Group A BMW 635 CSi - a popular, solid performer

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by KA

Look in the background of this Volvo pic- a white 635.
http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-05-05-011.jpg
(also in the pitlane in background of the CiBiEmme pic above?)
I can't make out the signwriting on the car at all, so is this Frank, or is it Irvine/Clark in a plain white car....? Presumably, it can only be one of the Sytner pair, unless one of the CiBiEmme trio was white- Schnitzer and most of the other European 635 teams sat this one out...

Pretty sure that's a Sytner car KA. It may well be the car David Sutherland used at the end of the 1984 BTCC? Without going back through the thread (not as thorough as you!! ) Did we determine that Sytner/Grace had to build up a new car/shell after the '84 TT because his regular car got totalled at Woodcote?

If so my guess is that of the 2 cars at Donington '85 one is the original Grace/Gartlan car built end of '82 and the other is the new car/new shell built September '84.

[Alex E]

Some info that might help;
E24RA1/1. BMW test development car....Then to Cheylesmore Garage
E24RA2/1 Eggenberger....Then to CC Racing GB
E24RA1/15 Delcourt (might be a connection...)
E24RA1/17 Grace / Gartlan
E24RA1/29 Cheylesmore Garage (to replace damaged 001...)
E24RA2/37 CC Racing
E24RA2/39 CC Racing
E24RA2/46 Grace Racing
E24RA2/62 BMW GB (this car was supplied in red)

Alex

[Gerard Hodges]

Hi,
I thought you might be interested to read the diary from last week's Targa NZ in my 635csi, RA2-46.

Day 1 of Targa New Zealand - the conditions were trying today, with some
persistent drizzly rain over most of the stages, making them very slippery.

Even though it was slippery, it never fails to amaze me how much grip the
car has. Some of the roads were quite rough, due to recent bad weather, but
as usual very fast.

We saw 200 kmh on more than one occasion. When you are on back country
roads with power poles, drains etc, this feels a lot faster again!!

We had 8 Special Stages that took us from Auckland to the finish in New
Plymouth . Start time in Auckland was 7.15am & we crossed the finish line
in New Plymouth at 7.00pm, so a very long tiring day. The stages ranged in
length from 10km to the longest of the event at 53km - a marathon, where
the road changed at just about every corner!

The were a number of incidents yesterday. One unfortunate incident was a
lovely Mark 1 RS2000 Escort that rolled & caught fire & burnt out, luckily
no major injuries.

The car ran faultlessly all day and the service crew, Ailsa, Robbie, Grant
& Alan, have all worked really well & performed fantastically. By the time
we got to the service at Mokau, the cars were filthy having driven over 15
kms of touring on a wet, muddy, metal road! Our crew took to the car &
cleaned it prior to the last stage, so when it arrived at the finish line,
it was already looking immaculate.

Today sees a more leisurely start at 9am with only 4 stages, but taking in
the mighty "Forgotten Highway" out to Whangamomona, which is an awesome
road. This is a 35 km stage that is a mix of high speed at the start and
crossing 3 saddles before the finish - a fantastic piece of road. Lunch &
service at Whangamomona & then we turn back & come through the same road in
the opposite direction.

Looking forward to our day today.

Day 2:
The 2nd day of Dunlop Targa was a bit easier than the previous, with only 4
stages and a more leisurely start to the day after 9am.

The first 2 stages of the day were damp & slippery over tricky Taranaki
roads. Blind brows followed by tricky corners & the moss on the road makes
for exciting conditions.

The epic out to Whangamomona & back (approx 80 kms in total) was the
highlight of the day. As I mentioned yesterday, this is a road that is
named "The Forgotten World Highway" and hence not used or driven on by many
Kiwis.

We have now conquered the "Forgotten World Highway" twice & the car once
again has been absolutely superb. This is an amazing piece of road,
through farmland & dense bush & then having to cross the 3 saddles. Very
fast along the valley floors, fantastic hillclimbs as well. But what goes
up must come down & you plunge down the other side of these saddles through
never ending series of twisting, winding hairpins finally crossing the
finish line in Whangamomona Village where the hospitality is "out of this
world"!

The locals put on the most fantastic lunch you can imagine as the Targa
circus takes over their village.

The Dayle ITM BMW 635 continues to create a huge amount of interest with
the public & media alike. I was interviewed for TV programme at the service
in New Plymouth last night. All going well, they will air it.

Today has dawned sunny but cool. We are looking to another 8 stages today
through fast & more flowing types of roads with our overnight stop in
Wanganui tonight.


Day 3:
Another good day for the Team on Targa.

A promising start with the weather and a great breakfast at Kaimata School
just out of Inglewood.

Our luck didn't hold as by the time we started we had drizzle making the
typical Taranaki roads slippery & tricky.

However as we drove further south towards Waverley, the sun broke through &
stayed with us for the rest of the day allowing us to enjoy some great
flowing roads with some really high speed sections & more suited to the BMW
635.

One of the old favourite stages of ours is Turakina Valley (Galpins Rd
intersection made famous by a Police car a few years ago). We were able to
make the most of this road this year as we used it twice. Second pass
through this stage we cut 30 sec off our first time through.

The Targa route then took us over into the Manawatu towards Kimbolton with
a combination of 2 stages made into another great one of 39 km
incorporating fast sections along ridge lines & tighter through the valley
floors. We returned to Ohingaiti on SH 1, servicing for a 2nd time in
Hunterville before the final stage taking us back towards Fordell &
Wanganui through the Mangamahu Valley.

End of day service for the first time in Wanganui where we carried out the
usual spanner & fluid checks on the car to ensure we have another trouble
free run tomorrow.

Friday we head to southern Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa before heading to the
capital city, Wellington, for an overnighter.


Day 4:
This day saw us leaving Wanganui bright & early to head all the way to
Palmerston North for the "Windmill Stage" named as it traverses a saddle
where there are many large power generating windmills.

Down the other side sees us entering the Wairarapa which offers some of the
best roads in Targa. The Ormondville stage has been in Targa for many years
& at 43 kms is one of the favourites as well.

Yet again the car performed well and thanks of course must go to the
servicing expertise of Ailsa, Robbie, Alan & Grant for keeping the Dayle
ITM BMW 635 looking as good as she always does while performing perfectly.

A couple of great spots for servicing today - Mangatainoka at the Tui
Brewery for a lunch stop and then on down for the final service of the day
in the Wine Country capital of Wairarapa, Martinborough.

This has always been a great day and this year was no exception, with fast,
flowing roads for the majority of the stages (& good weather also).

At this stage in the event there are a number of cars lost due to attrition
- mechanical & accidents, however we are in a good position and intend to
consolidate on that today to get to the finish in Wellington on Saturday
afternoon.

Thanks for all the folk that we have caught up with as we have made our way
through the countryside and all the support from emails & calls also.

Day 5:
The final day of the Dunlop Targa NZ 2008 saw a very windy & cold start in Wellington, followed by a very wet & windy day.

Sadly the final stage of the day around the waterfront at Shelley Bay was cancelled due to high tide, gale force winds & treacherous conditions meaning that it was too dangerous to run this stage.

We started the day with a breakfast in Upper Hutt followed by the stages that are best suited to the smaller more nimble cars - Akatarawas, Paekakariki Hill, Moonshine Valley followed by the last stage at Makara.

These are certainly not the best stages for the big 6, however we feel we did the car & all of us proud by finishing all the stages of the whole event without a scratch on the car & it looking as pristine as it was when we began last Monday.

The day finished on Taranaki Wharf, but the weather really was against us with howling gale force winds & driving rain, making most of the evening very unpleasant to be outside.

Off to breakfast on Sunday morning, where we will hear the final results & placings. We will update you on the final placings just as soon as we can.

From a very wet & windy Wellington




Final Update:
What a week - fantastic scenery, awesome roads ranging from very fast to
very tight & twisty and weather ranging from near tropical to torrential
rain & gale force winds!!

This morning (Sunday NZ time) we had the breakfast & prizegiving in
Wellington and we are pleased to announce that the Dayle ITM BMW 635csi was
awarded the Ross Jensen Memorial Trophy for the Best Presented finishing
car. This is a prestigious award recognising the presentation throughout
the event.

We are very proud to win this award and for those who don't know, Ross
Jensen was a famous NZ Racing Driver in the 50s and was also the original
importer of BMW vehicles to NZ. Ross was a passionate BMW man who could
have driven any BMW of his choice but he chose to drive a M6 because of his
love of the 635.

We are also the first team to win this coveted award for the 2nd time as we
also won it in 2005.

A huge thanks must go to the crew of Ailsa, Robbie, Alan & Grant for their
unstinting work over the week, to maintain and to keep the car up to almost
show standard, in spite of atrocious weather on the last day and also the
car being driven hard in all stages.

The results on the road, put us at 7th place in our class out of 16
finishers which we are delighted with.

All in all it was a fantastic week of Motorsport. The Dayle ITM BMW 635 ran
faultlessly all week and to come away with the Best Presented Car Award
was a wonderful team achievement.

Gerry & Peter would like to thank Martin & Deb from Dayle ITM - without
their support we could not have competed in Targa NZ. Don't forget to talk
to them about all your building requirements.

Thanks also to Ernst from Bavarian Motors for the use of his workshop to
prepare the car and the use of his van as our service vehicle and also to
Tim from Motul Oil NZ for supplying our lubricants.

Rgs,
Gerry & Peter
Ailsa, Robbie, Alan, Grant & Barb

[275 GTB-4]

We had 8 Special Stages that took us from Auckland to the finish in New
Plymouth . Start time in Auckland was 7.15am & we crossed the finish line
in New Plymouth at 7.00pm, so a very long tiring day. The stages ranged in
length from 10km to the longest of the event at 53km - a marathon, where
the road changed at just about every corner!

Tough drive in a road car!! I can only sympathise Good report

[KA]

Originally Posted by Alex E

Some info that might help;
E24RA1/1. BMW test development car....Then to Cheylesmore Garage
E24RA2/1 Eggenberger....Then to CC Racing GB
E24RA1/15 Delcourt (might be a connection...)
E24RA1/17 Grace / Gartlan
E24RA1/29 Cheylesmore Garage (to replace damaged 001...)
E24RA2/37 CC Racing
E24RA2/39 CC Racing
E24RA2/46 Grace Racing
E24RA2/62 BMW GB (this car was supplied in red)

Alex

Thanks Alex- if I remember from earlier in the thread, '37' and '39' were the CC race cars, and the ex-Eggenberger '1' the lhd test/spare?
Of the Grace/Gartlan cars, think '17' was Sytner's regular car?

'62' is a mystery- I know we've talked about that one on here before- as I recall, it doesn't seem to fit into the story as being any of the UK-based 635 racers...

[KA]

Originally Posted by Gerard Hodges

Final Update:
What a week - fantastic scenery, awesome roads ranging from very fast to
very tight & twisty and weather ranging from near tropical to torrential
rain & gale force winds!!

This morning (Sunday NZ time) we had the breakfast & prizegiving in
Wellington and we are pleased to announce that the Dayle ITM BMW 635csi was
awarded the Ross Jensen Memorial Trophy for the Best Presented finishing
car. This is a prestigious award recognising the presentation throughout
the event.

We are very proud to win this award and for those who don't know, Ross
Jensen was a famous NZ Racing Driver in the 50s and was also the original
importer of BMW vehicles to NZ. Ross was a passionate BMW man who could
have driven any BMW of his choice but he chose to drive a M6 because of his
love of the 635.

We are also the first team to win this coveted award for the 2nd time as we
also won it in 2005.

A huge thanks must go to the crew of Ailsa, Robbie, Alan & Grant for their
unstinting work over the week, to maintain and to keep the car up to almost
show standard, in spite of atrocious weather on the last day and also the
car being driven hard in all stages.

The results on the road, put us at 7th place in our class out of 16
finishers which we are delighted with.

All in all it was a fantastic week of Motorsport. The Dayle ITM BMW 635 ran
faultlessly all week and to come away with the Best Presented Car Award
was a wonderful team achievement.

Gerry & Peter would like to thank Martin & Deb from Dayle ITM - without
their support we could not have competed in Targa NZ. Don't forget to talk
to them about all your building requirements.

Thanks also to Ernst from Bavarian Motors for the use of his workshop to
prepare the car and the use of his van as our service vehicle and also to
Tim from Motul Oil NZ for supplying our lubricants.

Rgs,
Gerry & Peter
Ailsa, Robbie, Alan, Grant & Barb

Sounds like you had a great week there Gerry- congratulations on the result and the award, and thanks for posting the pics- I like the Eggenberger/CiBiEmme-style livery- those colours always suited the 635 for some reason...

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by KA

Thanks Alex- if I remember from earlier in the thread, '37' and '39' were the CC race cars, and the ex-Eggenberger '1' the lhd test/spare?
Of the Grace/Gartlan cars, think '17' was Sytner's regular car?

'62' is a mystery- I know we've talked about that one on here before- as I recall, it doesn't seem to fit into the story as being any of the UK-based 635 racers...

Yes that's right re the CC cars, they were also known as CC29 & CC30 with one of them being renamed CC31 after Vince's Donington shunt at the season opener (working out the CC chassis numbers has been proving quite a tough job in a separate thread as we still have loads to unearth about the earlier Capris etc...)

I don't think CC gave the Eggenberger car a chassis id, quite probably because they didn't 'build' it!

[chunterer]

Further recap re Sytner cars (from the archive thread by ian)

Originally Posted by ian beckett

In yet another attempt to get to the bottom of the Sytner cars, I have just gone through my files again and re-read all my notes from the time as well as any correspondence I received including a letter from Frank Sytner from 23 January 1986.

The first Sytner car was started in Decenber '82 By Ted Grace whe was based in Pershore,Worcestershire as a preparation expert not a team owner as such. The car was finished by March/April of '83 and was left hand drive. It had an Alpina prepared engine and was in long distance trim with air jacks built in as well as bigger fuel tank. This was used by Frank in the Trimoco British series on 5 occasions. It also raced at the Donington and Silverstone ETCC races co-driven by Brian Muir. Sadly on the way home from Silverstone, Muir collapsed and died.

In '84 the original car was initially used for Frank in the British series but was crashed heavily at the Silverstone ETCC race where Barrie Williams was the co-driver. The car was repaired with a brand new ''rear end''.

A new car was built by Ted Grace in August '84.

At the Silverstone ETCC a second car ran driven by John Clark/David Sutherland, they were 15th. A car had also been run at the Spa 24 hours for Frank and the Simons brothers from Belgium, they were 9th.

A group N(Production class) car was built by Ted grace for Barrie Williams (the car looked like a replica of the Sytner Group A version). This was for sale in Autosport 14/4/88 at £10,000 from Ted Grace.

The newly built car was sold to John Morton in New Zealand and Sytner co drove this with him in early '85. The older Group A car was retained into '85 but was also eventually sold to Graham Johnson/John Morton.

[Alex E]

one more thing, around this time I saw an damaged ex Gp A 635 body in a BMW breakers yard in Sussex in the CC white / grey / black colours. Does that fit with one of the damaged cars ?
Alex

[chunterer]

Alex, that could well be the shell from Woodman's Donington shunt?

The other major incident that year for CC was Weaver's rear ender at Thruxton in practice for the Whitsun round? I don't know if this was repaired or re-shelled though?

The shell you saw must have been one of them?

[Alex E]

Thinking about it, it is possible that I can recall the approx date I saw the shell, between June / July `84. Would that fit ?
Alex

[ian beckett]

The Woodman crash happened right in front of my wife and I just on the exit of Red Gate.It was April '84 and she reminds me it was her birthday,so the 28th,(what a romantic guy I really am!!).The only photo I got before the marshals arrived shows the extent of the damage, from what I remember as being a big hit.All left hand side panels badly bent as is bonnet,grille and front apron,front wheel pushed back and inwards,screen out and smashed,Marshals are also admiring damage on right side of car which I never saw but all are looking in the same direction at the rear arch area.It certainly looked like a big repair job and if money was not particularly an issue it would have been easier at the start of a busy season to re-shell it? Ian.

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Yes that's right re the CC cars, they were also known as CC29 & CC30 with one of them being renamed CC31 after Vince's Donington shunt at the season opener (working out the CC chassis numbers has been proving quite a tough job in a separate thread as we still have loads to unearth about the earlier Capris etc...)

I don't think CC gave the Eggenberger car a chassis id, quite probably because they didn't 'build' it!

As I recall we never did manage to work out which BMW 'RA2/xx' chassis number corresponded to which 'CCxx' chassis number for the CC pair?

[KA]

Originally Posted by ian beckett

For '85 the 635 was starting to lose a little of its competitive edge in France although more cars raced some were raced by less talented drivers and ran in a lower class within the Superproduction races known as the Criterium. Teams were 1)Pelras for Xavier Lapeyre;2)Bodard for Gerard Bleynie;3)Bodard for Phillipe Gurdjian;4)Mirabeau for Claude Ballot-Lena;5)JMS for Jean Marc Smadja;6)SJA for Jean-Pierre Castel;7)Roland Guillemet;8)Elkron sponsored car for Gilles Sagne/Noel Dupas;By '86 the cars were even lower down the field and usually did not warrant a mention in magazines of the day so they became even more difficult to follow.

Just dug this out of the thread- Ian mentioned a thread on a French forum with pics of Supertourisme 635s. I've recently had another look at that thread and it's got quite a few more pic than it had at the time of the original post.

They're not all identified on the original thread, but we might be able to identify some of them- these are apparently all 1985/6...

http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...2/dijon186.jpg
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...ijon860002.jpg

http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...on85860007.jpg

http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...on85860006.jpg

http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...on85860001.jpg

Xavier Lapeyre- presumably the 'Pelras' team car Ian mentions:
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...on85860005.jpg

http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...ijon860006.jpg

[ian beckett]

#32 is Jean-Claude Basso '86 Dijon;#39 is Claude Ballot-Lena '85 Dijon;#11 is Gerard Bleynie '86 Dijon;#5 is Xavier Lapeyre '85 Dijon;#18 is Phillipe Gurdjian '85 Montlhery.

[KA]

..and some more- first one is apparently 1987 at Dijon
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...ijon870005.jpg

Motul-liveried car at the back of this line-up is from Garage du Bac
http://i24.servimg.com/u/f24/11/18/98/05/annee_20.jpg
and again- Dijon '83 apparently...
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...edDSC_0553.jpg

I posted this one in the Rover thread- note the Marlboro-liveried 635 just ahead of the 635...
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...edDSC_0556.jpg
...and having a bit of a rallycrossing excursion...
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...edDSC_0558.jpg

the BMW's a bit out of focus, but undoubtedly Monthlery...
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...67/D860004.jpg

Driver is obviously Anny-Charlotte Verney- think Ian said the team was 'Bodard'
http://85.116.32.206/mesimages/22965...9riser0008.jpg

http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...2/22.jpg1..jpg

Garage du Bac again- this time at Paul Ricard 1983 apparently- Jean-Pierre Malcher I think...
http://faimg1.forum-auto.com/mesimag...ionPaulRicard1

Garage du Bac promotional sticker
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...antMalcher.JPG

Rouen? Looking at the other cars in the accompanying group of pics, (Renault 21 Turbos, Citroen AXs, E30 M3s, Audi 80/90's & 200s, I reckon this is late 80's, maybe early 90's?
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...15/PRODUCTION%

Ricard 1983- more Garage du Bac
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/363763/831b.jpg
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/363763/834.jpg
there's a Marlboro 635 in there as well...


the Verney/Bodard car again
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/363763/839.jpg

again from '83- can't quite decipher the driver's name from the script on the door...
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/363763/p83-8.jpg

[KA]

A slightly off-topic moment....

In the mid/late 80's, Corgi offered a small range of very simple if not crude 1/43-ish toys, which I suspect might have originated in another manufacturers' range, as they were priced lower than regular Corgi products and were fairly different to anything else they produced at the time.

From memory, these included a Porsche 956, an AE86 Corolla, a Manta 400 and a 635, usually in racing liveries. Most of the paintschemes were freelance...
http://www.virtualtoyshop.com/Corgi/...ET%20Corgi.JPG

...but there were a few genuine ones included, like this Eggenberger 1983 TT version
http://www.virtualtoyshop.com/Corgi/...ET%20Corgi.JPG

There was also a Garage du Bac Supertourisme version, in an approximation of the 1983 livery shown here:
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/363763/834.jpg

Does anyone recall any other genuine liveries on the 635 in the range?

We now return you to your regular programme, before anyone thinks they've logged into a diecast collectors' forum by mistake


and just to repeat a couple of pics from the previous post as I botched the links...

Malcher at Paul Ricard '83
http://faimg1.forum-auto.com/mesimag...aulRicard1.jpg

Probably Rouen- late '80's/early 90's?

http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...2080.00011.jpg

[chunterer]

Yes!!

I had a few of the 635's, Manta's and a Corolla.

One of the 635's sported a CC Motorsport BMW GB livery believe it or not!! I tried to find the thing during a clear out the other day but no luck as yet!!!

[ian beckett]

#18 is Noel Dupas;#40 is Jean-Marc Smadja;Marlboro car is Ballot-Lena from '83.

[KA]

Originally Posted by ian beckett

#18 is Noel Dupas;#40 is Jean-Marc Smadja;Marlboro car is Ballot-Lena from '83.

Thanks Ian- you turned up at just the right moment!

[MG Rover Sport]

For further details of a programme clearout relevant to this thread - http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...80#post2342080

Trust I haven't contravened any forum rules by doing this.

[Chris Bowden.]

Originally Posted by Alex E

Hi Ian,
It was chassis # 73 & sold to Manhalter in `85. Unusual at it was one of only 2 cars supplied in Polaris silver, Faltz had the other. Manhalter often raced in Austria so you might not find him in the usual places.

regards Alex

Hi Alex & Co,

Great thread guys! We own the 86/87 JPS car that was sold to the Gulson's, along with the 'spare' car, chassis E24 RA2-73. It is log booked as an Aussie Grp A car & I have been told about a prior race history, but never paid any heed...Until you got its chassis # correct! Could you please point me in the right direction of tracking down info' on the Manhalter car?

David, The reason the #73 car has #1 on it, is because I'm pretty sure that's how we bought it from BMW Australia! Either way, I can assure you, we aren't, or ever have, made any claims on the spare cars provenence. I'm sorry if you ever felt it detracted from your old car / Adrians car.

Excellent work guys. You have to love the 635!!

Cheers, Chris.

[Adrian B]

Hi Chris, I was aware of the history of your 2 cars, but it's good you made it clear. It makes sense that chassis #73 was stickered up as #1, as I am sure BMW and JPS were using it for promotional purposes. We have finally got the 85 JPS car/e24-RA2-44 (using race #62 to avoid any confusion) back on the track after a 2 year restoration.
Cheers Adrian.

[Alex E]

Hi Chris,
Manhalter was a BMW Dealer in Austria, he bought the car new from BMW in `85. No sure what races it did but no results appear for him from what I recall. He is still around though.
When I first heard about this car in OZ it was just a body I think (or dismantled at least..) and was or had been used as a simulator / game. Do you know about that ? I know this was also done with a Group A M3 body over there later on.
Do you know when it arrived over there ? Does the silver colour tie in ?

Regards Alex

[Chris Bowden.]

Hi Adrian and Alex,

Great to hear about your car Adrian. I can't wait to see her run. Undoubtedly the most significant 635 in Aust! Well done to you and Peter! I hope the shots helped. Regarding the spare car Alex, it was a simulator racer (Must have been a hoot!) when with the JPS. It has been given the full JPS black livery, but I will scratch away and see if I can find some silver. We have always seen that car as something of a white elephant, being a motorsport shell and all. Would be great for something to come of this!

Cheers, Chris.