The Super Touring cars that banged doors in the BTCC and various other championships are undoubtedly some of our favourite racing machines ever built, which makes their underrepresentation in gaming all the more criminal.
Sure, some of them have popped up in the Grid franchise now and then, and last year, venerable sim RaceRoom came out with an excellent Super Touring DLC pack. To get a true virtual Super Touring experience, though, you have to go back to the two TOCA Touring Car games released at the tail end of the 1990s, when the category was still at its peak.
Ford Mondeo Super Tourer sim rig – interior
Of course, those titles are a bit hamstrung in 2025 by their very late ’90s graphics and physics, but thankfully, we’ve found a way of upping the immersion a bit: sitting in a genuine Super Touring Ford Mondeo while you play them.
It started life as a test car built ahead of the 1999 season by Prodrive, which ran Ford’s big-budget Mondeo BTCC programme in the late ’90s. Back then, it would have had a race-spec 2.0-litre V6, sitting far lower and further back than a roadgoing Mondeo’s engine, and producing over 300bhp at 8500rpm.
Ford Mondeo Super Tourer sim rig – rear
Once its original work was done, it was turned into a sim rig that punters could jump in during a show at London’s Millennium Dome in 2000. At some point, the empty number panel on the door was signed by Ford factory driver Alain Menu, who’d go on to claim the 2000 BTCC title in a similar Mondeo.
Since then, it’s been in private hands and is now available in an online sale with Iconic Auctioneers. It’s currently set up to run TOCA Touring Car Championship via a hilariously tiny monitor, which is pretty period-appropriate for a PS1 game, we suppose. Presumably, it wouldn’t take too much effort to swap this out for a modern setup should you wish to make this a very elaborate Assetto Corsa Evo setup.
Ford Mondeo Super Tourer sim rig – front
With the auction ending on the evening of 10 April, Iconic reckons it’ll go for between £10,000 and £12,000, which is rather good for a proper Super Touring racer, albeit one missing some minor components like an engine and gearbox. As a way of making it feel a little bit more like you’re launching off the fearsome curbs at Knockhill, though, we can’t think of much better.
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