'Project Bobcat' was the start of Ford's campaign to enter the Supermini market. Having taken a long hard look at the BMC Mini, and reputedly stripping one and calculating that BMC must lose £20 on each car, Ford took their time to build a car smaller than the Escort. One concept was called the 'Cheetah' and was a cut-down rear wheel drive Escort, but the clinics wanted a front wheel drive car and so 'Bobcat' proceeded. Three separate design teams competed, with Jack Telnack at Dunton, and Uwe Bahnsen in Germany and Ghia's own Tom Tjaarda contributing to the final design with appears to have been based on the Tjaarda version. The go ahead was given for the Bobcat in 1973, and Henry Ford II had already got agreement to build a new Ford plant in Valencia, Spain, which would be used for most Fiesta production. A new version of the ohv Kent engine was developed for the front wheel drive Fiesta and called the 'Valencia' engine, available in 957cc, 1117cc, 1298cc and 1597cc versions. 'Fiesta' was chosen by Henry Ford II even though he had to persuade General Motors to release the name. During 1976 the Fiesta was launched although there were no RHD cars until 1977. A Federal version of the Fiesta went on sale in North America in 1977 with a catalysed 1597cc engine - mainly to offset the larger American cars and give Ford a better fuel profile. In 1978 the European Fiestas were given additional Fiesta S and Fiesta Ghia models powered by a 1298cc Crossflow engine. In 1981 the XR2 model was launched with the 1598cc engine mated to a Weber to give 84bhp. The MkII Fiesta was launched in 1983, with new lamps and grille and a body that was slightly wider and slightly longer. The MkII Fiesta was replaced by the MkIII Fiesta in 1989, by which time total Fiesta production had topped 4.9 million cars.