The Ford Mondeo ST200 Is My Own Little Touring Car Legend

Fast Fords are climbing quickly value, so I've bought this cheap performance saloon as my first automotive investment
The Ford Mondeo ST200 Is My Own Little Touring Car Legend

Everyone interested in buying cars these days is forever looking for the next ‘future classic’, scouring the market for limited-run performance cars that seem like a decent investment instead of cash just sitting in the bank. Cars with ties to motorsport have gone especially crazy; Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo IIs, E30 BMW M3s and Ford Sierra Cosworths have all blasted towards six figures in no time at all. So to get my car collecting off the ground, I decided that the fast Ford route was the safest bet. And here it is.

Quite the handsome devil
Quite the handsome devil

This is my 2000 Ford Mondeo ST200. It cost me just £1000, it has a 2.5-litre V6 with 200bhp and it sits nicer than just about any performance saloon I’ve ever seen. Why so cheap I hear you say? Well, this specimen – painted in stunning Ford RS Blue – happens to have completed a massive 142,000 miles since the start of the Millennium. That’s a lot.

I see the ST200 as a student-budget homologation special however, considering the massive success that the Supertouring car of the time had on the BTCC circuit. After some tinkering from motorsport legends Prodrive, the V6 was coaxed up to 305bhp. Couple that with the talented chassis engineers at Ford during that time and you have a seriously capable performance saloon that managed a whitewash 1-2-3 finish in the 2000 season.

Having seen one such car racing around Knockhill in Scotland at a Supertouring tribute event, I immediately fell in love. That high-revving V6 was combined with a pea-shooter exhaust to emit a soundtrack akin to a miniature V12 F1 car. I just had to have a piece of that action.

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And here I am, in the ownership of the Duratec beast that the touring car was based upon. But my car has a way to go before it can even think about setting foot on a track. The clutch is teetering on the edge of failure; the friction plate feels as thin as CT COO Gabor’s chances of buying an S2000 again. The gearbox itself feels as rounded and well-used as my grandmother’s butter knife and the brakes are in dire need of being tended to, screaming for new pads in the run-up to every corner.

For the money however, you really can’t do much better. The 60-degree V6 stuffed under the bonnet is the smoothest powertrain I’ve ever experienced – Ford really knew how to balance an engine back in the day.

A Mondeo touring car from the 2000 season sold recently at auction for over £100,000
A Mondeo touring car from the 2000 season sold recently at auction for…

Despite the high mileage, the engine is the centrepiece for the Mondeo thanks to a full rebuild at 100,000 miles. And considering two of these engines (bored out to 3.0-litres) were welded together to make every Aston Martin V12 from the Vanquish up until the DB11, there is a definite hint of that wailing V12 howl when you get the ST200 past 5000rpm. £1000 for half an Aston V12? That’ll do nicely.

The ST200 is proving to be an entertaining companion on the local Scottish A-roads
The ST200 is proving to be an entertaining companion on the local Scottish…

200bhp through the front wheels always feels enough and it’s a nice break from my rear-wheel drive Mazda MX-5 daily, allowing me to explore the characteristics of both setups. 0-60mph takes around 7.7 seconds and it’ll crack 151mph. It will light up its front tyres easily enough (especially considering the Scottish weather) and torque steer can become an issue when you ask too much of the front wheels.

But get the gearing right, keep the engine spinning above its 4500rpm sweet spot, and the Mondeo is a massively capable thing on the country roads up here, despite the bus-driver steering wheel that points more towards the roof than my chest (like a Delta Integrale, now that I think of it).

The ST can be thrown into corners, compressing the stiffened sport suspension with complete composure while the steering loads up progressively in a manner that simply oozes motorsport. Tearing down my favourite local roads, I feel as if I should be nipping at the back end of liveried Volvo S40s and diving down the inside of Honda Accords under braking like the racing heroes nearly two decades ago

The Ford Mondeo ST200 Is My Own Little Touring Car Legend

It’s impressive how Ford managed to make the docile Mondeo saloon look so menacing. It sits beautifully on its stiffened suspension, with 17-inch wheels crammed up into the arches to create an aggressive stance respected by all petrolheads that walk past with knowing nods. This wondrously low stock suspension shows just how talented the engineers were at setting up the car; not once have the tyres scrubbed or caught the arches, showing the precision of calibration at hand.

The Mondeo sits so flat on the road, all it needs is a rear wing and an engine tweak and I'll feel like a true racing driver
The Mondeo sits so flat on the road, all it needs is a rear wing and an…

In a world where most petrolheads lean towards BMW for a bargain performance saloon, the motorsport-derived ST200 is a welcome and interesting break from the onslaught of Germanic straight sixes.

With only 500 UK cars left on the road, I reckon I’ve made a decent call for once in my automotive life. And with prices of Ford Racing Pumas already on the up from the exact same era of manufacture, I’ll be holding onto this six-cylinder racing legend as my own little investment. She may be a bit long in the leg, but this touring car for the road has plenty of adventures left in her.

If you want to see more of the Mondeo - the trips I’ll be taking it on and any possible modifications - hop over to my instagram!

Photography by Space and Silence Photography.

Comments

iCypher(Joel Chan)

Oh, the savagery about the Friction Plate and the Gabor’s chance of buying another S2000. Oh man.

12/26/2016 - 10:05 |
72 | 0
Anonymous

NICE CAR BRO AND nice honest article liked it very Mich

12/26/2016 - 10:07 |
8 | 0
Michael Fernie

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Thanks!

12/26/2016 - 12:28 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

Much

12/26/2016 - 10:07 |
0 | 0
Jubair Ahmed

So u can say, its an afFORDable car then

12/26/2016 - 10:25 |
10 | 0
12/26/2016 - 18:21 |
2 | 0
LeloCro

Toca WTC memories

12/26/2016 - 11:06 |
0 | 0
Skyy

Wow, thanks for showing me this bargain! In Germany you can get these for under 800 pounds!

12/26/2016 - 11:34 |
12 | 0
Skyy

In reply to by Skyy

Too bad I am not able to affort insurance and taxes :(

12/26/2016 - 11:44 |
8 | 0
Anonymous

My mom had one of these, I was driven home from the hospital in it when I was born.

12/26/2016 - 11:50 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

Be nice if my future classic would rise in value lol

12/26/2016 - 11:52 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

Is the interior any different to the base model? I was looking at one of these but I was just to tall and found seeing anything other than straight ahead quite difficult.

12/26/2016 - 12:10 |
0 | 0
Michael Fernie

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

The main difference is a fill set of leather Recaros, possibly the nicest seats I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in!

12/26/2016 - 12:27 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

The seats are recaros with fairly beefy bolsters- they came in either half or full leather. I drive my other half’s 200 on a regular basis and find it comfortable and I am 6ft 2” and on the cuddly side lol

There is a third option too, if you buy the limited edition saloon which are the ones with the commemorative plate on the centre console with the build number out of 300 (more than 300 were built in the end though, some didn’t come with the plate), the full leather recaro seats have a blue centre section and also some trim like the speedo surround and centre console are finished in a blue marble effect.

If I could get them to fit, I would put the seats in my ST170 estate, they are that good :)

07/09/2017 - 01:34 |
0 | 0
Austin98

Love the touring cars, have seen the mondeos a few times at historic racing weekends, they sound awsome!

12/26/2016 - 13:10 |
2 | 0

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