Hi there guys,

A first of hopefully many posts. I have wanted to do a road car track day for years and as a huge fan of BTCC back in the day an ST200 seemed like an option. I know they are heavy, untunable, thirsty and blah blah blah but this thread is going to be:

Can I buy and track an ST200 for £2000?

I have never done a road car track day, bought a car off eBay, done anything major mechanically etc. I have had a few ok cars, had a few remaps and that but I want this to be a if I can do it you can do it type thread.

I want a car I can strip out, learn about and thrash.

1st Goal is an amateur track day at Oulton park on the 12th August 2014. I will record spend in this post and update as I go. I hope it's of use to others. Constructive criticism and advice more than welcome.

 

After a few weeks hunting eBay I won this for £640

 

Looks like a tidy car for the money!

Looking forward to the updates

 

Cool car. I love these ST200s. A member on here called Fiddy knows his bit about Mondeos. Mind you I down now cause I did most of the work on his cars lol


I would try and baffle the sump on it matey cause if you go round a few harsh bends you might get oil starvation and nack the engines. These engines suffer from ticking which normaly turns out to be the head gaskets. The water pumps have plastic impellers and sometimes they snap. You can replace them with metal impeller water pumps.

Your mondy would look mint looking like a touring car.

 

I have the technical knowledge, you have the mechanical lol


Be keeping my eye on this thread/build mate

 

Looks lovely some mighty nice bargains about atm.

 

Love ST200s, but I'm biased.
From my experiance of my similar ST24, I got good power gains from K+N cone filter, some peeps worry about heat soak, but I fitted couple cold air feeds and had no issues.

Also, I removed main cat, before MOTs got bit picky, and got more gains and car still passed MOT emissions, as this V6 also has 2 pre-cats as well.
Those 2 mods gave good bhp gains for very little money.

Also, if you are going to track it, I would look into a front strut brace, I fitted one and afterwards it cornered like it on rails and squeaks and groans from the suspension disappeared.

Also, check your springs, I had a front spring break, common on these, and considering what you intend do with it and cars age.

Also, check your imrc box is working, they sit under plastic cover at front engine and the electronics get fried due to the heat, they open secondaries at about 3500rpm. You can relocate these to under battery tray quite easily, again worth doing if your tracking it.

Also, think about maybe taking the UIM off and giving it a decoke/clean, they can get quite dirty depending on use/mileage. Also while UIM is off just check the wiring loom that runs through there as some peeps had problems with that, again due to the heat.

As said water impellors can be an issue, but think they were mainly early black plastic impellors, my 2000 ST24 had a cream coloured impellor, so you maybe fine, but I changed mine for metal one as they are cheap.

Good luck with your new car, only real problem with the ST200 was the colour!!! lol, so I went for ST24 instead, but both great cars.

 

Interesting defo not a car i would have picked but be good to see how got get on. Ive had a ST24 and a ST220 enjoyed them both but they always seemed so heavy

 

These are the type of build i like most.built on a budget track cars.i had a similar plan of tracking a st170 for £1500 but i got so addicted i blew past that budget mark a long time ago lol. look forward to seeing more work

 

I put fiddys imrc on the side of the battery tray. There was defo a more noticable gain in power.

 

Great car!

I loved mine, had it five years too, and beat quite a few cars in it as the Mondeo ST200 is another under estimated car.

Will follow this!

 

Loved the one I had. I had a k&n cone filter and a blueflame cat back exhaust on and it sounded awesome. Also had a bluefin remap but not worth the money IMO. Deffo relocate the imrc box. Only thing that would put me off is the cost and effort of replacing the clutch as it will take a hammering on track. Also uprate the brakes before you track it!! The standard ones are the same as the 2.0 and they are deadly they just don't stop the car!! St170 discs and mk3 mondeo callipers and pads are the easy cheap upgrade

 

I tracked mine a few times when I had it, they do roll a bit lol



Blew the gear box out of it at Santa Pod too lol

But I did love it.

 

Bloody hell the tyres are nearly off the rims lol.

 

didnt notice till you said. bout 5mm rim to track lol

 

Remember taking one out for a test drive after id PDi'd it , loved it . Felt noticeably quicker than the ST24's .

 

Yeah sas proper giving it beans that day, nearly drive the tyres off of it lol

 

Is that classed as driven properly.

 

I wonder if the ST200 become a collectable car. They are cheap as chips to buy.

 

Driven properly.

 

Fit a st220 sump mate its baffled and it bolts straight on no messing