Amazingly, I can still feel my left leg. You see, this is coming to you from outside the British Grand Prix where half the world is trying to get into a space the size of a terrace house in Middlesborough.

But for once I'm not suffering Silverstone's common queuing ailment ACL (aching clutch leg) thanks to Ford's new Durashift automatic gearbox that's fitted to this Mondeo, a #1,500 option, available on the Zetec and TDCi models. It's an automatic but push the gearstick to the right and it becomes a sequential five-speed manual.

Great in Silverstone's traffic, but on the open road it works just as well, giving the driver almost as much control as a conventional manual. But it has one really annoying design fault - to change up you have to knock the stick back and to change down hit it forward. Now to me, that's the completely wrong way round, meaning I kept changing up when I wanted down and vice versa. You can imagine the consequences.

It's good on country roads, but on the motorway the Durashift doesn't get the best from Ford's excellent V6. The 'box is too eager to change up, so if you're not quick enough, it changes for you. It is one of the better sequential manuals I've tried, though it still feels more of a novelty than a system many people would want - unless they're permanently in Silverstone's queues.

Paul Walton

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