the new Fiesta ST. Firstly, because its predecessor was outrageously brilliant. It was proof, no less, that modern, turbocharged hot hatches could be affordable, easy to live with, and wickedly brilliant to drive regardless of how mundane the conditions might be. It was on the sort of level that only older, naturally aspirated hatches had achieved in recent decades.

Secondly, because this poor journo was (and still is, in fact) so convinced by the simple, infectious fun of the previous-gen Fiesta ST, that she declared it a modern Peugeot 205 GTi. And, frankly, where do you go from there if this all-new, three-cylinder, 198-horsepower Fiesta ST manages to better it? Well, dear reader, we’re about to find out.

Update:

Actually, Ford Fiesta RS Is Not Happening

First Impressions

Let’s start with the engine. The turbocharged 1.5-liter three-pot manages 198 hp and an impressive 214 pound-feet of torque all the way from 1600-4000 rpm, which’ll see the Fiesta ST to 62 miles per hour in a scrappy 6.5 seconds. More than that, this engine will shut off one of the three cylinders when it deems it unnecessary to make it usefully efficient.

Othe...