Fiesta's 40th birthday bash | Car Talk - Car News Jul 2016

11:47 Tuesday 19 Jul 2016

A spectacular convoy of Ford Fiestas has marked the 40th birthday of the ever-popular model.

Fiestas from the past four decades made up the first forty participants of an all-Ford run from the company’s Dagenham Engine Plant to the Ford Summer Festival at Brighton Race Course.

Since Fiesta production commenced in Valencia, Spain, in 1976, the model has proved to be a consistent smash hit for the blue oval brand. In total, Ford has sold 4,339,149 Fiestas in the UK alone, resulting in the model becoming this country’s best-selling car of all time when it overtook the Ford Escort in 2014. It has been the UK’s most popular new car every month for the past seven years, and in its four decades over one in every 20 cars sold in the UK has been a Ford Fiesta.

All eras were represented, from the early Mk1’s to the current MkVII’s, highlighting the advances the model has benefitted from over the years. The latest Fiesta boasts air-conditioning, electric windows, Easy Fuel, electrically-operated and heated door mirrors and power-assisted steering amongst its standard equipment list, while engine options include the latest multi-award winning 1.0-litre EcoBoost power plant.

Ford of Britain chairman and managing director, Andy Barratt, said, “The opportunity to have these wonderful heritage vehicles lined up next to our latest Fiestas, such as the ST200, is very rare and was fully appreciated by the Ford fans that made the 69-mile journey down to the festival.”