The recently launched Ford Figo Aspire turns out to be the fastest diesel car manufactured in India with a 0-100 km/hr timing of 9.72 seconds.
The Ford Figo Aspire which was recently launched generated a lot of appreciation for being a nice and well-rounded package. Now, the compact sedan has one more feather in its cap. The Figo Aspire is the fastest manufactured (not assembled) diesel car in India. We did VBOX tests with the Aspire 1.5 TDCi and concluded that the sedan goes from standstill to 100 km/hr in just 9.72 seconds, which is quite fantastic. In comparison, the Honda Amaze does the same run in 11.82 seconds while the Maruti Swift DZire, Tata Zest and Hyundai Xcent take 13.76, 15.34 and 15.85 seconds respectively.
The Volkswagen Polo GT TDI is also a performance-oriented car but the Figo Aspire is faster than even that, by a very small margin. The GT TDI does 0-100 km/hr in 9.88 seconds according to our VBOX tests. The Hyundai Elite i20 takes 11.94 seconds to complete the same sprint. However, launching the Figo Aspire is a bit tricky since the front wheels spin a lot (due to the lack of turbo lag and strong low-end torque) and most of our runs averaged out at 10.1 seconds while with a clean launch we managed to get this timing of 9.72 seconds.
All our VBOX tests are conducted with the AC switched off, in night (the cool temperature helping) with a light-weight driver (73 kgs), there is no luggage or co-passenger in the car. While the Figo Aspire ticks all the right boxes when it comes to looks, equipment and comfort, the compact sedan also excels in performance and manages to satisfy the enthusiast in you. Ford has also just launched a hatchback version of the vehicle that has gone on sale just last week, we expect it to be marginally faster in the sprint to the ton.
The Ford Figo Aspire is offered with a choice of three engines – two petrol and one diesel. The 1.2-litre petrol engine churns out 88 PS of power and 112 Nm of torque while the 1.5-litre petrol engine belts out 112 PS of power and 136 Nm of torque. The 1.5-litre diesel unit produces 100 PS of power and 215 Nm of torque. The engines are mated to a 5-speed manual transmission while the 1.5-litre petrol engine comes with a 6-speed DCT gearbox.
