1999 ST250
You may think the ST200 was the top-dog Mk2 Mondeo, but you’d be wrong. The ST250, unveiled as a concept car at the Geneva International Motor Show in 1999, was much, much better. Like all concepts, it was of course concerned with environmental issues and combined normal unleaded petrol with LPG – which was tuned to well beyond the European emissions standards at the time.
Don’t think it was all treehugging and save-the-baby-seals without any grunt to back it up, though; the 2.5-litre Duratec V6 found in the road-going ST200 had been significantly beefed up thanks to an increase in displacement to 3.0-litres, and a whacking great supercharger was bolted onto the side of it too.
What’s more, the fact it used LPG helped when it came to tuning the ECU software, as it is more resistant to detonation than conventional petrol.
On the outside you can clearly see it comes from the Mk2 Mondeo family, but more like the tougher, harder, older brother of the ST200. And this was thanks to the designer Ian Callum, who’s previous pen-work included the Aston Martin DB7.
Obviously, the suspension, steering and brakes were all tweaked to take into account the hike in power, and drive was transmitted through a five-speed Autoshift (a fancy name for automatic with push-button shift actuation) transmission.
No power figures were ever claimed, although with a name like ST250 it’s not surprising what Ford was expecting it to produce. Conservative estimates would say 250PS, but early mule versions were reported to have made 240PS, so the larger 3.0-litre V6 was expected to easily produce the claimed 250PS.
Sadly, the ST250 never saw production, and even more sadly neither did the supercharger kit it was fitted with.