Sounds like a good plan. The VRS's are supposed to be very good cars, just a shame they are styled on my Zanussi washing machine.
The ST's are pretty easy to work on, loads of spares available as they share engines with the 2.0 mondeo. Quite a light weight engine as its an aluminuim bottom end and they respond well to a bit of tuning, slap a set of throttle bodies on it and it will totally transform the car!