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3 Dec 2008, 10:43 (Ref:2346273) | #51 | ||
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Quote:
Not sure if I ever saw the Alfa in Norris Miles' hands- I probably saw it when Rich was racing it in the Alfa series though. I'm trying to remember what Norris Miles raced after the Alfa- I'm sure he continued to appear in Prodsaloons for a short while after he sold the Alfa on to Peter Buxtorf- a Rover comes to mind for some reason, but there were never that many of them around Prodsaloons either? |
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3 Dec 2008, 11:32 (Ref:2346293) | #52 | ||
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There's been mention before of the GTV6 getting stacked quite badly somewhere but was it early in '85? For some reason I seem to recall that the car had been sold to someone before he crumped it?
Not sure what he did in '85 though? Norris entered a Rover Vitesse backed by C&D Warranties, the same people that sponsored Dave Pinckney for years, in 1986 or 1987.... |
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12 Dec 2008, 13:11 (Ref:2353460) | #53 | |||
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GTV6 accident.
Quote:
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16 Dec 2008, 10:59 (Ref:2355903) | #54 | ||
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That must've been the crash in question. I still can't remember who was driving it at the time either!!
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"Double Kidney Guv'nah?" "No thanks George they're still wavin a white flag!" |
7 Jan 2009, 10:21 (Ref:2366907) | #55 | |
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7 Jan 2009, 10:22 (Ref:2366908) | #56 | |
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7 Jan 2009, 10:24 (Ref:2366910) | #57 | |
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7 Jan 2009, 15:09 (Ref:2367078) | #58 | ||
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Nice shots!
That black #33 car definitely looks like an ex Group A car. Any idea on who was driving it in these pics and where he got it from? The other cars, red one alongside the 33 in one shot and then the others 3 with bulbous arches etc, look older. They must be 2.0 Alfetta GTV's I would think? |
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15 Jan 2009, 18:16 (Ref:2372177) | #59 | ||
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http://www.rallye-info.com/carspecs.asp?car=159
The link above caters for rallying, with a description of the GTV6 even telling of it's demise as a Group A (and N?) car! Jesper |
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26 Feb 2009, 09:33 (Ref:2404411) | #60 | ||
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Link to one of the presumably ex Autodelta '82 ETC cars competing in Finland in 1983 by Jesper in the Starion thread:
http://ahvenistonfanisivut.com/vm/Ah...hti1983_2.html http://ahvenistonfanisivut.com/vm/Ah...hti1983_3.html |
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26 Feb 2009, 12:19 (Ref:2404519) | #61 | |||
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Quote:
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...82%20Brno.html Jesper |
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29 Apr 2009, 14:08 (Ref:2452240) | #62 | |
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I don't think this has come up before, but apologies if it has....!
On http://www.gtv6-156gta.be, there's a PDF of an article and track test from a 1996 issue of Auto Italia magazine which has a track test of the former Rob Kirby 'John West' GTV6, by then much modified (lightweight panels, 3.3 litre V6 etc) for Alfa club racing. It gives some background to how the whole deal and the car came about- basically it was sponsored by the government of Alaska! According to the article, after a serious food poisoning scare involving canned salmon in 1982, the state of Alaska put money into a UK marketing campaign to help rebuild sales, via the British Association of Canned Food Importers & Distributors. After a 1983 TV ad campaign etc, there was about ÂŁ40k left over, and BACFID were persuaded by a director of John West and Alfa Romeo Dealer Team's Roberto Giordanelli (author of the article) that a BTCC campaign and associated promotional roadshow was the obvious way of spending it! The whole thing was a real last-minute deal- The deal to run a GTV6 alongside the existing Napolina-backed car of Jon Dooley was done on Feb 6th '84, with the first BTCC round scheduled for 24th March.... The Kirby car was prepared by his own crew from a traded-in road car, with engines built by RS Race Engineering. (The existing Dooley car having been built a couple of years earlier by Bob Dove, hence the differences between the two cars) For 1985, preparation of Kirby's car moved to RS, and although the 'Salmon Can' money was no longer available, John West took over as sponsor, the deal being extended to eventually cover Dooley's car, as Napolina were due to pull out mid-year. The last ARDT/John West GTV6 appearance before the 75 took over, the Donington ETCC race in '86, was done using the Kirby car, which was subsequently sold on, passing through the hands of Peter Hilliard, Vic Woods and Chris Snowdon who campaigned it in the AROC series http://www.gtv6-156gta.be/GTV6course...oItaliaNr7.pdf So we've traced it to 1996, any ideas after that? The article also mentions the rivalry between ARDT and the Terry Drury team that chunterer referred to earlier in the thread |
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8 May 2009, 07:52 (Ref:2457740) | #63 | |
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Here is a truly trivial piece of info:
Years ago my Dad had some bodywork restoration done on his road going Alfetta 200 GTV. He got a replacement door from EB Spares - when it arrived it proved to be a GTV6 Door (not that this mattered as there was little difference) - covered in sponsorship stickers...I am pretty certain it was in John West colours.... The car is still around - with its "ex racing" door now painted dark blue... |
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7 Apr 2010, 15:34 (Ref:2668318) | #64 | |
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Just reviving this one- looks like after it's BTCC career was over, one of the Drury cars was heavily chopped about to become a Thundersaloon.
Apparently, the remains turned up in an Essex barn a few years ago, and the shell has been rebuilt into this beast, with a 400bhp 3.8l V6 for Alfa club racing... http://www.realtimeperformance.co.uk...d=27&Itemid=54 |
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7 Apr 2010, 15:43 (Ref:2668322) | #65 | ||
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I've seen that. Shame we don't see more of the Group A cars. Look at the Spa 1985 24 hour tape, loads on there.
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26 Aug 2010, 21:13 (Ref:2750804) | #66 | |
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GTV6 Thunder Saloon
Couldn’t resist joining after seeing this thread, I do have this car in my garage and it is currently being refreshed for some more club racing. The car originally came into my possession in a bit of a sorry state but is in good shape now. The car came with Paul Smith’s ECU as pretty much the only identification of driver. However, it was fitted with an aluminium cage and evidence of plenty of jacking manoeuvres to the underside. Recently I found some yellow paint on the car which didn’t make a lot of sense. But then I recently saw a photo of a car run by Charles Brittz in the 1985 Silverstone Tourist Trophy race in the Alfa Romeo Owners Club magazine. I noticed that this car shared the same steering wheel and dashboard as mine. So it may be the case that Charles Brittz ran the car briefly after Paul Smith before it was turned into a thunder saloon. I have spoken to Terry Drury on the subject but all this happened a quite long time ago now and he was fairly sure that if the car had the Paul Smith ECU then it was Paul Smiths.
The car now is a far cry from the group A car that it originally was but in return it can give a good account of itself in club racing (so long as its dry) and I do still have all the bits to convert it back. Chris Snowdon helped me with building the car and his assistance was invaluable. Speaking of Chris I notice that there was a question raised earlier on in this thread about the Rob Kirby car that Chris owned. Basically the car was damaged in a qualifying session by Gerry Oddams at Castle Coomb I think. It was subsequently sold to Will Winterton who had it rebuilt by Chris Snowdon. As far as I am aware Will still has the car but it hasn’t seen the track to my knowledge since about 2001. When I last saw the car it was in good order. |
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26 Aug 2010, 21:53 (Ref:2750823) | #67 | ||
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19th / 20th April '87 - Brands Hatch. Shell Oils Thundersaloons.
41. Howard Pannell (Rayleigh) / Mark Hales (Bedford). Entrant - HC Pannell. Alfa GTV6 TDR Racing. 2494T. It was also entered for a Brands Hatch round in early '86, as a non-turbo, Dave Mountain sharing the drive with HP. It's not listed in the other '86 or '87 Brands programmes I have. |
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27 Aug 2010, 07:40 (Ref:2750936) | #68 | ||
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Quote:
The Charles Brittz deal was a one-off for the 1985 Silverstone TT- I'm guessing the pic in the Alfa Club magazine might show the car with sponsorship from 'Scope' or something like that? Basically, four South African drivers came over to do the TT in cars leased from British teams- Brittz and Peter Lanz were in the Alfa and Tony Viana/Niccolo Bianco in one of Frank Sytner's BMW 635s. From memory, Drury BTCC regular Mark Hales also drove the Alfa in qualifying, but didn't race it- he was also entered in Geoff Kimber-Smith's Toyota Corolla Brittz and Lanz finished 14th overall (5th in class), and the BMW pair came home 8th o/a. AFAIK, none of the four drivers appeared in the UK again after that http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...lverstone.html. I think it was pretty much the last appearance by the Drury team with the Alfas- they missed most of the late-season BTCC rounds, (although Barry Barnes drove one at the race supporting the European GP at Brands a few weeks after the TT) and Drury moved on to Escort RS Turbos for 1986 Last edited by KA; 27 Aug 2010 at 07:48. |
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27 Aug 2010, 16:47 (Ref:2751126) | #69 | |||
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Quote:
Jesper |
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27 Aug 2010, 19:56 (Ref:2751198) | #70 | |
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I know very little about the South African racing scene, but a quick Google leads me to believe that Viana at least was a BMW factory driver in SA- turned up quite a few pics of his cars with 'Winfield' sponsorship and 'BMW Dealer Team' sunstrips
http://www.pabloclark.co.za/news/upl...s/1-719033.jpg http://www.pabloclark.co.za/news/upl...s/6-709013.jpg http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterel...en/3306557140/ |
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27 Aug 2010, 20:09 (Ref:2751204) | #71 | ||
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Thanks for the picture links, KA. Is that a 1st generation 7-series on the first two pictures ..and perhaps the prospects of a straight-6 3.2 turbo engine!?
Jesper |
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27 Aug 2010, 20:27 (Ref:2751212) | #72 | ||
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Quote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_7_Series_(E23) I should have a 1985 TT report which might shed a bit more light on the South African drivers |
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27 Aug 2010, 21:00 (Ref:2751222) | #73 | |||
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Here's a link to the 1983 Kyalami 1000 kms World Sports Car Championship race: http://wsrp.ic.cz/wsc1983.html#7 Viana and Bianco both present - Bianco racing for Alfa Romeo. Look for retired entry #81. Roffino Fontes mentioned as an South African. Around this time he raced a Group A GTV in the Portugese saloon car championship and was/is likely Portugese. Can't find the Vila Real-site for now, but this site has a few pictures from Rufino Fontes' Portugese exploitations. Jesper PS! Here's the Portugese link: http://cvc4.no.sapo.pt/1983.htm Last edited by Jesper OH; 27 Aug 2010 at 21:11. |
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28 Aug 2010, 10:51 (Ref:2751358) | #74 | ||
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Looking at some of the references I've found to it, that South African-spec non-turbo 745 seems to have been a very successful and highly-regarded car on the local racing scene. I do wonder how much the engine choice might have owed to local racing regs, as opposed to the 'official' difficulty of fitting the turbo into the engine bay.. The local saloon racing regs seem to have spawned some very interesting limited-production stuff- IIRC, the South-African market GTV6 might have got the 'big' 3-litre version of the V6 before we did in Europe, and Ford SA built a couple of hundred Sierra XR8s- a 5-door Sierra with the bi-plane rear spoiler from the XR4, a distinctive slotted front panel, Ronal alloys- and a 5-litre Mustang V8 under the bonnet... Last edited by KA; 28 Aug 2010 at 11:03. |
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28 Aug 2010, 12:53 (Ref:2751387) | #75 | |||
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Quote:
Jesper |
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Tags |
alfa gtv6, alfetta, ardt, autodelta, btcc, group a, jolly club, jon dooley, lella lombardi, luigi, napolina, terry drury racing |
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