Group A Toyota Corolla History (merged)

[Jesper OH]

Those are period pictures, willofan? If so - sweet!

Jesper

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

Those are period pictures, willofan? If so - sweet!

Jesper

The second pic, Scott King #31 is recent, the rest are all period photos.

[Graham Clayton]

Does anyone have pictures of New Zealand driver Bryan Bate's car which was seen in Australia in 1987 and 1988?

[KA]

Can't help with the Bate car, but did find some European Corollas

These are Spa 1989
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream

TOM'S had moved on from the AE86 to a later model by then
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream
Don't recall these being raced in Europe other than the visiting TOM'S cars at Spa- the ETCC had been dropped, and all of the BTCC Corolla runners persevered with the AE86 or the fwd AE82(?) until the 1600 class was dropped after 1989

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by Graham Clayton

Does anyone have pictures of New Zealand driver Bryan Bate's car which was seen in Australia in 1987 and 1988?

Just hunted through my Bathurst yearbooks and there isn't much on offer. At Bathurst in 1987, Bate was third driver in Bob Holden's car and in 1988 Bate ran his own car, s#74, sharing it with Andrew Bagnall. I think this may be the ex-Chris Hodgetts BTCC car whcih Bagnall & Hodgetts shared in the 1987 WTCC.

[GTRMagic]

Toyotas Converge On Eastern Creek...

Originally Posted by The Article

The vehicles on display will include:
- 1967 Hindaugh/Morris Corolla
- 1978 Peter Williamson RA23 Celica
- 1981 Peter Williamson RA40 Celica
- 1982 RA40 Chickadee Celica
- 1984 Faulkner/Cutchie AE86 Sprinter
- 1985 Faulkner/Quinn AE86 GT Coupe
- 1986 John Smith AE86 GT Coupe
- 1987 Price AE82 FXGT Hatch
- 1988 Freeman/Oliver AE82 FXGT Hatch
- 1987 Bob Holden AE86 Sprinter
- 1989 Bates/Dowson AE82 FXGT Hatch
- 1989 Bob Holden AE82 FXGT Hatch
- 1991 John Smith MA70 Supra Turbo
- 1993 ex Bob Holden Terry O'Beirne AE82 FXGT Hatch
- 2007 Bates/Taylor Corolla NP.

Oh what a feeling

[Al Weyman]

Dave Scriven will be bringing his very nice turboed example (Supra) out with me in CTCRC Pre '93's at Cadwell Saturday 3rd Sept.

[willofan]

Shame half you blokes are overseas!!
The Toyota historic racing promotion at the Australian Muscle Car Master next weekend at Eastern Creek will be huge with 18 Toyota race cars now.

It might be fathers day which is no excuse, so bring your kids or bring your dad.


http://www.ozracingwrap.com/general/3046-toyota-australian-motorsport-heritage-to-be-on-display-at-eastern-creek.html

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by willofan

Shame half you blokes are overseas!!
The Toyota historic racing promotion at the Australian Muscle Car Master next weekend at Eastern Creek will be huge with 18 Toyota race cars now.

It might be fathers day which is no excuse, so bring your kids or bring your dad.


http://www.ozracingwrap.com/general/3046-toyota-australian-motorsport-heritage-to-be-on-display-at-eastern-creek.html

That must be a very high survival rate of what in period was a class winning if very pedestrian group A (and C) car. I wonder how many of the European AE86s still exists? The Fina cars of Belgium, the Marlboro cars of the Chezh Republic/DDR, The Danish Castrol Nielsen-car, Schumacher/Tilke, Stig Gruen, the three CHMS cars, Crudgington, Kimber-Smith, The two Seikel cars from Germany..and likely more?

Jesper

[KA]

I was thinking that as well..... I know there's one of the Charouz/Marlboro Corollas in the Lany collection,
http://www.auto-muzeum.cz/en/toyota-corolla-gt-16v
...and I think I've seen a pic of one of the Fina cars in a museum somewhere (probably back in this thread) , but what happened to the others...?

In the UK, the usual next destination for redundant Group A cars after the BTCC tended to be Thundersaloons or Modsaloons, or various club series but I don't think I remember seeing any of the BTCC Corollas race after their BTCC careers ended?

The fwd TOM'S GB car went to Australia after Phil Dowsett stopped racing it- could any of the others have gone in the same direction?- Quite a few other ex-BTCC cars went 'down under' in the 80's- the Sawyer-Hoare Rover, a couple of ex-Sytner 635s, one of Rouse's XR4Tis, two or three Escort RS1600is, the first Hughes Supra etc

[willofan]

We had an exceptional weekend at Muscle Car Masters Eastern Creek with 7 of the old Grp A Corollas plus a few other Toyotas to make up the numbers to 18 in all plus the Lexus LFA driven by Alan Jones just to spoil the crowds.

[Eircamae86]

Love your work

[KA]

Some nice period Corolla stuff from Richard G Hilsden's Flickr- pit garage closeups from the 1987 TT

#107 The red (ex-Alan Minshaw) CHMS Corolla of Champan/Moss/Hodgetts
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream

Interior- Close inspection shows a Chris Hodgetts Motorsport sticker on the far side of the dashboard, so I think it's the white #106 CHMS Corolla (Hodgetts/Bagnall) with it's distinctive red-painted rollcage (Chris' white CHMS cars both had red cages, while the red Minshaw car had a white one)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream

#112 Charouz/van Esch/Wirth
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...n/photostream/

Think this is #114 the fwd TOM'S GB car of Needell/Dowsett
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream

#115, AGK Motorsport- Geoff Kimber-Smith/Barbara Cowell
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream

No idea which team, but before or after an engine change...?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...th/6130902576/

[Graham Clayton]

A great video of Tiff Needell in an AE82 and Chris Hodgetts in an AE86 going at it hammer and tongs at Silverstone during the 1987 BTCC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAZFrg45Zlo

[KA]

Originally Posted by Graham Clayton

A great video of Tiff Needell in an AE82 and Chris Hodgetts in an AE86 going at it hammer and tongs at Silverstone during the 1987 BTCC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAZFrg45Zlo

Yes, that clip shows the typically entertaining Chris Hodgetts driving style...always great fun to watch. Needell raced one of the CHMS cars in the 2-driver BTCC race at Oulton, and also track tested both cars for Autosport at the end of the season. IIRC he reckoned the fwd car was faster, but the rwd car more satisfying, although more difficult to drive quickly, partly down to the very particular way it was set up for Chris.

A couple of pics of both cars at the TT, from Richard Hilsden's collection on Flickr

The TOM'S GB Dowsett/Needell AE82
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream

...and a wayward moment for the CHMS AE86
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream

A couple more pics, illustrating something we've discussed earlier in the thread- the European teams tending to favour the 2-door shell, over the 3-door Coupe/hatch used by the UK teams and many of the Australians
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream

Looking at some of these pics, I'd forgotten just how wet it was that day!

[terryobeirne]

the dowsett/needell pics are the car i now own. surprisingly how little it has changed, especially looking the the detailed pic of it in the pits with bonnet up.
.
i took it down to Eastern Ck recently but it's not in the group pic that was posted by Chris. you can just see its turret in the left of pic, as it was in the tent being worked on.

on a slightly separate matter, i've decided to sell this car to help fund another (bigger/faster) group A Toyota project. Can anyone in the UK suggest a suitable advertising site????

[chunterer]

Specialist possibles where the right potential purchasers might be reached are the Classic Touring Car Racing Club, Masters Series, HSCC classifieds sections?

Obvious ones might be ebay, pistonheads, Haymarket's Motorsport Magazine, maybe Autosport still has classifieds?

[willofan]

Sorry Terry,

Here is a good shot when it was out with the others

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by terryobeirne

the dowsett/needell pics are the car i now own. surprisingly how little it has changed, especially looking the the detailed pic of it in the pits with bonnet up.
.
i took it down to Eastern Ck recently but it's not in the group pic that was posted by Chris. you can just see its turret in the left of pic, as it was in the tent being worked on.

on a slightly separate matter, i've decided to sell this car to help fund another (bigger/faster) group A Toyota project. Can anyone in the UK suggest a suitable advertising site????

You could try www.racecarsdirect.com or the US based www.race-cars.com

[DAVID PATERSON]

Twelve months later, it might be time to update the list of all the Australian Group A Corollas and what i believe to be their current situation. Please speak up anybody who knows more/different.

TTA AE86 Sprinter - Steven Toth has finished the restoration, I hope we will see the car competing in Historic Group A in 2012.

2 x TTA AE86 GT - Both spent many years in the museum at Bathurst. One was donated by Toyota to the musueum, who aren't interested in selling. The other was recently sold by Toyota to Willofan & I believe he will be racing in Historic Group A in 2012 or 2013. Both cars are in close to original condition.

2 x TTA AE82 - One is owned by Scott King and is in immaculate condition and was racing in historic Group A until recently. Scott is now living and working in the USA and the car is on display in the musueum at Baturst. The other was owned by Brad Stratton for many years and is now owned by Peter Herlihen and has been restored to it's TTA spec & livery. I keep encouraging Peter to race it in Historic Group A.

2 x TTA AE92 - The Bates/Dowson car was recently sold by Toyota to Willofan, not sure what he has planned. The other car was converted into a rally car and was destroyed/badly damaged years ago.

Bob Holden's first AE86 - Terry O'Beirne has owned this car for many years and is nearly finished restoring it to 1990 ATCC spec.

Bob Holden's AE86 renter - I bought this from Terry O'Beirne in 2007 and ran it in the 2011 Historic Group A Touring Car series, after a total restoration to 1987 ATCC spec.

Ratcliff AE86 - This became Geoff Full's car and gave Paul Morris his Bathurst debut. I'm told it was convered into a rally car and was later destroyed in a traffic accident.

Mal Rea AE86 - This was one of the last Group A cars ever built and did just three races before Group A was killed off. It then did many years of club level Sports Sedan racing, but fortunately it wasn't greatly modified and restoration is well underway. We hope to see the car competing in historic Group A in 2012.

2 x Bob Holden ex TOM's AE82 - Bob still owns one of these cars and races it regularly in historic Group A. Terry O'Beirne owns the other car and has raced it recently in historic Group A and now has it on the market for around $60K. You won't find a Group A car ready to race any cheaper! Both cars are still in original condition!

I think that's all of them, I'd love to know if there were any other Australian Group A Corollas.

[Redzone]

In amongst the great wad of photos that John White lent me, is a pic of the number 43 AE82 and heaps of Ratcliffe's 86, plus one of the number 13 Bob Holden AE86. Once i have them converted i'll upload them here

[chunterer]

David i've copied your chassis list into the Chassis Archive forum as it is a useful reference :

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=131574

[Avgas]

I've traced down an AE86 coupé with ETCC history. Car is in Spain.

[Jesper OH]

Would this be the former Camac Racing car? It was a stall ward during the final ETCC of 1988, but also raced during the 1990 Spanish championship.

Jesper

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by Avgas

I've traced down an AE86 coupé with ETCC history. Car is in Spain.

Awesome! Do you have any pics?