Ford SPORTKA
Jonathan Crouch Gets To Grips With Fords Sportka
Why it took
Ford so long to make a sporty Ka is anyones guess. Fitting this city runabout with a more powerful motor was such an obvious step that for seven years, it passed the Blue Ovals product planners by.
That we have the Sportka at all is down to the success of the convertible Streetka, a little roadster so heavy that a new 95bhp 1.6-litre was needed to power it. At the same time, Ford marketers were becoming increasingly concerned that 80% of conventional Ka sales were to women. Taking the more powerful engine and installing it in a Ka with more macho appeal was at last an opportunity too blatant to ignore.
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Quite a few warm hatches lie in this sector of the market, priced at around the £10,000 mark occupied by this
Ford: Toyotas Yaris SR, Vauxhalls Corsa SXi, Peugeots 106 Quiksilver and the entry-level
MG ZR 105 are all well established names but none make much impact in terms of overall sales. Ford hope that the SportKa will challenge Citroens sporty C2 models for the top spot. Sportka sits on a modified Ka chassis that has been tuned for sharper steering and handling dynamics. The suspension has been lowered and stiffened with improved toe and camber control, backed up by more powerful brakes and revised steering for pin-sharp response.
Power comes from a relatively low-tech eight-valve 1.6-litre engine which makes up for a slight deficit in outright power with a healthy 135 Nm slug of torque for strong pulling power through the gears.
"A fun addition to Fords motoring family"
This is a welcome feature in a segment where many of the cars have to be revved off the clock every time you want to extract some decent performance. A close-ratio five-speed gearbox enables you to get the best from it. Sixty from rest occupies 9.7s on the way to a maximum of 107mph.
Yet at the same time, you should be able to achieve close to 40mpg in normal use. Visually, its a Ka and Streetka mix. Sportka shares the roadsters bespoke headlamp units and body-coloured front bumpers with integrated headlamps. At the rear, its much the same story, the spoiler on the tailgate blending in to a wrap-around rear bumper with a centrally positioned rear reversing light and two rear reflectors.
There are flared wheelarches, lowered ride height and six-spoke 16-inch alloy wheels shod with low profile tyres. Inside, there are sports seats trimmed in a keyed fabric with leather as an option. Doors and dashboard are finished in ebony black, while the instrument cluster features black dials with white, backlit numerals. Jewel-like touches of aluminium are dotted around the cabin.
The gear lever is topped with the aluminium ball that Puma owners will remember (great in summer but freezing to the touch in winter). The oval centre dash clock is framed with aluminium and the arms of the leather-bound steering wheel are braceletted with aluminium bands. The SE model adds leather seats, air conditioning and powered heated mirrors. Enough of this: whats it like to drive? Well, if youre familiar with the basic Ka, you wont be surprised to learn that Sportka is very enjoyable through the twisty stuff. Perhaps more of a shock is just how much more feisty this car feels than a Streetka equipped with exactly the same engine. Better aerodynamics and a 120kg weight advantage clearly make all the difference, a fact reflected in a rest to sixty time thats 1.5s better.
Compared with similarly priced hot-hatch offerings, the Sportka might struggle initially to impress the hotshoe merchants: it doesnt instantly feel so impressively fast as some and there isnt the temptation to be constantly hurling it at the scenery. For this reason, you wont see many Sportka enthusiasts at Max Power-style tuning shows up and down the land. Quite simply, its a more mature kind of car. Dont mistake more mature as being another way of saying slow however.
The Sportkas ride is supple, mid-range power is impressive, its well built and very refined. Against that, larger supermini-based cars are more spacious: if you intend to travel more than two-up very often and need more than a very basic level of luggage space, this could be a key consideration. Despite the lack of overall space, packaging remains a Ka strongpoint. You wouldn't believe the amount of oddment space and front legroom that the designers have crammed into the tiny cabin. The sheer size restrictions of a car 267mm shorter than the already compact Fiesta had to catch up with them somewhere however, and weve just suggested, the sacrifices have mainly been made around the two sculpted seats in the rear. Still, you can't have everything. Ka buyers will almost certainly have another, larger car anyway. If thats the case, then a Sportka could well be a fun addition to your motoring family. As fun for the fashion-conscious, theres a long overdue place for it in Fords product line-up.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Ford Sportka
PRICES: £10,295-£11,295 on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 7
CO2 EMISSIONS: 182g/km
PERFORMANCE: Max Speed 108mph / 0-60mph 9.7s
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (urban) 27.2mpg / (extra urban) 47.1mpg / (combined) 37.2mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Drivers airbag
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height, 3650/1640/1436mm
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