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Ford Fiesta XR2 Cars

When Ford Fiesta 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 Ford 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, Ford 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.

The name Ford Fiesta belonged to General Motors at the time; however, it was freely given for Ford to use on their new B-class car. After years of speculation by the motoring press about Ford's new car, it was subject to a succession of carefully crafted press leaks from the end of 1975. A Ford Fiesta was on display at the Le Mans 24 Hour Race in June 1976, and the car was launched and on sale in France and Germany in September 1976: to the frustration of UK dealerships righthand drive versions only began to appear in the UK in January 1977.