或许和你家的蒙迪欧不太一样！BTCC蒙迪欧赛车
原标题：Sky’s The Limit: A Prodrive BTCC Mondeo
原作者：Chaydon Ford
The British Touring Car Championship has always been a way for the
manufacturers to bring the relatable and more affordable models in their
line-up to TV screens – usually on a Sunday. Children across the
schoolyard would argue whether the Ford Mondeo sat on the driveway was
superior to the Renault Laguna that their friend’s parents owned, based
on the outcome of the recent races.
对于汽车制造商来说，英国房车锦标赛一直是一种让他们的车型阵容中更有吸引力、更实惠的车型出现在电视屏幕上的最佳方式——通常是在周日。校园里的孩子们会根据最近的比赛结果，争论停在车道上的福特蒙迪欧(Ford Mondeo)是否比他们朋友父母的雷诺拉古纳(Renault Laguna)更好。
The Super Tourer era of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) is often remembered fondly for the no-compromise, open-chequebook mentality it embodied. While the annual budgets have never been disclosed, rumours abound of numbers between 8 and 12 million pounds to run three cars for the 2000 season, with the cars themselves costing close to 1 million pounds.
Prodrive undertook the mammoth task of developing the Ford Mondeo for the 1999 and 2000 seasons, and chassis number PR-ST/F-2K-01 – as driven by Alain Menu in period – was brought out of hibernation from their collection to be displayed at Bicester Heritage’s recent Spring Scramble.
英国房车锦标赛(BTCC)的超级房车时代经常被怀念，因为它体现了一种不妥协、无限制的心态。虽然年度预算从未公开，但有传言称，2000赛季三辆赛车的运营费用在800万至1200万英镑之间，而赛车本身的成本接近100万英镑。
Prodrive承担了为1999年和2000年赛季开发福特蒙迪欧的艰巨任务，而底盘编号PR-ST/F-2K-01 -由Alain Menu在期间驾驶-的这台赛车从他们的收藏中苏醒过来，在比斯特遗产最近的春季展览上展出。
Such a prominent paint job was identifiable from halfway across the site, the vivid blue and yellow standing out against the backdrop of weathered brickwork and green buildings.
如此引人注目的油漆工作在场地中间能轻易地辨认出来，鲜艳的蓝色和黄色在风化的砖墙和绿色建筑的背景下显得十分突出。
As you moved ever closer, you start noticing the more obvious differences to the road-going counterpart. Big center-lock wheels tucked into the arches and the prominent front splitter hugging the ground, paired with a boot wing.
当你走得越来越近时，你开始注意到这台赛车与公路上的对手更明显的区别。巨大的中心锁定车轮塞进拱门和突出的前分离器牢牢地贴住了地面，还搭配上了可以放上一双靴子的尾翼。
The body shells underwent a huge amount of preparation to bring them up to Super Tourer standard. As the story goes, the shells were shot-blasted, left exposed to the elements to rust, and the process repeated again few times to thin the metal down. The cars then received a single coat of gloss paint, with no primer. Any non-essential brackets were removed from the interior, and underneath the fuel tank was flat-bottomed to aid aerodynamics.
车身外壳经历了大量的改造来达到超级房车的标准。之后，外壳部分被喷砂，暴露在自然环境中生锈，这个过程重复了几次，以使金属变薄。然后，这些车只上了一层光漆，没有底漆。任何不必要的支架都被从内部移除，在油箱下面是平底的，以适应空气动力学。
While the front wings look like stock items that have been reworked, they are actually completely bespoke. Starting with a flat steel sheet, each wing was hand-formed to provide the required wheel and tyre clearance. This combined with the tubbed inner wings returned some room for steering lock.
虽然前翼看起来像复制的原厂配件，但它们实际上完全是定制的。从平板钢板开始，每个机翼都是手工成型的，以提供所需的车轮和轮胎间隙。这与筒状内翼相结合，为转向锁定提供了一些空间。
The rear arches obviously didn’t receive as much care; they look to have been rolled fairly hastily in an effort to fit the wheel/tyre package. Despite a multi-million pound budget, sometimes things get the hammer treatment.
后轮拱显然没有得到足够的照顾;它们看起来是为了适应车轮/轮胎包装顺利滚动而匆忙制作的。尽管有数百万英镑的预算，但车队在一些方面还是要能省则省。
Opening the doors and you’ll see the drilled-out hinges and thinner latch – a further reminder of the strict diet the car underwent.
打开车门，你会看到钻出的铰链和更薄的门闩-进一步证实了这台车为减重做的不懈努力。
The seat isn’t where you expect it to be; it’s moved back in line with the B-pillar and hugs the central tunnel. Its position is as close to the centreline of the car as possible, all in aid of optimal balance. Neither the steering nor the brakes are assisted, making for a physically-demanding drive.
座位不在你期望的位置;它被后移，与b柱对齐并正对着中控台。它的位置尽可能接近汽车的中心线，这一切都有助于实现最佳平衡。无论是转向还是刹车都没有辅助，因此这是一种对身体要求很高的驾驶。
Carbon fibre adorns any surface which is not bare metal, with only two gauges present on the dash in the sightline of the driver – oil pressure and temperature.
车内的内饰不是金属就是碳纤维，仪表板上目前只有两个仪表，在驾驶员的视线中央-油压和温度。
A carbon centre console houses essential controls and fuses, along with providing a mounting location for the Xtrac 6-speed sequential gearbox shifter.
碳中控台包括基本的控制元件和保险丝，以提供安装Xtrac 6速顺序变速箱的空间。
Moving round to the front, it’s obvious to see that a huge portion of the money went into the engine. The 2.5L V6 originally from a Ford Probe was downsized to 2.0L to meet regulations, and while Prodrive retained the Cosworth-developed engine for the 1999 season, they were developing their own engine for the following one.
To quote George Howard-Chapell, Prodrive race team chief engineer, “When Prodrive took on the cars for the beginning of the 1999 season we knew we had to improve most areas of the car, including the performance of the engine. The majority of the chassis-related issues were addressed for the 1999 car, so to win the championship in 2000 meant splitting our efforts – 1/10th on the mechanical systems, 2/10ths on the aerodynamics and 7/10ths on the engine.”
转到车的前面，很明显可以看出，大部分钱流入了这台引擎。这款2.5升V6发动机最初来自福特Probe，但为了符合规定，它被缩小到了2.0升。Prodrive在1999赛季保留了考斯沃斯开发的发动机，他们正在为接下来的赛季开发自己的发动机。
引用Prodrive车队总工程师George Howard-Chapell的话，“当Prodrive在1999赛季开始的时候，我们知道我们必须改进赛车的大部分方面，包括发动机的性能。大多数与底盘相关的问题都是在1999年的赛车上解决的，所以在2000年赢得冠军意味着我们的努力是分开的——1/10在机械系统上，2/10在空气动力学上，7/10在发动机上。”
A number of key areas were identified and worked on heavily during the development. Gearbox, valvetrain, the oil system, breathing and combustion were all closely dissected and improved upon. The cylinder heads were purported to have cost the same as their F1 equivalents at the time, and 682 of the 806 major parts in the engine were modified or changed. The result? Over 300hp at 8,500rpm.
These engines weren’t easy to start. Such were the tight tolerances of the engine that the oil needed to be preheated, and once that was achieved the oil system would need to be primed manually followed by cranking to build oil pressure before eventually firing up.
“在开发过程中，我们确定了一些关键领域并进行了大量工作。变速箱，气门系统，燃油系统，进气系统和燃烧部分都被仔细剖析和改进。据称，气缸盖的价格与当时的F1相当，发动机806个主要部件中有682个进行了修改或更换。结果呢?超过300马力，8500 rpm。
这些引擎不容易启动。由于发动机的公差非常小，因此需要对机油进行预热，一旦预热完成，机油系统就需要手动启动，然后启动以产生油压，最后运转。”
The V6 itself is barely visible, sitting as far back as possible. A huge air box hides most of it, feeding fresh air to the six individual throttle bodies. And so low is the engine that the driveshaft to the passenger-side wheel from the gearbox runs between the V.
V6本身几乎看不见，因为它被远远地安放在机舱后部。一个巨大的空气箱隐藏了它的大部分，为六个单独的节气门提供新鲜空气。发动机的高度非常低，以至于从变速箱到副驾驶座车轮的传动轴就在引擎两侧。
All the effort was worth it though, and the cars were fiercely competitive in 2000 with 11 race wins from 24 races. This resulted in Ford Team Mondeo not only taking the Drivers Championship (Alain Menu), but second (Anthony Reid) and third (Rickard Rydell) too. Unsurprisingly, Ford Team Mondeo also won the 2000 Manufacturers Championship and the 2000 Touring Teams Championship.
所有的努力都是值得的，在2000年的24场比赛中，赛车的竞争非常激烈，该车赢得了11场比赛。这导致福特车队蒙迪欧不仅获得了车手总冠军(阿兰·梅努斯)，而且获得了第二名(安东尼·里德)和第三名(里卡德·雷德尔)。不出所料，福特蒙迪欧车队还赢得了2000年制造商锦标赛和2000年巡回车队锦标赛冠军。
The dramatic rule change to cut costs for the 2001 season put an end to the Super Tourer era, and while we mourn its demise, many of the cars live on either in historic racing or being brought out for special events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Until the opportunity presents itself to see another Super Tourer in such close proximity, I’m off to fire up TOCA 2 on the original Playstation to get my fix.
2001赛季，BTCC为了削减成本而戏剧性地改变了规则，结束了超级房车的时代。当我们哀悼它的消亡时，许多赛车要么永远的成为了历史，要么被带到像古德伍德速度节这样的特殊活动中。
实际上，在如此近的距离上看到一台超级房车，使我马上决定在Playstation上重新玩起了TOCA 2（超级房车赛），而且沉迷其中，无法自拔。
