After sourcing a suitable donor ST, in this
case a 2002 model year example, Dennis spent eight or nine months driving it in
standard form and on a few trackdays, just to make sure that he’d made the
right decision, before finally committing to stripping it out and preparing it
for the Trackday Trophy in September last year.
“We took all the seats and interior out and
removed all the sound deadening,” he said. “The seats weighed an absolute
tonne, especially the rear ones, but once these were out and the interior was
prepped, we looked at fitting the roll cage. We didn’t want to use an
offthe-shelf item, so ended up designing one to our own specification and this
was then built by a company called Quest Motorsport.”
MTX75
with optimised ratios, custom final drive, custom plate style Gripper diff,
custom 7.25” race clutch, single mass flywheel, custom gearbox mounts.
The side windows were removed in favour of
plexiglass items, but the front and rear screens remain as standard, partly as
Dennis wanted to retain the de-mist functionality, but also because he reckons
the rigidity of the rear glass actually helps the air flow over the rear wing.
“There’s quite a bit of aero on the Mondeo
and it does actually work,” he said. “The wing doesn’t give huge amounts of
downforce obviously, but it does help with stability especially when combined
with the front and rear diffuser and some of the aerodynamics we have on the underneath.
Put it like this, we tried it without the wing and I ran out of lock at Paddock
at Brands Hatch!”
From
here you can see all of the Indie Circuit and have a great view of one of the
best corners in the world, Paddock Hill Bend. Other seats in this grandstand
have great views but the pit buildings in the middle of the track block some of
the views of the Cooper Straight and the entrance of Surtees.
While the rest of the components of the
Mondeo seem, on the face of it at least, relatively standard, this is where
Dennis’s experience in preparing professional racing cars starts to shine
through. There’s the neat aero touches we’ve already mentioned, but every area
has been expertly tweaked within the confines of the rules and regs in order to
get the most out of the ST’s potential. The engine, for example, has a unique
intake and exhaust to Dennis’ own design and also incorporates the same Syvecs
S6 ECU that featured on his Escort Cossie.
“The ECU is superb and monitors everything
including the fluids, temperatures, oil pressure and even the gearbox
temperatures,” he said. “It even looks after the remote oil reservoir
(Accusump) that’s under the bonnet, so in the event of surge, it automatically
provides additional oil to protect the engine. We had a problem with surge at
one point, so it’s already saved one engine from being scrapped.”
Road
legal digital dash display for road, racing and vehicle testing applications, which
can be used either as a standalone dash unit or connected to a Race Technology data
logging system.
The Syvecs is also connected to the Race
Technology Dash2 Pro data logger, which flashes up all kinds of information to
the driver, including live lap timing, and there are also a series of buttons
mounted on the OMP steering wheel (which are wireless and connected via
Bluetooth) that allow control of functions such as the wipers, pit lane
limiter, pit to car radio and more besides. It might have been built for a
budget formula, but the level of tech that’s in this Mondeo is up there with
current British Touring Cars!
