From tweaking classic Minis to building a tuning and motorsport empire, David Mountain has taken Mountune on quite the journey. It’s only just beginning.
If you thought Mountune were a Ford tuner and a Ford tuner only, think again. Sure, the blue oval’s products have been their bread and butter since David Mountain established the company back in 1980, and they’re based in Essex, the UK’s fast Ford heartland. However, it might surprise you to learn how many automotive pies they’ve had their fingers in over the years.
In recent times, their move into the world of tweaking Volkswagen group products has been well-publicised, but especially on the motorsport side of the operation, there are all sorts of other things going on. If you follow American motorsport, you might remember the Red Bull liveried Honda Civics that competed in the Global Rallycross Championship a few years ago. Mountune built the engines in those.
More familiar might be the peculiar rear-drive Subaru Levorg estates that successfully ran in the British Touring Car Championship for several years, taking Ash Sutton to a drivers’ championship in 2017. They ran Mountune-built engines too – in fact, one of the turbocharged flat-fours now forms the base of a coffee table in Mountune’s customer lounge. They also built all the Audi-based 1.8-litre 20v turbo engines for the Formula Palmer Audi series between 1998 and 2010.
In fact, when the affable Mountain, still the company’s managing director, set the company up, Fords weren’t really on his mind at all. “I was a Mini man”, says David. “I went to work for Glyn Swift at Swiftune [one of the leading names in the classic Mini racing scene], and after a few years he decided he was going to retire and become a dairy farmer. He cleared off down to Devon, and I was left thinking ‘what am I going to do?’ A number of customers knew I was building their engines, so they said ‘you go and rent a shed and get started.’”
“It’s changed now, but back then, if you raced a Mini, it was because you didn’t have the budget. It was real low-level motor racing, and people who had money were racing Fords. We transitioned into Ford after a few years, realising that was a much better opportunity, and of course that was the best thing we could have done, because we got heavily involved with Ford Motorsport.”
Like so many involved in the fast Ford scene – individuals and tuning firms alike – the big break came with the storied Cosworth YB series engines that powered the Sierra and Escort Cosworths. “We did a deal with [racing driver] Robb Gravett, who saw the possibilities with the Sierra Cosworth. The deal was that we’d do his engine and he’d go and buy a car. We won Production Saloons, we won Group N, and he then went into British Touring Cars.” Gravett, in a Sierra RS500 powered by a Mountune-built YB, would take overall victory in the 1990 British Touring Car Championship – Mountune’s first major motorsport success.
What followed was a close relationship with Ford’s factory world rally team, with Mountune building all the engines for the works Sierra Cosworth, Escort Cosworth and Mk1 Focus rally cars, racking up numerous rally wins along the way. “Really, the Cosworth YB has been iconic for us, and even today, if you go around the workshop there are probably three Cosworth engines in for rebuilds. We’re getting people sending us engines from New Zealand, Australia – all around the globe.”
These rebuilds happen in Mountune’s engine shop. Much like Radical, it’s one of those places that has a distinct air of things getting done. There are all manner of engines getting built, rebuilt, stripped and fettled. Plenty are the Ford Duratec-based units that power the cars of the GB3 junior formula championship. They’re also producing the engine for the BAC Mono R, a screaming naturally-aspirated four-cylinder with a Formula 3-style ram air sidepod intake that develops an astonishing 342bhp from 2.5 litres. Elsewhere, an old Jaguar V6 and the Cosworth BDT four-pot from a Ford RS200 are in various states of rebuild.
The Ford Motorsport connection eventually dovetailed into a road car tuning side of the business that initially dealt exclusively with Ford. For a long time, Mountune performance upgrades could be fitted to Fords without them impacting the factory warranty, and there were even factory special editions that carried Mountune parts.
More stringent rules around engine tweaks in the post-Dieselgate days have put paid to that particular strand of Mountune and Ford’s relationship, but the connection still runs strong. Currently, they supply parts for Fiestas and Focuses going back three generations, along with the current Puma and Kuga crossovers.
2019 saw them team up with renowned wheel manufacturer fifteen52 to launch Mountune52, a short-lived venture that took advantage of the versatility and mechanical uniformity afforded by the Volkswagen MQB platform to offer upgrades for a host of VWs, Audis, Seats and Skodas. Though the fifteen52 partnership has now dissolved, the Volkswagen-focused element of the business continues. There’s a Mk7 Golf R development car currently being fettled in their workshop, with an end goal of 500bhp, near matching the 513bhp of Mountune’s savage m520 Mk3 Focus RS.
Of course, there’s a big question mark looming over the operations of not just Mountune, but any number of independent tuning outfits whose business is in tweaking internal combustion engines. The industry-wide, regulation-enforced shift towards electrification obviously poses challenges.
Further complicating things is a general shift in the new car market. Hot Fiestas and Focuses have long been at the centre of Mountune’s road car division, but in the week we’re writing this, Ford has just revealed the Euro-market Explorer, an EV crossover intended to replace the Focus, and it’s around three months until the last Fiesta ever will roll off the production line in Germany.
It’s easy to assume tuning outfits like Mountune will be hung out to dry in the midst of all this, but David is sanguine. “We have to transition along with whatever Ford and VAG are doing, which we know is going to be electric cars. I’ve got to be honest, I’m not a major fan, but I’m 64 so maybe it’s a younger person’s sport. The bottom line is: yes, we are looking at it. We’ve got to look at it.”
Of course, road cars are only half of what Mountune does. It seems likely that in the world of racing, internal combustion will remain for a good while longer. “Motorsport will go on and on and on with some form of petrol,” reckons David. “[Various race series] are already testing fossil-free fuels. Motor racing’s a show, isn’t it? People want to hear the engines, see the flames… we’re all passionate, and I’m afraid electric just doesn’t do it. F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, and they’re designing new engines that are coming out in 2026. We’ve got internal combustion engines [in racing] for a long time.”
Even after long-time Ford mainstays like the Focus and Fiesta go away, there’ll naturally still be a big second-hand market, which is why Mountune are still actively pursuing development. Their latest package for the current and final generation of Fiesta ST, the Mk8, is the m285 upgrade. That name is a reference to the power output of the 1.5-litre three-cylinder – 285ps, or around 281bhp. That’s up from the standard car’s 197bhp, thanks largely to a new hybrid turbocharger based on the original Ford unit.
Many of Mountune’s power upgrades are fully controllable via app, using a Bluetooth-enabled OBD adaptor that allows the driver to select power map via their phone. In the case of the m285, this allows users to choose between two performance calibrations – one for outright performance that offers an optional flat-shift function, and one that’s quite frankly for showboating, providing more pops and bangs on the exhaust. Because it wouldn’t be a good fast Ford without the potential for some peacocking. The car can also run a reduced power output for better fuel economy.
We spent some time with Mountune’s m285 development car, exploring the backroads that lace the fields and marshes around their base near Brentwood. The turbo is the centrepiece, but there’s a mightily long list of other engine, suspension and visual upgrades – nearly every Mk8 part Mountune make has been thrown at this car.
The effects are profound. The ability to change power map via smartphone sounds bang up to date, but the effects of selecting the full fat 281bhp calibration are deliciously old-fashioned. The uprated turbo appears to have had very little effect until you begin climbing through the rev range, when the power suddenly arrives with an almighty whump and you surge forward. The offbeat, uneven thrum of the three-cylinder provides an interesting but not intrusive soundtrack.
The outgoing Fiesta ST has had praise heaped on it for its handling, and a set of Mountune’s lowering springs and Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres only serve to improve this. It feels planted and offers bountiful grip, but still has a playfulness about it on these bucking backroads. The steering is progressively weighted and delightfully direct, and, even with the car pushing out more power than the bigger Focus ST leaves the factory with, the front tyres never feel like they’re going to be overwhelmed during road use.
Perhaps what’s most appealing about these upgrades is their relative affordability. Bearing in mind that this is a well-used development car, everything feels of a high quality, and yet the centrepiece of the car – the m285 package – is available for £1,950, or £2,310 if you want it fully fitted.
Plenty of other parts come in well under £100. You could comfortably pick up a lightly-used second-hand ST and transform it into a much more serious performance prospect for a similar outlay to a brand new car.
It’s that ability to make performance gains relatively accessible to the masses that make companies like Mountune so important in the wider car world. We don’t quite know what the future of these companies, or that of the fast Ford, is going to look like. Based on Mountune’s expertise, and the excellence of the m285 Fiesta, both are probably in safe hands, though.
