M-Sport has confirmed that production of its Fiesta Rally2, Rally3 and Rally4 models will continue despite the Fiesta being pulled from European sale in 2023.
Although M-Sport’s leading World Rally Championship challenger is now based on the Puma crossover, the supermini-style Fiesta is the platform used for all of its lower class cars.
At the end of October, Ford announced that it would be retiring the Fiesta from sale next year as it looks ahead to an electrified company future, which raised questions as to how that would affect M-Sport’s operations.
But in a statement released on Tuesday, managing director Malcolm Wilson confirmed that the Fiesta will continue to be used for “years to come”.
“The Fiesta is a core part of M-Sport’s business activities and has been behind a lot of the company’s success in the past two decades,” said Wilson.
“Thanks to our long and storied partnership with Ford, we were able to begin preparing for the end of the Fiesta’s production well ahead of time. I would like to assure all of our customers that we will still be building Fiesta rally cars for years to come, both in the UK and Poland.
“The Fiesta was the very first customer focused car M-Sport developed and I think 2000 overall victories speaks for itself. Development is underway across the board with our Fiesta based cars as well, with the Fiesta Rally2, Rally3 and Rally4 currently enjoying thorough development programs.
“I’d like to personally thank Ford for their support over the years with the Fiesta. Ford and the Fiesta allowed M-Sport to grow as a business with its customer programs which Ford trusted us with and continues to do so.”
Ford Performance director Mark Rushbrook added that “Ford Performance will continue supporting M-Sport with its various development programs for Fiesta based rally cars”.
“Ford Performance has proudly supported M-Sport with all of its Fiesta based programs from the very beginning and we have enjoyed incredible success together,” said Rushbrook.
“We want this success to continue.”
