Rickard Rydell's BTCC Mondeo to be sold
Last of the Super Touring BTCC racers heads to auction
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!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvebZwmLKU
Brilliant.
The bodies are thin gauge steel (just by tapping the roof or shutting the doors you can tell). Aero not allowed, so they just equipped it with flat bottomed fuel tank, flat rear suspension arms etc - the underside is flat.
When they turned up with triangular exhaust silencers with the flat side continuing the aero theme, they were told to remove them.
They were technical masterpieces also. The right hand wishbone pivots off the engine, the right hand driveshaft runs through the V of the engine.
Ford is rumoured to have spent £10m to win in that season, and there were only 8 cars. It would have been so easy for the rule-makers to be left with just 5....
I was 13 at the time, I bought a ford key ring off the merchandise stand and picked up a handful of free mints with 'mondeo' written on the packet, happy days...
Brilliant.
I've sat in this car - it's maintained by my race team - and it is a stunning piece of engineering. A genuinely incredible machine, and I'm sure it will go for big money - easily busting that reserve.
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