Back when the channel was called Speedvision and they showed racing, I used to watch tons upon tons of touring car racing, and cars like this Ford Mondeo were to blame. The names might not have been that familiar, but I knew that the Mondeo (Ford Contour), Nissan Primera (Infiniti G20) and the Audi A4 were cars that I saw on the roads and here, they were just stickered-up, body-kitted, badass versions stripped down for racing. Watching a BTCC race from Brands Hatch, it was hard to believe that the Mondeo that was battling it out with Renault Lagunas and Alfa Romeos was even remotely related to the teal Contour that the librarian drove to school every day. They didn’t make a soft puttering noise, they screamed like you’d never expect from a barely-midsized sedan. As the drivers genuinely battled each other on tracks, these Fords looked freaking heroic. Nowadays, they live retired, easier lives, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exercise now and again. This Mondeo is running the Verzegnis hill climb in northeastern Italy, near the Austrian border, a far cry from doorhandle-to-doorhandle touring car racing but the perfect place to howl once again!
