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Yes Chunterer it's my first time !!! I only found this forum because I have just become a member of The Classic Touring Car Club and the link to this site is on their home page. Glad I found you all.
Just raced for the first time in 6 years at Silverstone in a Classic Thunder event. The weather was kind to me (wet) and I was able to secure a 4th place behind the "big bangers", in a Scirocco made famous by my son Rob in the VW Cup in 2004.
Going back to Rovers - my car was chassis number 004, as you rightly say "an early one". From what I could tell, the main difference on the later cars was the rear axle location, which was much better. I was lucky enough to be able to drive the Herbie Clips car in testing and found the brake balance could be a lot more appropriate because it didn't have the axle tramp problems of my own car.
Looking back, had we not had a wiring harness fault for the first half of the season, we would have gone much better. From mid-season onwards the car was quite competative, unfortunately by then, the RS500 had been Homologated and things got quite difficult for us, but never the less, we had some good races and podium places.
Davyboy was asking about how much it cost for us privateers. Our budget was meagre compared to the works assisted teams. You have got to remember that ours was a true privateer outfit. I was Team Boss, Chief Mechanic and Driver, with only the assistance of my Brother Ron to help prepare the car during the week, after we had finished work of course, and Richard Potter and a few others came along to help on race days. I hope this doesn't sound like a complaint because I am delighted that we were able to compete in the British Touring Car Championship with the resources that we had - you certainly couldn't do it today.
I came across a race set-up sheet that we were given by TWR for data purposes and it refers to a pre-race set-up for Brno, dated 29th May 1986. The car concerned was chassis number 014, which was one of the Bastos cars of '86. I don't know if this was Tom's own, or A. N. Other.
Keep up the good work.
Regards
Dave
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