[BTCC] Atford Racing Ford Mondeo (1999 BTCC)

[Mondeo Man33]

I wonder if anyone can help. More out of curiosity than anything else, I'm looking for information on the entry into the 1999 BTCC from Atford Racing, running a Ford Mondeo for Gareth Howell (not the same Gareth Howell who has raced susequently in the BTCC, I believe).

There's virtually no information available anywhere so I was wondering if anybody could shed some light on it. Better still, if any pictures of the car exist that would be wonderful. The car was down on the entry list as number 18, and to my mind I've only ever seen one picture of it which was in an advert a few years ago in one of the Ford magazines.

Any ideas?

[KA]

Originally Posted by Mondeo Man33

I wonder if anyone can help. More out of curiosity than anything else, I'm looking for information on the entry into the 1999 BTCC from Atford Racing, running a Ford Mondeo for Gareth Howell (not the same Gareth Howell who has raced susequently in the BTCC, I believe).

There's virtually no information available anywhere so I was wondering if anybody could shed some light on it. Better still, if any pictures of the car exist that would be wonderful. The car was down on the entry list as number 18, and to my mind I've only ever seen one picture of it which was in an advert a few years ago in one of the Ford magazines.

Any ideas?

That's pretty much all the recollection I have- it appeared in a pic in a few adverts, it might have tested at some point, but certainly never appeared at a race meeting. The adverts might have been for Atford- think they were a Ford tuning and parts specialist, possibly Howell's business?

I've got a very vague memory Howell had announced BTCC plans before that didn't come to pass- a Sierra Sapphire around 1993-ish comes to mind?

[PDS]

Yeh, right there. The Mondeo didn't appear in 1999 although the earlier 1993 Sapphire came out.

I know it did the Snetterton meeting that year as I have a picture of it somewhere, not sure how many other races it did...

[redshoes]

Howell had announced his intention to run a self-built Mondeo several years earlier, maybe as early as 1996. As I recall the car did eventually show up for one of the pre-season tests (in 1999) but was hopelessly off the pace and never seen or heard from again.

[Mondeo Man33]

Thanks for your replies, folks, very much appreciated!

[Sodemo]

I thought Arena (who currently run the Focus' in the BTCC) had something to do with the 1999 Mondeo plan? Perhaps I am mistaken though, my mind isn't what it once was...

[Mondeo Man33]

Arena certainly ran the Silver/Black Laguna of Russel Spence (later Will Hoy) in '99. Who knows, maybe they had some input on the Atford car, especially if it was being built from scratch!

[Tim Wilkinson]

It's pictured in Autosport, May 27th '99. It ran at the Donington and Silverstone official tests that year, and was meant to appear at the Oulton Park race the next weekend, but didn't show.

The car was silver, was indeed number 18, and is "self-built" by Howell.

At Silverstone the car was just outside the 110% qualification cut-off (I assume compared to Aiello's Primera, that was quickest that day).

If anyone wants a scan, PM me your email address. Unless anyone knows Mick Walker, the photographer, and he can let me know I can post it here.

[kmchow]

It's funny--the NATCC back in the heydays, also had a team that self built a Contour (Aka Mondeo in Europe). They actually made it to the races, but were severely underpowered against the other cars. Supposedly, some guys in the Ford SVT dept tried to help out a bit.

[tomroche]

Hi,
I have just bought this car. It is in pieces at the moment but the plan is to build it for the growing hscc championship. Hopefull we can make it quicker than Atford ever did!! 😊
If anyone does know any more info on the car would be very interested to hear.

[AinOZ]

Hi Tomroche, maybe I can help you with some info on this one.

As previously mentioned in this thread a few years ago, the car was built by Atford Ltd, a tuning company which was based in Welwyn Garden City, UK. Gareth Howell owned the company which was genuinely one of the first 'chip tuners' due to the expertise from Gareth's fathers company which was a pioneer of EPROM programming. Atford specialised in tuning YB cosworth engines from the late '80s through the whole '90s.
Gareth had raced in production saloons and group N saloons in the early '90s and the ambitious progression was BTCC.
Atford built a Sierra Sapphire to meet the new regulations of super touring. It was powered by a reduced capacity version of the 2.9 v6 24v cosworth engine and used the intake system from the prosport 3000 cars of the time. I don't know if the car ever ran in competition.

Atford then began developing the mondeo. It was funded entirely by Gareth and his family and was ambitious to say the least, especially considering the level of BTCC competition at the time. Build and development was very slow and the car first ran in 1998 in testing at bruntingthorpe airfield and subsequently at Mallory Park in open testing.
In 1999 Atford entered the BTCC. The car appeared at Silverstone, Donnington and Snetterton test days alongside the other entrants but never raced.

Some details of the car:
Engine was built by Atford with some componentry (such as cylinder heads and intake trumpets) which came from Cosworth. It was a sleeved version of the Mazda V6 which was eligible due to its use in the Ford Probe road cars. It made good power and was regularly on the dyno at DTW engines in Harlow.

The gearbox was a magnesium cased hewland which had previously been used in an Alfa 155 super tourer.

Radiators were fabricated by Atford from cores supplied by Serck Motorsport in Middlesex. They were in a Vee shape to fit into the homologated aero package which Atford purchased from Reynard. It wasn't cheap!

The engine management was originally a Pectel P6 unit.

The suspension arms and subframes were all built in house by Atford. I believe that the uprights and hubs had come from Roger Dowson ( maybe from an earlier Mazda project ?)

The original wheels were made by technomagnesio. There were 20 of them.

The bodywork, and I believe the roll cage fabrication too, was done by a company called Altered Image in Strood.
The polycarbonate rear windscreen was made by Peerless in Norfolk.

Hope some of this is of interest...

[porsche962fan]

so in essence all this effort and cash spend was for nothing if it didn't race

[CM388]

Well, it drove at some point at least. If you google "Gareth Howell Atford BTCC", you'll find the car's entry on the Super Touring Register and the picture of it testing that a previous poster referred to.

Also of note are some old stories on Autosport.com regarding BTCC testing at the time when the car showed up and....well, it was over 20 seconds slower than Laurent Aiello's Nissan at Croft. Admirable effort, but I guess it just shows how competitive (and expensive!) the Super Touring days were!

[CaptRustyNail]

Rather interesting read

Certainly be interested to see it in the HSCC one day along with other SuperTourers.

Sounds like a valiant effort! Maybe 3-4 years too late as Supertourers were at there most advanced and expensive at this time!

Wonder if any more stories like this will materialise!

[BertMk2]

It's one of those interesting projects that you look at and think 'why?'. Building your own Super Tourer from scratch to go up against what were full works teams is brave to the point of foolishness. A privately designed and built entry was never going to be able to compete - the successful privateers were all running works built cars for a reason.

Good to see another car emerging from its hiding place and heading back out onto the circuits though. Are there any pictures of the car as it is now? It'd be good to see progress pictures throughout the rebuild too (don't know why but I like build threads ).

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

It's one of those interesting projects that you look at and think 'why?'. Building your own Super Tourer from scratch to go up against what were full works teams is brave to the point of foolishness. A privately designed and built entry was never going to be able to compete - the successful privateers were all running works built cars for a reason.

You're right and they probably knew it at the time... but motor racing can make us do irrational things some times. I suppose the most striking point about this car is that it was so far off the pace. 20 seconds per lap seems an inordinate delta, I would have thought that's down to more than just development latency.

[mikuni]

Yes, I'm sure it would be setup and tuning related as much as a potential poor design. Especially if the engine was making good power, and the aero was a homologated Reynard design.

I actually think it's great that this sort of thing was done back then. Not only does it illustrate the speed of ST in it's prime, it was also a bit of a suggestion as to what would happen over the next couple of years if costs weren't reined in. If only the governing body were paying attention, there is a chance it could have been saved somewhat.

[tomroche]

Thanks for all the info guys, very interesting!!

Picked the car up today and I am pleased with it, really is a bare shell at the moment with lots of the original parts in boxes.

I hope there is no major reason the car was so far off the pace, the chassis looks very well built. Obviously the driver is a huge factor in lap times, was Gareth competitive in other races series?

With the correct power and suspension set up I am sure we can make it competitive for the hscc series

I will post pics of the car now and it's build on our Facebook page. Just search Blendini Motorsport if you are interested.

Need to decide on the colour scheme, the Rapid Fit blue and yellow or the Nigel Mansel blue?...

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by tomroche

Need to decide on the colour scheme, the Rapid Fit blue and yellow or the Nigel Mansel blue?...

Neither. It's not a ex- Rapid Fit or Mansell car. Embrace the car for what it is and don't try to make it look like something it's not.

If you haven't done so already I'd recommend you speak to Dave Jarman and Jonny Westbrook, who deal with ST series eligibility, before doing too much work. Since the car never actually raced in period they will need to decide what is an acceptable specification to allow the car to race.

[Bramzel]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Neither. It's not a ex- Rapid Fit or Mansell car. Embrace the car for what it is and don't try to make it look like something it's not.

This, 100%

[Craner Curves]

Such an ambitious project for a small team. If Dynamics couldn't pull off their self built 97 car, then this always looked even less likely to be a success. Good luck with the project Tom

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Neither. It's not a ex- Rapid Fit or Mansell car. Embrace the car for what it is and don't try to make it look like something it's not.

I'd go with this too - part of what makes this particular car so interesting is that it is a total one off. Paint it up as a Rapid Fit car and it's 'just another Mondeo' (as much as any of these cars can be 'just' anything ). Putting the 'wrong' colour scheme on the car would in my opinion be a real shame, it's a far betting talking point to keep the car its original colours and highlight the fact that is a one off and isn't a Rapid Fit or Mansell car (and the aero kit would betray its origins anyway). Of course - at the end of the day it's your car now so you can paint it whatever colour you like.

[tomroche]

Thanks for the input guys and I do tend to agree but for two points.
This car was ultimately a failure, never quick enough to race so not sure how much I want to advertise this fact and secondly it was never given an original paint / design and was ugly in the mismatch of colours it tested.
The plan is to get it eligible and competitive for the St series and then either rent out drives in the car or put it for sale. Just thought it may be more desirable looking similar to a well known car.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by tomroche

Thanks for the input guys and I do tend to agree but for two points.
This car was ultimately a failure, never quick enough to race so not sure how much I want to advertise this fact and secondly it was never given an original paint / design and was ugly in the mismatch of colours it tested.
The plan is to get it eligible and competitive for the St series and then either rent out drives in the car or put it for sale. Just thought it may be more desirable looking similar to a well known car.

It's your car, paint it in whatever livery you like. That's what I'd do if it were mine.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by tomroche

Thanks for the input guys and I do tend to agree but for two points.
This car was ultimately a failure, never quick enough to race so not sure how much I want to advertise this fact and secondly it was never given an original paint / design and was ugly in the mismatch of colours it tested.
The plan is to get it eligible and competitive for the St series and then either rent out drives in the car or put it for sale. Just thought it may be more desirable looking similar to a well known car.

I wouldn't have thought that making it look like something it plainly isn't would make it any more desirable (in fact, I'd expect the opposite).
Wasn't the car just plain white (or probably silver, it's a long time ago and didn't get seen that often) with an "Attford" logo down the side? Something like that (but probably tidier than it ran if what you say is true) I would have thought would be better.