Healey Fiesta: the XR2 precursor that never was

By Paul Hardiman

| 15 Jan 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Healey Fiesta: the XR2 precursor that never was

Although its subtly flared wheelarches and white-letter radial tyres make this Ford Fiesta look like something from a late-1970s cover of Custom Car magazine, it’s real and it’s here.

It was a harbinger of the way ahead, predating Ford’s own XR2, and one of the first hot hatches following Volkswagen’s quiet introduction of the Golf GTI in June 1976.

It’s also the last car to bear the Healey name.

Black paint on the Healey Fiesta’s instrument cluster renders most of the warning lights invisible

Let’s have some historical perspective.

It’s 1977. Production of the troubled Jensen-Healey is mercifully over, and Donald Mitchell Healey wants something else for Healey Automobile Consultants to do.

No doubt hoping to repeat the royalties arrangement he had with BMC for the Austin-Healey 100 and Sprite, Healey is amenable to a similar collaborative deal.

Ford has recently launched the new Fiesta, its first transverse-engined small hatchback, or ‘supermini’ as the industry got its tongue around a new sector, under neat lines by Tom Tjaarda (then at Ghia).

The Healey Fiesta’s 13in wheels wear 205/60 tyres

Only trouble is, it has modest performance due to little (in the UK) or strangled (US and Japan) engines.

Detroit-based marketing man Gary Kohs is convinced that Ford needs to offer a fast Fiesta, and that the Healeys are the men to develop it.

Ford, looking to boost Fiesta sales, agrees.

As an Escort RS 2000 owner, ‘DMH’ would have been able to see the potential.

Healey’s touch builds on the already-competent Fiesta chassis to deliver safe and predictable fun

Luckily, it transpired that the Cologne-built US version packed the larger, 1598cc crossflow version of the five-bearing Kent engine (the lesser ‘950’, although actually 957cc, and 1117cc ‘1100’ versions had the three-bearing Valencia engine).

Kohs procured one and shipped it over to Warwick, in white and complete with its dealer-applied speed stripes.

The first task appeared to be to find out whether 6x13in Minilite wheels would fit.

For the motor, rather than simply raid the Burton catalogue for go-faster bits, Healey sent the lump to Broadspeed, which ditched the air pump and carried out all the usual tweaks familiar to its Escort Mexico customers – porting, cam, carburetion and a 10.1:1 compression ratio via high-compression pistons.

The Healey Fiesta’s 1598cc Kent crossflow engine was breathed on by Broadspeed to make c105bhp

A Weber 32/36DGAV carb replaced the Federal 32DFT and its weedy 22mm chokes.

Geoff Healey saw 80bhp at the wheels at 5500rpm, and estimated a flywheel best of 105-110bhp at 6250rpm.

In classic twin-choke GT spec, as found in Cortina 1600Es and the Escort Mexico/Sport – and the subsequent Fiesta XR2 – the 1600 makes a reliable 84bhp at 5500rpm and 92lb ft at 3500, but in original Federal form it produced just 66bhp.

Even with the increased prod, the Healeys felt it was too highly geared.

Geoff wrote: ‘With the large tyres, the [3.58:1] Federal ratio was very much over-geared, giving 4590rpm at 100mph.’

A Cologne-built US version of the Ford Fiesta was transported to Healey’s Warwick workshop in the UK

Today that would be thought normal or even under-geared, but it was changed for a 4.29:1 crownwheel and pinion from the 950 Fiesta, giving 18.2mph per 1000rpm in top.

Suspension changes were minimal. The layout remains the same, with MacPherson struts at the front using the anti-roll bar and track-control arm to form a lower ‘wishbone’, à la Escort, and a simple dead beam at the rear located by trailing arms and a Panhard rod, although an anti-roll bar has also been added.

According to a document by Geoff Healey written in May 1978, there are Koni adjustable struts at the front and dampers at the rear, and the springs are ‘special’ – which likely means trimmed a little in length.

‘A Kent sounds like a Kent, be it in a Cortina or a Caterham: a tappety, hollow bark with an overlay of induction roar, projecting short-oval thrills on a low-rent ticket’

To differentiate it from the stock car, and no doubt boost the racy appeal, the wheelarches were flared in steel, by hands unknown, to cover the 205/60x13in rubber – that’s 2.8i Capri size, up from the standard 12in.

A steel spoiler grew from the front and square Carello lights replaced the round originals, with Hella spotlights cut into the grille.

Inside, a rear rollcage was bolted in, and the redundant back seat was simply boxed in – this was a show car, remember.

To fill the space, the spare wheel is bolted down, Sprite-style, on the rear bed, held in place by a rather ostentatious capstan-style spinner.

The Healey Fiesta’s spare wheel nestles under the rollcage

Wolfrace seats, a black-rimmed Moto-Lita wheel and additional Kamei centre console (remember its once all-pervasive bodykits?) are pure ’70s, and there’s some minor sleight of hand with black paint on the instrument cluster, rendering most of the warning lights invisible.

Supplementary dials look after the volts and oil pressure. So far, so predictable.

The big surprise when you sit in it is that, although this was a new departure, it’s unmistakably ’70s Ford in feel, componentry and the way it drives.

The pedals could be from a rear-drive Escort, only far more cranked in this left-hand-drive version, and it has the same steering-wheel offset thanks to the column’s skewed orientation.

The Healey Fiesta’s black-rimmed Moto-Lita steering wheel is very ’70s

You know something is off because one hand is closer than the other, but it takes a while to work it out.

And when you fire it up, well, a Kent sounds like a Kent whether it’s in a Cortina or a Caterham: all tappety, hollow bark with a slight overlay of induction roar, projecting short-oval thrills on a low-rent ticket.

The first Ford Fiesta was always a competent handler, much better than the all-grown-up ‘Erika’ Mk3 Escort that followed in 1981 with its at first unhappy independent rear suspension, and Healey’s small mods only enhance that – although, to be fair, the biggest improvement probably comes from the fatter rubber, ancient though it is.

It turns in well and feels entirely predictable over surface ripples.

The Healey Fiesta’s steel spoiler, square Carello headlights and Hella spotlamps mark it out as something special

There’s not much torquesteer and, while it will scrabble its inside front wheel in roundabouts, it’s not too sensitive to a mid-corner lift.

The gearchange is long-throw and vague from second to third, but with the short gearing you mostly use third and top.

Easy to drive relatively fast, it’s great, unchallenging fun and doesn’t get flustered. All of that underlines how competent the original package was.

The brakes look scarily standard, with small single-piston calipers clasping solid 8.7in discs and not even a servo to help.

The Healey Fiesta’s Kamei centre console

The rears remain the standard – and tiny – 7x1.2in drums.

Pedal pressures are higher than we’re used to today (not if you’ve just stepped out of a Mk1 or Mk2 Escort), but they do a better job than you expect, having only 853kg (1880lb), plus occupants, to retard.

Only the hilariously frantic gearing really dates the car, which may have been to enhance acceleration and flexibility to impress during evaluation, and would surely have been raised had the Healey Fiesta ever made it to market.

We needed c3000rpm in top for 50mph.

‘Road & Track got 108mph at an indicated 6000rpm and 0-60mph in 9.6 secs – not so far behind the original 1588cc Golf GTI’

Road & Track got 108mph at an indicated 6000rpm (max power is 6200rpm) and 0-60mph in 9.6 secs, with a 17.4 secs standing-quarter time at 79mph – so not far behind that original 1588cc Golf GTI.

Usefully, it pulled more lateral g on the handling pad than a VW Scirocco, and the magazine described it as ‘a joy to drive’ and ‘faster, more fun and still quite functional’ compared with the standard car, which did 0-60 in 11.5 secs and an 18.2 secs standing quarter.

Where has it been all those years since? Hiding under our noses for the past decade.

The Healey Fiesta’s wheelarches were flared in steel to cover the wide tyres

Once finished, it was shipped back to the USA for the 1979 show season, but with the Healey grille badge replaced by Ford’s Blue Oval.

Sadly, no photos of it at those shows have been found, but there is one of the contemporary Tuareg – a Matra Rancho Fiesta equivalent, developed by Ghia – at the 1979 Chicago show.

After being driven for the Road & Track test (in August 1979) it was put into storage in Dearborn.

It couldn’t be road-registered in the USA because it wouldn’t pass emissions testing, and after three years of poor sales Ford was planning to discontinue the Fiesta there, so it was sold to Healey collector Bill Wood.

‘The first Ford Fiesta was always a competent handler, and Healey’s small modifications only enhance that’

Having changed hands twice more it arrived at the Healey Museum in Vreeland, The Netherlands, where it remained on display until it was offered – almost unnoticed – at Bonhams’ 2014 Beaulieu sale, with an estimate of £10-15,000.

It didn’t sell there, but Healey restorer Warren Kennedy later made the owner a cheeky offer, enabling him to neatly bookend his collection: he also has the first Elliott saloon, so until he sells this one, he has the unique distinction of owning the first and last Healeys.

The Fiesta was refreshingly unmolested, with fewer than 7000 miles on the clock.

“Apart from the paint, which we refreshed, it’s just as it was,” Warren says. “I’ve put about 1000 miles on it.”

This unique Ford Fiesta spent time in the Dutch Healey Museum before finding a new owner after failing to sell with Bonhams. It remains in pleasingly original condition today

As well as being a historical artefact, this is an appealing little package, and although there’s nothing to document what Healey might have sold them for, it’s unlikely it would have been cheap given the work involved and the Healey name to uphold.

And that’s before you account for DMH’s royalties.

Perhaps, like the Costello MGB V8s and the Pinto-engined Superspeed Escorts before, it was too good to ignore: in 1981 Ford, having tested the market with the 1300 Supersport, launched the XR2, which did everything this car did, using the same hardware – but cheaper.

Major manufacturer 1, niche British sports-car handbuilder 0.

The evil forces of reality bite, and big commerce wins again.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Classicmobilia

Healey Fiesta: between fantasy and reality

Gary Kohs, via his Marketing Corporation of America, and working mainly for Ford and Volkswagen, had grander plans for the faster Fiesta than just big wheels and a hot engine.

He commissioned former Ford stylist Harry Wykes to provide renderings of his vision of what an upmarket version might look like.

Wykes, who was then head designer at the Brubaker Group (remember the Brubaker Box minivan?), enhanced the neat hatchback’s pronounced swage line into a widened lower half, highlighted by two-tone paint – presumably hoping there would be budget for a bodykit to cover the wider wheels – and in the process tried to better integrate the Federal bumpers using a scooped frontal treatment that housed extra lights.

Interestingly, his sketches don’t show massive wheels shod with fashionable rubber-band low-profile tyres, instead sticking with the standard diameter, but he did envisage the full rollcage.

The winged Healey badge has been restored in place of the Blue Oval

When the Ford reached the Healeys at Barford, none of Wykes’ work translated into reality, and instead the car received the standard tuner’s modifications of flared wheelarches – possibly achieved by beating and stretching the original metal – and an extended front spoiler, also fashioned from steel.

That wasn’t the end of the possible Healey/Ford collaboration, though.

Kohs felt Ford’s larger hatch would benefit from similar treatment, and in 1981 had Wykes sketch a slicker, snortier version of the US Escort, his vision looking more like a Holden Commodore racer of the period than a gawky hatchback with awkward camber angles.

One car was built in-house by Ford, looking nothing like Wykes’ sleek sketches but finished in the same green as the Fiesta, with a tentative agreement to use the Healey name.

It appeared at various shows in 1982 and 1983, but Ford decided not to go ahead with production.

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