[LMTech]

Just to follow up on what Reddog99 is saying. You need to be somewhat aggressive and snap the accelerator quickly, which I've always referred to as 'kicking it down'.

This will cause the transmission to automatically go to a lower gear and allow better acceleration. If you apply pressure to the throttle to gradually, it will pump more fuel into the engine, but without downshifting.

You can get away with that on a car with a lot of torque. But the Fiesta's engine, as great as it is, simply doesn't have that kind of power.

I have to agree with Jester as I have been in the same situation and even by kicking it down,stomping on the pedal or whatever you want too call it the trans just doesn't react fast enough compared to a normal auto. I now do the same as jester and turn overdrive off or pull it into low and this seems to help alot.
The only other choice right now is to floor it and be ready when the car does decide to do what you are asking it to do because once it does it does pretty well at picking up speed quickly.
I am hoping that future program updates either from Ford or the aftermarket ,such as the one SCT is working on right now, helps the trans gear selection process under full throttle.