S'funny how these things appeared to be everywhere at one time, and until today, it seemed aeons since I saw a Mark 1 Ford Ka on the road. The one I saw today was in silver and this was an excellent contrast with the unpainted front and rear bumpers of the original design.

I remember using one of these for a week in 1996 when my then Audi was being repaired. The handling of the Ka was a revelation (courtesy of Richard Parry-Jones) and even with its 4-speed gearbox and aged 1.3 OHV engine, it was 'fun', in the old-school meaning of the word.

The Ka I saw today looked to be in remarkable condition, given the model's reputation for corrosion, and it got me to thinking what a great piece of design the car was. Incredibly - at least to me - the mark 1 Ka is almost 20 years old, and it still looks as fresh today as when it first appeared.

By all accounts, the Ka's success was a surprise to Ford, and it stayed in production until 2008.

I always thought the 3 door Ka with the Puma's 1.7 litre engine had the potential to be a great vehicle.




Compared to the majority of today's heinous small car offerings, the Ka is still quite special to look at - little wonder it was so well received when compared to its 1996 competitors...











... although at the time, I would very likely have had a mk 1 Panda in preference to a Ka; they were, and still are über-cool!

 

IIRC, Jackie Stewart always rated the Ka's handing. Its "wheels at each corner" stance is a good starting point, of course ...

 

Ford were funding his F1 team at the time, so any such comments should be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

True, but he's a Scottish legend and so whatever he says, goes ...

 

Except saying 'No!' to further cosmetic surgery for his wife...

 

It was ruined by a really notchy gearbox. In fact so was the fezza and puma. They were super notchy too with a long throw.
We loved our silver S reg 1.7 Puma though, it was tremendous fun. And such a cutie, like the Ka. The whole chassis thing Ford has had going over the last 20 years needs mentioning - since the demise of the ordinary Escort it all got better for the blue oval. Fords have got ugly now.
Whereas GM were playing catchup for years with their understeering saloons, tacky hatchbacks and sombre interiors. And yet their cars look perhaps a wee bit better on the eye. Astra VXR looks like their best looking thing for years (and finally now it handles properly).
I've no doubt that Ford could do a really weird thing - ditch the "new new" shape Ka; go back to the old shape - it would still sell. Or just make a final comeback edition with a sparkler of an engine in it.

 

I thought the engines , drive trains and general chassis was all based pretty much on the Fiesta / Bobcat bin of bits.

The engines were all fairly old and basically the the Valenica 4 , 950 and 1100, 3 bearing crank push rod engine, until such time as the new small hi tech engine turned up( name escapes me )

 

Best fun since my mini Cooper late '60s. Except you could eat motorways without skeleton destruction.

 

It was a Duratec IIRC.

And the Ka was essentially a re-bodied MK4 Fiesta.

The later SportKa had a 1.6 Duratec - but not either of the Puma's 1.7 litre 125 or 155 BHP engines alas.

I test drove a colleague's Puma and it is was fun, but interestingly on our test route (which had a fearsome adverse camber sweeping corner) he couldn't keep up with me in my A170 cdi. A sorted chassis lost out to gigabytes of gizmology...

 

I seem to remember Tiff driving one a Puma on the telly and scaring the pants of his passengers as he laughed and commented it was a fantastic chassis