A car is born

And here she is, our little beauty, the car that is going to take us from Calais to Rimini, via the Alps and the Dolomites, hopefully in one piece.  Born on 12 Jan 1998, she is a Ford Mondeo 2.0 16v GLX Zetec with less than 120,000 on the clock.

The body work isn't too bad, she has a couple of beauty spots here and there but overall we can't complain.  Nigel has done a great job getting her MOT'd, new tyres, washed and valeted all done free of charge thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.

Here she is looking hot stuff, the electric windows and tilt or slide sunroof clearly visible.  Those wheel trims will be sorted out in no time.

The boys at the hand car wash did an amazing job with the interior, it looks virtually brand new.  She has a full on board entertainment system, including multi-band radio and audio cassette player.

Unfortunately, aircon wasn't standard until Feb 1998, however don't forget that sunroof.

And how about that for an engine.  There is no way on this earth that this piece of mechnical mastery is going to cause us any problems.

And at 40mpg, by my calculation we will only need about 29 gallons of fuel to get us there, that's approximately £150.  There is no cheaper or better way to travel surely!


The Ford Mondeo is a truly remarkable car and we are privileged and honoured to be able to pilot her.  It's an award winning car, oh yes

• 1994 European Car of the Year
• 1997 Top 10 in the most reliable cars made in Britain.
• 1998 Best selling family car in the UK. 
• 1999 Car of the Year for Reliability. 
• 2001 Car Of The Year for performance and reliability. 
• 2002 Ghia X and ST, awarded for best Prestige Family Cars In Europe. 
• 2005 Award for 'excellent' by NCAP, crash test.

The next step is to get her taxed and then its over to Apex Signs, a.k.a my brother Harvey, who is going to help us turn her into a rally car worthy of participating in such an auspicious event as the Scally Rally Europe.