Tuesday 7th January 2014

Rickard Rydell's BTCC Mondeo to be sold

Last of the Super Touring BTCC racers heads to auction

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The Super Touring years really were a glory age for the BTCC, weren't they? Loads of factory-backed teams, great cars, close racing and some amazing drivers made for an enthralling spectacle. With new regulations in 2001, the days of big-bucks touring car teams were over in Britain. It was more accessible for teams, but something had been lost.

Mondeo has been with current owner since '06

The last car to win a Super Touring BTCC was the V6 Ford Mondeo in 2000, developed with Prodrive and a reputed £12m budget from Ford. A 1-2-3 in the championship was a fitting way to bow out of touring cars.

This Mondeo was Rickard Rydell's car for the 2000 season, and is being auctioned at Race Retro in February by Silverstone Auctions. It has been owned by its current owner since 2006 and competed in the past four seasons of a historic touring car championship. The Mondeo is eligible for the new HSCC Touring Car championship also.

Best of all, it's ready to race. The Mondeo has been maintained meticulously and comes with a comprehensive set of Works spares including a new engine. With c.300hp from an normally aspirated 2.0-litre V6, a fresh engine can't come cheap.

The Mondeo goes to auction with an estimate of £100,000-£120,000. Prodrive only built four cars for the 2000 season; one was written off, the Menu championship-winning car is in the Prodrive museum and the Reid car is owned by a Ford collector. A rare opportunity then.

And if you're wondering what all the fuss is about with Mondeo touring cars, see this video. What a noise!

 

[simonigrale]

Yes please !!!

Although if I were in the market for a Super Tourer it would have to be an Alfa.

Be nice to see someone buy it and race it in the HSCC Super Touring Trophy.

[simonigrale]

I got a massive bking on here once about saying the current BTCC is boring so be careful

[simonigrale]

Alot of performance saloons from the 90s were either turned into max power tt chariots or have rotted away. Nice to see standard cars from that era or ones with sensible mods.

[simonigrale]

Liquid Knight said:

My old 155 was a BTCC replica and did a sterling job of rusting where the body kit was screwed on. I took the kit off to discover the car was originally blue not red, stripped the whole lot back sold the body kit and Compomotive five spoke wheels, painted the car the correct colour, fitted the original wheels and sold her for three times what I originally paid. Roughly broke even on the restoration. I miss that car.

According to the chap I sold the car to she won best in show at an Italian car gathering and he sold her on for twice what he paid to someone from Germany where the car still lives to this day.

This was mine!

[simonigrale]

Saw that car at the Gold Cup but it didn't race on the Bank Holiday Monday though

[simonigrale]

SonicHedgeHog said:

Chris Eyre said:

Emeye said:

Cars that still resembled what you could buy

If the current rule makers would kindly pay attention to this stand-out point, that'd be grand

Spot on. Watching that makes me want a Vauxhall Vectra and everyone knows how crap they are. Off to the classifieds. Again.

[simonigrale]

This is my current project. A 155 V6 owned new by my father. The car has had one owner since and not driven since 2003....

We haven't really started the project fully yet but would like to have it complete by the end of the year.

Anyone interested can read the story here.

http://alfa155.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4...

http://alfa155.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=...

[simonigrale]

Silverstone Classic is a good one. Missed it last year and went to the Gold Cup instead.

The classic is the one though. More people seem to enter that one than any of the other races.

[simonigrale]

jds32 said:

Im finding all this stuff about the engineering and little tricks they used really fascinating. Especially as i am studying automotive engineering and going to train to be a scrutineer hopefully this year.

Really enjoying reading all this

Are these supertourers quicker or as quick as the ngtc cars we have today ?

I would guess the Super Tourers would be quicker but circuits have changed and the people running the Super Tourers today aren't running with factory budgets and most are amature drivers.

So you would be comparing an old race car with an amature driver against a factory run modern car with a top driver.

I could be wrong as I'm no expert.

[simonigrale]

Chris Eyre said:

Krikkit said:

The idea is to drive down costs, as much as possible, from the fear that the series was dying. Once you share parts amongst the team, and the tooling is paid for, it's a much cheaper system.

Curious then why 'BTCC' marked brake calipers are priced at a substantial premium from the models they are based on. And the rest.

NGTC is a pack reshuffle, necessary in all forms of motorsport once in a while. Unfortunately there are those having their slice along the way

Also notice how the previously noisy PR men - who would stress that what they learned from racing would go back into the road cars - are now curiously silent on this line.

Whilst Supertouring evolved further and further from the road cars, NGTC from the outset has nothing whatsoever to do with the cars they ape. Anyone that remembers 'Eurocars' (steel tub chassis, clothed with Mondeo skins) will see the similarity, the only difference being not positioned in the premium racing category...

Remember watching Tiff Needell on Top Gear Motorsport racing a Eurocar on the Silverstone Club Circuit. Going anti clockwise i think.

[simonigrale]

loudlashadjuster said:

Chris Eyre said:

Super-tetchy Alfa at Snetterton in the mickey-take 1994 season ! Go near the engine with a camera and - BANG!

Why, I'm sure that looks just like any other 155 under the bonnet! /s

But judging by all the other cheating that went on a couple of extended splitters surely wasnt the reason they won. Top driver, big budget... Plus they only ran with the rear wing extended for 3 rounds and the splitter for 11 rounds. They still won races afterwards and were always front runners even when BMW and Renault added their packages.

And yes I am biased towards the 155