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Originally Posted by chunterer
[I]Former Alfa and prodsaloon racer Andrew Thrope ran a Mk1 Vauxhall Astra GT/E (in Europe I think it was called the Mk 2 Kadett GSI?) in some British Group A races in 1984, but I have a suspicion that it was in standard trim. At 1800cc that put it in Class B (1601-2500cc) so it was up against the GTV6, Metro Turbo and Bluebird Turbo..... hence it wasn't around for long.
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Both the Astra and Kadett-D were of the same first generation FWDs, but at this point still had different homologation papers. Tony Lanfranchi repeated the feat with the next generation Astra during some late 1989 BTCC races mainly to assure John Cleland had enough opposition in his class to become Champion.
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Originally Posted by chunterer
[I]A Mercedes 450 SLC coupe was entered for Spa in '83 as a one off? Think Hans Heyer was involved and it was most definitely a private effort!
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Michel De Deyne was likely the prime mover behind this automatic, which also did the ’82 Spa race. Here’s the car in ’83:
http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-07-31-012.jpg
I think the Heyer car you’re thinking of was the Le Mans Group 5 car or a later Group 2 car.
The 450 SLC had a smaller 380 SLC and that model also did a bit of early DTM racing. Jörg Leininger and Robert Manner entered one race each in late 1984. I don’t know if Leininger and Manner shared the same car or it was two different or for that matter the ’84 380 SLC was the De Deyne 450 SLC of previous years. Again my German sources are thin on the ground.
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Originally Posted by chunterer
[I]I think there was also a 4 door AMG entered 6 litre Merc Sedan (not sure of the model type!) for Spa in either '88 or 89 as well? (may have been 2 car team?) Massively powerful and quick in straight line. Qualified pretty well IIRC, but overall wasn't really competitive against the M3's and RS500's! I expect those cars saw further action in the Nurby enduro's etc!!
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The pair of AMG-Mercedes 500 SECs. One for the 1989 24h Nürburgring and two for Spa, recording 3 DNFs. I think they only ever did these two events. Early season rumours of a big engined Mercedes DTM project was denied by AMG boss Hans-Werner Aufrecht, but turned out to be these two beauties:
Hans Heyer/Heiner Weiss/Walter Mertes
http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-07-23-005.jpg
Klaus Ludwig/Alain Cudini/Hans Heyer (again, it seems)
http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-07-23-006.jpg
With similar configurations as the Holden Commodore it could have been an interesting battle, but likely only for second tier positions and it would probably have taken some development of the Merc to be in position to challenge the Commodore.
Another oddity I have remembered since last is the Ford Escort RS 2000 Mk. 2 of Ken Harris, who entered the car for selected Australian races in 1985. After that homologation simply came to an end. I think this car was advertised for sale a few years back with pictures of a yellow and blue car showing a flat nose opposed to the droop snout.
Jesper