Ford says no to high-performance SUV

Two of the most tantalising potential performance cars that Ford could build right now don't seem to have much of a chance of ever entering production.

Global chief engineer of Ford Performance, Jamal Hameedi, spoke to Drive this week and rejected the idea that the brand would bother with either a pocket-rocket Fiesta RS or a high-performance version of a Ford SUV.

On the surface, both concepts should hold water, but Mr Hameedi more or less dismissed both ideas.

Of the Fiesta RS concept, Mr Hameedi said he believed the business case would be a difficult one to construct.

"We've talked about it (a Fiesta RS) a lot, and there's a debate on whether it would have a lot of customers," Mr Hameedi said.

Mr Hameedi confirmed that while some Ford Performance models still had a regional focus, new products had to be conceived with a global market front of mind.

"Certainly the hard-core guys would go for it, and it would work in Europe. But we've now prioritised projects that we think would have a more global reach."

The other concept that would seem to be waiting for the green light is a performance version of a Ford SUV.

"We're having that conversation, too," Mr Hameedi said.

But as a motorsport enthusiast and engineer, Mr Hameedi said he believed the innate traits of an SUV and the aims of a performance vehicle were somewhat at odds.

"Personally, I'm leaning toward the purists' side; there are other projects I would rather do."

SUV drivers looking for a bit more driver involvement, not to mention other brands which have already taken up the hot-SUV challenge, would probably disagree.

But it seems the best we can hope for is a watered-down SUV with some performance aspirations.

"I think there's probably a market for an ST (rather than RS) cross-over," Mr Hameedi conceded.