Finaly went for a spin against my mate in his Swift, I have driven his swift and very impressed, very good value for money, lots of extras,ESP,Goodyear eagles and 124bhp with low insurance rating, handles as good as ST. Only faults I found were, feedback through steering a bit light and woolly and a gearbox that feels as though it's already done 80,000miles and a need to rev it in every gear to make progress.

Anyway here's our rough test results done in different gears and speeds and my excuse at the bottom !

1st gear, ST opens a gap but can't increase it even when into 2nd Swift was coming back
2nd gear from a slow roll, ST opens a gap but can't increase it same as above
3rd through to 4th, through to 5th each flat out, even match
4th @70mph ST pulls away strongly, opens gap but can't increase it
5th @70mph ST pulls away strongly, opens gap but can't increase it


all done in safety, mainly on motorway and quiet A roads

we were going cycling for the day and I was carrying my bike, large kit bag and I carry a heavyish car tool bag with me, my mate's bike was already at our destination and he carried little else, he is about a stone heavier than me. All in all I had a heavier load, so how much difference could this make, I hope it did as I would have thought I could have had him easily in any gear, we will try again without weight sometime to find out.

Hehe, like you say it's mot necessarily a completely fair test but then I don't think it would make that much difference if you hadn't had your bike, it would be milliseconds difference!

There's not a lot of difference in the 0 - 60 times but the ST does have a lot more torque so it makes sense you pull away, but like you say it won't keep pulling, it's just not up to leaving the swift for dust. Maybe get a flexi and a k&n and it will pull away a little easier, end of the day you won't fly away unless you're in an M3 or something!

Agreed with JJ... you're not going to fly away from much tbh... more about edging when you only have 0-80 to play with or what ever.

On a track... the swift wouldn't even come close.

the swift is fast but its lighter than the ST and like u say u always have to revs it hard to get the power and from what I heard the gearbox as a very short ratio therefore very noisy on motorway drive

yep it is a noisy cabin on motorway at speed in the swift, I need that 165 upgrade, come on Ford get your act together, I'm in Lancs so if anyone hears any nearby Ford Garages offering it, let me know.
Ooopps forgot to mention I was carrying more petrol too.....is that enough excuses now, bring it on next time like for like.

nice.
in that case I will borrow my brothers STI (last of the old 2.5 ones)

yes santa pod would be great fun! should defo doing it sometime scotty

This summer is already going to be hectic enough.

I will sort something next year, see how the order comes along.

The STi would toast me down a 1/4 mile as it's 4x4 so will give me no chance off the line... I plan on taking it around the track at Silverstone Ford Fair also

Santa Pod is useless though.. A straight line race isnt the ST's strong point, its handling is. A "proper" track is what ya's need! Watching Arun out on the track at Ford Fair & Trax he was rightly mullered by more powerful/lighter/whatever cars but in the corners and twisty bits he was right up em or overtaking.

Driver technique counts for a heck of a lot... my lowly "ST171" was the slowest ST with me driving but when Arun had a pop it beat the "ST185" really quite soundly. In the current Performance Ford however, their 1/4 mile times, 0-60's etc are a teeny tiny bit faster than mine at Brunters against the same car, so it really depends on who you've got driving.

**edit** Oh and the fact you were carrying a sh*t load of stuff too lol

yes think a menber on the site do have one on his car but not to sure and also thats well expensive

had another spin recently without the weight and was much easier to keep up with the swift haven't yet tried specific in-gear situations like we did before.

Did a independant test on this at pumabuild with a 57i kit they both gave the same improvement of 14bhp, so I bought a 57i kit for £90.