BREATHE EASY
The Rep to Race Car project Mondeo gets an air filter upgrade with a complete Ramair induction kit
QUICK SPEC ■ Mondeo 2.5T ■ Titanium X ■ 19in Rotiform BUC-M alloys ■ Toyo R888R tyres ■ Scorpion Red Power turbo-back exhaust including sports cat ■ custom wrap by 3M ■ PB coilovers ■ Airtec intercooler ■ EBC front callipers with two-piece discs and Bluestuff pads ■ Ramair filter and crossover
The Rep to Race Car project Mondeo is starting to look the part, which means we now need to turn our attention to tuning its formidable five-cylinder engine.
The 2.5-litre turbo is very similar to that found in the Mk2 Focus ST – and, further tweaked, in the RS too – and is the main reason we chose the Mk4 Mondeo as a base for this project. But rather than a hotheaded tearaway like the Focus ST (famously nicknamed the ASBO), the stock Mondeo 2.5T is comparatively tame.
It will certainly get up to speed, and does so quickly for a car of this size, but it lacks the urgency of the ST. It was, after all, designed to waft along at motorway speeds in comfort, not attack the apexes of racetracks at full tilt.
But that’s all about to change. We’ve already been speaking to Collins Performance about getting the car on the firm’s high-tech dyno for a custom mapping session, and we’ve already started laying the foundations with some well-placed hardware upgrades such as a full Scorpion exhaust system and an Airtec intercooler.
The next thing on our list was the air filter. The stock unit is ugly and restrictive, so was promptly removed and binned. But, as with the Focus ST, the ECU attaches to the factory airbox; replacing the airbox means installing an ECU holder too.
Thankfully there are several options available, mainly because the hardware is shared with the Focus ST, and one of the best induction kits we’ve seen for the ST is the offering from Ramair. Comprising a proven foam air filter – that allows the engine to breathe much more freely and has been shown to work on big-power STs – plus a new aluminium ECU holder, the Ramair kit is a complete solution in one handy package.
It all fitted together as easily as we’d expected, and only took a few minutes to install. We could have just installed the induction kit and that would have provided more than enough airflow for the 300bhp-orso that we’re aiming for. But as ST tuning has shown, further gains can be had by replacing the awkward-shaped standard plastic crossover pipe that feeds air to the turbo too.
So, we ordered one of those from the Ramair website at the same time.
When it arrived, we wrapped it in some gold heat-reflective tape (badly; wrapping this stuff is a bit of an art form. Still… Race car...) and offered it up to the Mondeo’s engine bay. That’s when we noticed the odd vacuum pipe setup on the Mondeo. Further investigation revealed this to be the same style as fitted to the S-Max, Kuga, and a few Volvos. It’s an overly complicated system that uses a separate vacuum pump. And from our point of view, the excess pipework not only looked scruffy in the engine bay, it prevented the air filter from sitting where we wanted it. Also, the new Ramair crossover pipe only has provision for one vacuum fitting, whereas the original system uses two take-offs.
Clearly, some minor fettling would be required. We removed the heavy original vacuum pump and installed an RS-style pipe (complete with colour-coded braid) that simplifies the system; it now connects the inlet plenum and brake servo directly (through the OE one-way valve), much like you’ll find on a Mk2 Focus RS. The finishing touches were Ramair stickers.
Next up, the car is off to BD Performance to have a Helix uprated clutch and flywheel fitted, a block mod carried out, and one final health check of all vital components before it gets booked in for a custom mapping session.
ST-rivalling performance is now only a few weeks away...