The iconic Ford Fiesta small car has inspired a wide variety of quirky concept vehicles during 40 years of production.

Since the first Ford Fiesta was assembled in May 1976 more than 17 million of the iconic small car have been built for customers worldwide. The Fiesta also inspired a number of unique concept cars during this time.

Whether designed to offer a glimpse of the future, to gauge the public’s reaction to fresh ideas or simply to stretch the designers’ creative muscles, Fiesta-based concept cars clearly showed the versatility and innovative spirit of Europe’s favourite small car.

Development of the Fiesta began in 1972 under the codename Bobcat. A variety of concepts were created during the development process by Ford design studios in Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, to explore different options for Ford’s new and revolutionary small car.

Fiesta Rallye conceptFiesta Rallye concept

Ford listened to feedback from small-car customers across Europe to create a final design for the Fiesta that featured design elements from many of the Bobcat concepts and prototype vehicles.

One of the earlier concepts that Fiesta inspired was the Ghia Corrida, which was introduced at the Turin Motor Show, Italy, in November 1976. It featured gullwing doors, a modular dashboard and clever features like electronic headlamp flaps for better aerodynamics. The idea of a two-door sports coupe based on the Fiesta was realised 20 years later with the introduction of the Ford Puma. Electronic headlamp flaps were a pre-cursor to aero-technology like Ford’s active grille shutter available on Ford vehicles today.

One of the latest concepts was the Fiesta ST Concept, developed in 2011. The production Fiesta ST went on sale the following year and became the class-leading compact hot hatchback, with 182 PS and 6.9 second 0-100km/h acceleration.

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