I was standing with Chris Hayes in a misting parking lot. He jingled keys to a horribly fast Ford Fiesta ST. Roman and I dodged every sadistic problem that the greater L.A. Region could throw at me, and here was a bearded night owl daring me to give L.A. traffic one last chance to bend me over a chair.
I didn’t want to drive this car. I just wanted to be cuddled in the brass and phony LAX Hilton; let the airport shuttle ferry me back to the concrete holding cell that is Los Angles International Airport. Get me back to calm, green Pennsylvania.
But not quite yet. We had to do it one more time. Drive again. Open up to the night and all of its SoCal mysteries.
Hayes’ Fiesta ST makes 230 horsepower thanks to Mountune. The Fiesta has full chassis bracing, coil-overs, Hotchkis sway bars, and powerflex bushings, but the car is still using the teeny-weenie stock turbo. The stock turbo on the Fiesta ST isn’t bad, it’s just small. That means it comes on fast.
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