Quote:
Originally Posted by chunterer
I'm not 100pc sure but I believe Tom's at one point had 2 cars based in Norfolk. One was the car debuted mid 1987 by Tiff Needell and Dowsett and another car that was run at Spa and places like that, which may have been built in 1988.
The Liddiard & Dolley cars were private but shells/parts may well have been sourced from Tom's.
IIRC, one or both of those privateers continued racing their cars in UK Club Mod Prods into the early 90's so may not have gone to Australia?
|
I can't remember how many TOM'S cars there were: The TOM'S GB car debuted at Spa in '87 (Dowsett/Needell/Sekiya), then did a couple of late-season BTCC rounds and the TT. There
was a second TOM'S car at Spa, but it was a Japanese-crewed rwd AE86 (in Leyton House colours IIRC) which presumably went back home to Japan.
TOM'S GB then ran Dowsett in a fwd Corolla for a full BTCC season, plus the TT. I don't know if it was the same car throughout, or two cars
After TOM'S ended their involvement with the Corolla, Dowsett ran them as a privateer for the 1989 season- From about mid-season, a new operation was set up called Rayscar, which ran Dowsett's ex-TOM'S Corolla, and Les Liddiard's car. According to an Autosport piece mentioned in the 1989 BTCC thread, Rayscar was a partnership between Liddiard, Ray Selley and Tony Matthews (both ex-TOM'S GB IIRC), and apparently had plans to run an ex-MIL Supra for Dowsett in 1990
I don't think I remember any definite suggestion that the Liddiard car was of TOM'S origin, but as you say, they may well have sourced parts or a shell from that direction. Could Les Liddiard's car have been the second one to go to Australia?
Tony Dolley's name rings a vague bell in connection with ModProds in the early 90's, so maybe his car ended up there?