Arguably the hottest prospect coming out of Ford in recent years, the Ford Puma is vastly becoming a staple in the Ford repertoire of award-winning and beloved hatchbacks/SUVs. Already picking up multiple ‘WhatCar?’ awards, the Puma and variants are kicking up a storm with the standard Puma being named Small SUV and the Puma ST being named Sports SUV of 2021. With the accolades comes prosperity and growth, especially with Ford unveiling Puma Rally1 to be their rally car of choice of the World Rally Championships (WRC) paving a way as a new-era challenger being an exciting hybrid following suit of modern racing such as Formula 1 (F1).

The Puma ST Gold Edition is the first of its kind from Ford and an industry first with each colour on the car being voted and selected by Ford fans via social media. With the use of Twitter and Instagram 275,000 Ford fans voted and selected bespoke details to create this glamorous limited edition Puma. The votes were cast on: exterior paint colour, decals and badging, wheel colour, interior stitching colour and brake calliper colour leading to this Black and Gold Puma resembling the legendary Lotus F1 team of years gone by.

Mechanically it is the same as the Puma ST that is currently on sale, using the 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine. With 197ps (bhp) being delivered via front-wheel drive it is expertly controlled by a six-speed manual gearbox allowing it to sprint to 60mph in only 6.7 seconds, which for a small performance SUV is very impressive. Having taken some of its racing pedigree and under the bonnet design from the Ford Fiesta ST the Puma actually boasts a faster 0-60mph time with the Fiesta ST getting to that speed 0.2 seconds slower.

On a quick comparison the Puma ST is technically similar to the Fiesta ST with the chassis being largely based on the Fiesta and sharing the same suspension and rear axle. The dimensions of the small SUV compared to the hatchback also bring changes with the Puma having a 70mm wider body, an extra 95mm wheelbase and increased track widths of 27mm compared to the Fiesta, bringing it into the Small SUV category. With the iconic Recaro bucket seats in Fords performance vehicles the driving position is similar to most performance Fords such as the Fiesta ST and the Focus ST and ST-line.

Amko Leenarts, Ford’s design director has said “To create something truly special for our loyal performance fans, we’ve moved to a forward-looking approach in co-creating the Puma ST Gold Edition with them, the number of votes cast shows just how enthusiastic our customers are – and that they have excellent taste.” This is not the first time Ford has actually taken opinions from ‘outsiders’ to produce a car as they asked gamers from Team Fordzilla (Ford’s E-Sport team) to concept a racing car which a 1:1 scale model was created as a concept idea, but unlike the Puma ST this car doesn’t drive and is not for sale.

Deliveries will commence towards the end of this year with orders being taken soon you can register your interest at: https://www.ford.co.uk/shop/research/keep-me-informed . But with a limited number being produced, getting your hands on one will be a tough task.