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Car of the Day : May 13, 2013; Pilen '77 Ford Fiesta
Topic Started: May 13 2013, 12:25 AM (747 Views)
Dean-o-mite
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Muscle Car

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Today's car of the day is Pilen's 1977 Ford Fiesta.


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Wikipedia
 
The Ford Fiesta is a front-wheel-drive subcompact car manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company. The Fiesta was originally developed under the project name "Bobcat" (later to be used on a badge engineered version of the Ford Pinto called the Mercury Bobcat) and approved for development by Henry Ford II in September 1972.



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For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Ford Fiesta


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Pilen (of Spain) made this cool diecast car. Although some here will raise an eyebrow to the green glass, I like this one a lot. It is a heavy little car, with the interior being made of metal, as part of the base. The haphazardly applied silver headlights are factory original from Pilen.


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Wikipedia
 
Mechanically, the Ford Fiesta followed tradition, with an end-on four-speed Manual transmission of the Ford BC-Series mounted to a new version of the Ford Kent OHV engine, dubbed "Valencia" after the brand new Spanish factory in Almussafes, Valencia, developed especially to produce the new car. Ford's plants in Dagenham, England, and Saarlouis and Cologne (from 1979) in Germany, also manufactured Fiestas. To cut costs and speed up the research and development, many modified Kent engines destined for the Fiesta were tested in Fiat 127s - at the time considered the benchmark car in the class, with which the Fiesta shares styling similarities. This also allowed covert road testing across Europe. Although not the first Ford vehicle to feature front-wheel drive (the 1960s Taunus produced by Ford of Germany laid claim to that title), the Fiesta is widely credited as being Ford's first globally successful front-wheel-drive model.


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Wikipedia
 
When Ford of Europe began to design the car, the design proposals were named Iris, Beta, The Deutschlander (from Ford's Cologne studios), Mini-Mite, and the Blue Car (from Ghia). Codenames for the Fiesta prototype included Torino, but it became Project Bobcat. The shortlisted names for the new car designed by the project Bobcat team (headed by Mr Trevor Erskine) were Amigo, Bambi, Bebe, Bravo, Bolero, Cherie, Tempo, Chico, Fiesta, Forito, Metro, Pony and Sierra. Despite more board votes for "Bravo", Henry Ford II personally overruled them and named the car "Fiesta". Several of the shortlisted names were later used on other cars, including "Sierra", which was introduced on the Cortina replacement in 1982, and Tempo which was used on a Ford small car in the United States market. Ironically the "Metro" nameplate was introduced by rival manufacturer British Leyland for the similar-sized Austin Metro in 1980.



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mentalpower
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Compact
ĦBravo! That's a really nice Ford Fiesta by Pilen! Mine is not in such mint condition... Congratulations!
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pjedsel
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Muscle Car
:toy: It is good to see a Pilen model up for COTD. The Fiesta is a nice model from them - like so many of that era even had opening doors. :D I have a Spanish police version of this one.
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Dean-o-mite
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Muscle Car
My Pilen story goes like this:
I went from having none, to having about 25 (I don't remember the exact number), in one purchase. A friend of mine found an old cardboard store display full of boxed Pilen models, for sale in Hong Kong. Only a few were duplicates, but the whole thing was being sold as a set. The price was something like $100 or $150, which seemed like a lot for my smaller budget back then (probably 15 years ago now). The set was filled with various schemes on the Fiesta, Chrysler 150, Seat Wagon, and a couple of other vehicles mixed in (Range Rover, Porsche racer car), but my most wanted Pilen casting was not included - the Ford Torino (which, incidentally, is the only other Pilen to be featured as Car Of The Day - from Dave Weber's collection, back on March 23, 2009).
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JeepXJLover
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Minivan
I saw a red with yellow tape stripes down the side 78ish Fiesta the other day. It was really, really nice. Sadly no photos as it was going the other way. The 78 generation of Fiesta is far better looking in my opinion and probably far more economic that the current Fiesta which except for its gapping grille looks like every other econobox out there. I guess the same could be said for the old Fiestas they had a lot of similarities with other econo cars at the time, but to me were and are far more interesting and eye pleasing.
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Stampede
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Team Canada
This is very cool! Looks to be in amazing shape!
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NoirGuru
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The All Original Gentleman
This is why I collect diecast.

Beautiful example!
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craftymore
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Support your local demo derby.

I've not seen any models where the interior and metal base were one in the same. Sweet feature. I've got an early favorite to vote for. We'll see if you can change my mind Dean. :thumbup:
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ivantt
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New casting? Quick! Take it apart!
Dean-O-mite
May 13 2013, 01:57 PM
My Pilen story goes like this:
I went from having none, to having about 25 (I don't remember the exact number), in one purchase. A friend of mine found an old cardboard store display full of boxed Pilen models, for sale in Hong Kong. Only a few were duplicates, but the whole thing was being sold as a set. The price was something like $100 or $150, which seemed like a lot for my smaller budget back then (probably 15 years ago now). The set was filled with various schemes on the Fiesta, Chrysler 150, Seat Wagon, and a couple of other vehicles mixed in (Range Rover, Porsche racer car), but my most wanted Pilen casting was not included - the Ford Torino (which, incidentally, is the only other Pilen to be featured as Car Of The Day - from Dave Weber's collection, back on March 23, 2009).
I like this story and information! :thumbup:
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JustDavid
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SUV
Cute CoTD! As I've said, I really like the everyday cars. /adds one to the want-list/
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Stampede
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Team Canada
Hong Kong is a great place to get diecast. My dad (who's also a collector) told me of a street that has lots of stores selling diecast. I can't wait to go next year!
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Sak
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Ezekiel 25:17
I found this, and the blue Chrysler 180, at the Columbus Farmer's Market ten years ago. Three bucks each.

I absolutely love 'em.
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