15 Mar 02
The Mondeo ST220 kind of happened by accident, it seems. During development of the standard car, Ford's engineers needed to test its gearbox to the limit, and decided to do it by bolting a meaty 3.0 V6 engine into a prototype and giving it an extreme workout. It seems they sorted out the transmission, but discovered something else, too - that a powerful V6 Mondeo was rather a fine thing, even if its suspension didn't quite work as they would have liked. After some pondering, product development chief Martin Leach and his team decided that they'd like to put the car into production, complete with properly developed front suspension. And so we have the ST220.
Now much of the car enthusiast nation has been longing for some new hot Fords, but a rapid Mondeo hasn't been top of their lists. True, this machine is a descendent of the dramatic Sierra Cosworth, but most were hoping instead for a rapid Focus - which we've got, with the ST170 - and a replacement for the dainty little Puma. But we've got the Mondeo as well which might be a big, practical family saloon - not the sexiest of sporting wheels - but this fast family Ford is a damn fine drive, and pretty sophisticated to boot.
