Terry Briggs and his Cars!

[schanche]

Terry always had an unorthadox choice of cars maybe we can have Forum memembers Posting Pics of the Various Cars here and Any tales to tell.
Leaving Kevins post open for messages of condolence....
How about digging deep and Finding the fantastic Mazda 323

[KA]

Originally Posted by schanche

Terry always had an unorthadox choice of cars maybe we can have Forum memembers Posting Pics of the Various Cars here and Any tales to tell.
Leaving Kevins post open for messages of condolence....
How about digging deep and Finding the fantastic Mazda 323

Think I might have a shot or two of the Mazda somewhere- I'll see what I can dig out.

[Gloves]

Very sad to hear the news.. here is Terry in his prime driving the Mazda 323 at the Rallycross Grand Prix at Brands

[Barrie]

My earliest memory of Terry was him driving a red Renault Alpine at Brands Hatch during a BRC meeting, that was around 1984, can t recall the cars he had before that date. Very sad news, hes always been connected to rallycross as long as I can remember.

[chunder]

Great pics gloves, I do remember that car, though not in that spec, it looks fairly seriously developed there!!

When I saw it the Mazda was very basic, kind of cool car though and typically Terry not to give up with it and try and get it to work.

Another interesting thing on that car is it using Hoosier tyres, now I am used to them from F1 stock car racing, but surely rare in rallycross?

[GORDON STREETER]

I used to race with Terry in the good old early 70s Hot Rod days, and as he lived close to me we kept in touch over the years and I went and saw him in Burswood a few weeks back. Unfortunately unless a miracle happened I think that most people knew his days were numbered. RIP Terry a good old boy !

[GORDON STREETER]

[silver bullet]

Here's one of his Renault Alpine, at Croft circa 1987.

(click image for larger version)

[schanche]

This was a bit more reliable than the others

[schanche]

You had to admire his patience and constant strife to improve whatever car he had to its full potential even though he must of felt why do i Bother! true dedicated rallycross enthusiast
Clio at Lydden Letting go in a cloud of smoke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xanNAa69ixI

[Thundersports]

What a great idea for a thread. I imagine he would be flattered by all the interest in his various "creations" which were hatched from the little workshop in Matfield.

I'll try and keep this to one page;

The Mazda did have some sort of works support but always lacked development which mean't it was lacking about 200-300bhp compared to the Gollop 6r4 bi-turbo and the top RS200s.

There hasn't been a pic of the TT yet? Where I worked I could do Terry deals on paint, equipment and various other odds n sods as a way of helping out and I remember being puzzled when half way through the season he needed another litre of his trademark Mazda sunburst yellow paint. It was duly sent......Only when I watched the Rallycross review of 2002 did I notice a yellow Audi TT vanish in to a field at Blyton on its roof! When I asked about this "incident" over that winter I was told that once back on its wheels it was fine....

When "glueing" the panels on these various machines Terry always insisted on Sikaflex brand of adhesive however one day he appeared and we were out of stock but had an alternative, I was personally held responsible after convincing him that it would be just as good for all the panels etc staying put during a bank holiday Lydden meeting. They did and suffice to say I did have some trepidation when I arrived and didn't find an annoyed Terry. (I was always keeping my fingers crossed that the Compressor etc hadn't packed up at a very inconvienient time during the meetings).

There was always plenty of warning of a forthcoming Rallycross meeting at Lydden as Terry would appear at the trade counter armed with a poster for us to display, the guys enthusiasm was immense for the sport. Does anyone remember at the last Brands Rallycross Lawrence Gibsons 6R4 appearing with various "yellow" panels borrowed from Terrys expired version.

I went round to see him one afternoon and he had;

1 x very large bucket of water
1 x lump of timber
1 x large lead pipe
1 x chainsaw

Sitting on the drivers seat of the Clio...
My other half enquired whether he was expecting trouble at Lydden where he explained that that was 17st and he was setting the balance up on the car!

Hope this hasn't been to long (I could of carried on with more!) here's to a great fellow who i'm going to miss as will the sport of Rallycross.

[HrRACING]

Remember the Lydden event a couple of years ago that he had someone go off to get a part repaired. Can't remember what it was. Typical of a desire to continue!

[Thundersports]

Originally Posted by HrRACING

Remember the Lydden event a couple of years ago that he had someone go off to get a part repaired. Can't remember what it was. Typical of a desire to continue!

From memory that was to do some ally welding they drove from Lydden to Matfield and back in an hour an a half including doing the job! With Terry driving that must of been some ride! As a Rallycross driver he never had the fastest car underneath him but he was certainly a top driver and without doubt one of the bravest.

[KA]

Originally Posted by schanche

This was a bit more reliable than the others

I'd forgotten about the yellow 6R4.....

Talking of Metros, does anyone recall Terry having a run in Steve Palmer's 6R4 at Lydden, early in 1990 or thereabouts?

Looking through some old pics last night looking for shots of the Mazda etc, and tripped over something that puzzled me- definitely Palmer's blue 'Practica' Metro, but with Terry's race number '333'...

The pic would probably have been taken at a Lydden Winterseries round in Jan 1990.

I'll scan and post it tonight once I've had a chance to dig through old programmes to see if I can find out more

[ss_collins]

I'll dig out my pics of his TT.

[schanche]

Originally Posted by KA

I'd forgotten about the yellow 6R4.....

Talking of Metros, does anyone recall Terry having a run in Steve Palmer's 6R4 at Lydden, early in 1990 or thereabouts?

Looking through some old pics last night looking for shots of the Mazda etc, and tripped over something that puzzled me- definitely Palmer's blue 'Practica' Metro, but with Terry's race number '333'...

The pic would probably have been taken at a Lydden Winterseries round in Jan 1990.

I'll scan and post it tonight once I've had a chance to dig through old programmes to see if I can find out more

I recall that now you mention it! so I been delving into old programmes just to refresh the ole Grey matter and Terry Finished 2nd at lydden on New Years day 1990 in Steve Palmers 6r4.Also the yellow 6r4 in the Pic In my other Post was Purchased from Guy Williams in 2002 I beleave for Terry to use whilst still devloping the Audi TT which he used in 2001..

[Kevin McCann]

Originally Posted by schanche

I recall that now you mention it! so I been delving into old programmes just to refresh the ole Grey matter and Terry Finished 2nd at lydden on New Years day 1990 in Steve Palmers 6r4.Also the yellow 6r4 in the Pic In my other Post was Purchased from Guy Williams in 2002 I beleave for Terry to use whilst still devloping the Audi TT which he used in 2001..

Almost correct, it was in fact my 6r4 that Terry purchased [the ex Guy Williams car that i used to look after in its early days] I think you will also find that Terry set a faster time in Steve's car than Steve did, and much winding up over the years since!! All this fun and good humour will be greatly missed, R.I.P. Terry.

[schanche]

Originally Posted by Kevin McCann

Almost correct, it was in fact my 6r4 that Terry purchased [the ex Guy Williams car that i used to look after in its early days] I think you will also find that Terry set a faster time in Steve's car than Steve did, and much winding up over the years since!! All this fun and good humour will be greatly missed, R.I.P. Terry.

Nice one Cheers for that Kevin will update me memory banks now

[Thundersports]

I think Kevins statement that Terry was quicker than Steve in his own car sums Terrys ability up nicely as Steve was one of the top drivers in Europe at the time.

[Tincorna]

I just found this on my hard drive. I think it came from a free paper i was given at Croft in the late 80's to early 90's;

[tea boy shirley]

I have a copy of the little write up of the Mazda which I cut out of the Tunbridge wells' Local rag called the courior when it was published, I was probably about 11 or 12, its in my memory shoe box, absolutley amazed to see another copy of it anywhere, especially outside the family. Many thanks James (terrys nephew and official tea boy) for anyone that doesnt know the funeral details it is fri the 1st of may 2.30 @ tunbridge wells crematorium, then to The Star Inn in Matfield (TN12 7JR) for the wake.

[chunder]

Hs anyone any idea what happened to the Mazda? I didnt realise Terry did so much development on it, soudns a great lttle car!!

I can only rememebr it in its very early little developed state.

[tea boy shirley]

The mazda ended up sitting rotting at the bottom of the yard on the farm, dont know what happened to the engine and box but the car sat there for years with the occasional bit being recycled from it by Bill Harbour. Nick Briggs and I once spent a saturday morning stripping the shell of anything usefull to put towards a Euro 2000 corsa project. The corsa was never finished, not even nearly. I think it was sold to a bloke that finished it and did quite well with it in modified. Only thing I really remember about the corsa was that it had a kevlar body kit and was going to be rear wheel drive! (it had to have a Briggs spec quirk)

[chunder]

Damn shame really, would be a great car to write a feature on as very few 323's were moved away from Group A rally spec.

They were a popular rally car but I cant think of anyone using one in rallycross, much like the Nissan GTiR, was used a lot in Grp N but I can only rememebr Wiklund and Norstedt using one in Div1

[rx-guru]

There were a couple of Mazda 323 4WDs and GT-Rs driven in RX and the ERC in the 1990s by Petr Koutný, Lars Hagestig, Berit Larsson, Minna Sillankorva, Bo Fredriksen, Klaus Butenschön, Pavel Nováček etc.

Anders Norstedt’s Nissan Sunny GTI-R was a GpN car, like those of Eivind Opland, Jan Becker etc. He went up to D1 with the Saab 9-3 4WD project.