FORD RACING PUMA

TIME CAN TREAT HEROES UNKINDLY.

- WORDS: OLLIE MARRIAGE

THE great grow old, the powerful fade, the mighty fall. Then there’s the Ford Racing Puma. It was a hero to me 25 years ago, and driving it again... well, this is the zingiest thing I’ve driven in years. That’s the word that defines the FRP. It’s a hardtop, high-rise Caterham. It drives like Mentos in Coke, so full of fizz it can’t contain itself. If it was a dog it would be a Jack Russell.

So of course, it was a borderline failure. The regular Puma (basically a Fiesta coupe with a 1.7-litre engine), on sale since 1997, had been a rip-roaring success. So when Ford showed a Puma ST160 concept at the Geneva Motor Show in 1999, great things were expected. Within a few months it appeared things had been watered down – the Racing Puma that went into production didn’t even have the promised 160bhp of the concept.