My brother has one. Nice car, it only has 90bhp but I think it's something like 170ftlbs of torque. Not that fast in first or second gear from a standing start (same as pretty much all diesels) but once it gets going it's pretty fast point to point and alot of fun. Really good handling and brakes. I think it's actually rated as being faster than the petrol one point to point and is alot more desirable than the petrol zetec-s and even the st due to being not much slower, the posibilty to do 70mpg and the fact that it only costs £50 to tax it for a year as it's one of the new breed of diesels.

I have no idea about tuning as my brothers is completely standard but it's a good fun nippy little car