Group A Toyota Corolla History (merged)

[Bevan-L]

not sure who's car they came off but the 18" Speedline wheels they were using at one stage made its way onto the Hyundai super touring attempt...

I have 12 of them sitting at home, and was confirmed by speedline who still have a record of who it was sold to etc.

[Umai Naa]

I would imagine they'd have come off the abandoned Corolla Seca STs, which Colin Bond was involved with. He then went onto persue the Hyundai Lantra project.

Speaking of which, has anyone managed to track them down? I understand one of them donated much of it's componentry to the first Lantra ST, while the other one fell into the hands of a Victorian TAFE college, and driven by Melinda Price on occasion throughout 1995 and 1996.

[willofan]

Originally Posted by 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.

Thanks for the update,
Just to confirm the TTA AE92 Corolla story is; The Bates/Dowson car went off to do some rally work and came back to Toyota sad and sorry and repainted back to Bates/Dowson colours and since sold to me and now with Scott King. Scott has the other AE92 after the Bargwanna boys campaigned it under Mercantile Mutual in 1991/92. Scott had all the parts required for both cars so it made sense he owned both cars.

[Avgas]

Originally Posted by 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

It is the CAMAC car. It's still as it was last raced. may get some pictures in a not too distant future.

[KA]

I've been pondering what happened to the various UK-based Corollas- we know a couple of the fwd cars went to Australia, but how about the AE86s- by 1988 I think there were around five of these- 2x CHMS cars, 1x MIL Motorsport, 1xGeoff Kimber-Smith/AGK Motorsport and 1x Tony Crudgington.

CHMS and MIL weren't seen after 1988, but the Kimber-Smith and Crudgington cars raced on into 1989, the last season they were BTCC-eligible. Where did they go after that?

I don't think I recall seeing either in Modsaloons or Thundersaloons (a couple of the traditional destinations for obselete Group A machinery in the UK), so were they sold abroad, sold on for club racing, (or sold and converted to rallycars- AE86s were always popular on the UK rally scene, but a lot were Group N), broken up and sold as parts, or are they still gathering dust in Geoff and Tony's garages?

Any clues on any of these cars?

[KA]

Something else I've been looking at, are the CHMS cars, trying to work out both how many there actually were (I think 4, give or take the odd reshell?) and trying to figure out the race history for each

To try and do this, I'll do a season-by-season listing of the CHMS Corolla programme from 1986-88

After parting company with Brooklyn Motorsport and the Escort RS1600i, Chris turned to Toyota, with backing from Toyota GB and Duckhams. CHMS/Team Toyota GB would become the dominant force in the 1600 class for the next two seasons, earning Chris back-to-back BTCC outright titles. The 1986 programme was the BTCC, and a few ETCC rounds- Donington (the actual debut of the car), the TT and Zolder- Chris also appearing in a few other ETC races, sharing the Stig Gruen and Danish Castrol Corollas with their regular drivers.
The car #66 was white with red stripes, and a dsitinctive red-painted rollcage
A second car, #77 painted a purple-red colour, with a similar stripe pattern to the #66 car, but in white, a white cage and Demon Tweeks sponsorship appeared mid-season for Alan Minshaw. Alex Moss was Chris' regular endurance co-driver, while Tony Hill shared with Minshaw at the TT. Barry Sheene stepped in for Alan at the final BTCC round, swapping cars with Chris into the bargain...

The races CHMS appeared at in 1986 were:

Date	Series	Circuit	Race#	Drivers	Sponsor	Colour	Result	Class	Notes and pic
6/4/86	ETCC	Donington	106	Chris Hodgetts/Alex Moss	Toyota GB	White	DNF		http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...Don-1986-1.jpg (just sneaking into the background)
13/4/86	BTCC	Silverstone	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	9th	1st
26/5/86	BTCC	Thruxton	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	4th	1st
8/6/86	BTCC	Silverstone	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	7th	1st
15/6/86	BTCC	Donington	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	4th	1st
13/7/86	BTCC	Brands Hatch	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	12th	1st
			77	Alan Minshaw	Demon Tweeks	Red	13th	2nd
10/8/86	BTCC	Snetterton	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	7th	1st
			77	Alan Minshaw	Demon Tweeks	Red	10th	3rd
25/8/86	BTCC	Brands Hatch	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	5th	2nd
7/9/86	ETCC	Silverstone (TT)	106	Chris Hodgetts/Alex Moss	Toyota GB+Bennie Hire	White	17th	1st	http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...v-1986-106.jpg
			107	Alan Minshaw/Tony Hill/Chris Hodgetts	Demon Tweeks	Red	19th	3rd	http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...v-1986-107.jpg
14/9/86	BTCC	Donington	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	7th	1st
28/9/86	ETCC	Zolder	114	Chris Hodgetts/Alex Moss	Toyota GB	White	?	?	qualified on class pole- result unknown http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...v-1986-107.jpg
5/10/86	BTCC	Silverstone	66	Chris Hodgetts	Demon Tweeks	Red	8th	1st	Swapped cars and drove the 'Minshaw' car here
			77	Barry Sheene	Toyota GB	White	11th	4th	Drove the 'Hodgetts' car

[KA]

1987 would see a massive escalation of the programme- not only did Chris set out to defend his BTCC title (with as many as 3 CHMS cars appearing on a couple of occasions), but after doing a deal with Kiwi Andrew Bagnall, who brought his 'Gullivers Travel' sponsorship, taking in the Nissan-Mobil 500 races in NZ at the start of the year, and a considerable number of ETCC and WTCC rounds- by my reckoning, CHMS took in no less than 26 races in 1987, covering the UK, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and Japan- a couple of times there were even cars competing in Europe and the BTCC on the same weekend!

3, possibly 4 cars were used- the original 1986 car was used for the Nissan-Mobil races in NZ, then used both as a second BTCC car early season, then the 'Gullivers Travel' car in Europe (was it actually sold to Bagnall?) until it was crashed, and possibly written off at Spa.

The red Minshaw car was used as a second/third BTCC car, but also did WTCC/ETCC duty a number of times.

Chris had a new car for his BTCC campaign, and a fourth car (or at least a reshell of the original) seems to have been built for Bagnall, which debuted at Bathurst- the 1987 Bathurst book describes this as 'a brand-new shell prepared by 1986 British small car champ Chris Hodgetts, and hadn't even been tested before coming to Bathurst 1987'

The new Hodgetts car featured slightly revised front bodywork, a red rollcage and was similarly-liveried to the 1986 car, although with red stripes only over the front wings and bonnet, rather than the two sets on the '86 car- a useful identification point between the two early-season. The ex-Minshaw car remained red. The Bathurst car was plain white, with a white cage.

Date	Series	Circuit	#	Drivers	Sponsor	Colour	Result	Class	Notes & pic
25/1/87	N-M500	Wellington	66	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall	Gullivers Travel	White	9th	1st	http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...rums/bath2.jpg
1/2/87	N-M500	Pukekohe	66	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall	Gullivers Travel	White	?	?
22/3/87	WTCC	Monza	92	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall	Gullivers Travel	?	10th	1st
5/4/87	ETCC	Donington	92	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall	Gullivers Travel	White?	DNF
			106	Alex Moss/Mark Jennings	?	?	10th	2nd
			107	Hodgetts/Bagnall/Moss/Jennings?	?	?	DNS		Mark Hales/Richard Belcher on the entry list, but may have been used as a T-Car instead
12/4/87	BTCC	Silverstone	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	8th	1st
			67?	Paul Longfield	?	Red?	12th	3rd
			?	Alan Minshaw	Toyota GB?	White	10th	2nd	1986 white car?
17/4/87	BTCC	Oulton Park	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	8th	1st	http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...tA-1987-66.jpg
			67	Chuck Nicholson	Toyota GB	White	9th	2nd	1986 white car- http://www.brendanmcfarlane.co.uk/wp...00127-0021.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...tA-1987-67.jpg
			69?	Alex Moss	Brown?	Red	10th	3rd
			67?	Alan Minshaw	Toyota GB	DNS			Car originally entered for Martin Birrane- Minshaw and Nicholson both qualified it, Nicholson raced
20/4/87	BTCC	Thruxton	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White?	5th	1st	Chris damaged his car in qualifying, and took over the car intended for Paul Longfield- think this is the white 1986 car?
			67?	Paul Longfield		Red?	10th	3rd	A last-minute deal. Raced the car originally entered for Alex Moss
			69?	Alex Moss	Brown?	?	DNS		Car taken over by Longfield
10/5/87	WTCC	Dijon	92	Alex Moss/Mark Jennings	Gullivers Travel	Red	19th	2nd	Red ex-Minshaw car: http://lemansmotorsport.free.fr/dijo...gra87%2092.jpg
24/5/87	ETCC	Anderstorp	92	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall	Gullivers Travel	?	9th	2nd
25/5/87	BTCC	Thruxton	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	11th	2nd
7/6/87	ETCC	Zolder	92	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall	Gullivers Travel	White	9th	2nd	White 1986 car
8/6/87	BTCC	Silverstone	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	9th	1st
14/6/87	ETCC	Zeltweg	92?	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall	Gullivers Travel	?	12th	1st
28/6/87	ETCC	Imola	92	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall	Gullivers Travel	?	18th	5th
12/7/87	BTCC	Silverstone	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	12th	1st
			?	Will Hoy	?	?	14th	3rd
26/7/87	BTCC	Brands Hatch	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	7th	1st
			69	Alex Moss	Brown	Red	10th	3rd
1-2/8/87	WTCC	Spa 24hrs	92	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall/Mark Jennings	Gullivers Travel	White	DNF		http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-08-02-092.jpg Crashed and written off
2/8/87	BTCC	Snetterton	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	7th	1st
16/8/87	BTCC	Donington	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	9th	1st
			69?	Tony Dron	?	Red	13th	3rd
22/8/87	BTCC	Oulton	66	Chris Hodgetts/Tiff Needell	Toyota GB	White	3rd	1st	1 hr race- Hodgetts and Needell swapped cars at the pitstop! Also qualified by Win Percy
			67	Tiff Needell/Chris Hodgetts		Red	5th	2nd	1hr race, Hodgetts & Needell swapped cars at the pitstop! Also qualified by Win Percy. http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...tB-1987-67.jpg
6/9/87	WTCC	Silverstone TT	106	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall	Toyota GB	White	15th	1st	Hodgetts BTCC car?. http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream
			107	Alex Moss/Gareth Chapman		Red	16th	2nd	http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...in/photostream
20/9/87	BTCC	Donington	66	Chris Hodgetts	Toyota GB	White	8th	1st
4-5/10/87	WTCC	Bathurst	94	Andrew Bagnall/Mark Jennings	Gullivers Travel	DNF			New or reshelled car in plain white. Also qualified by Hodgetts
6/10/87	BTCC	Silverstone	66	Mark Hales	Toyota GB	White	9th	1st	Hales standing in as Chris was at Bathurst
26/10/87	WTCC	Wellington	94	Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Bagnall/Mark Jennings	Gullivers Travel	White		16th	1st
15/11/87	WTCC	Fuji	103	Chris Hodgetts/Mark Jennings	Gullivers Travel	White	DNF

[KA]

With Chris moving on to the MIL Supra project for 1988, CHMS continued, but with a less ambitious BTCC-based programme.
AJG Transport appeared as a sponsor (they were a pretty prolific BTCC sponsor that year, with AJG logos also appearing on the Supras, as well as Alan Gaunt's AJG-entered RS1600i for Mark Goddard!) Several drivers appeared in the car- Richard Belcher, Mark Hales, Patrick Watts, Dave Loudoun, Mark Goddard etc, suggesting it was run on a series of short-term deals and 'rentadrives'

The CHMS entry started the season painted red- it seems to have had a white rollcage, suggesting it may have been either the ex-Minshaw car or the new/reshelled car from Bathurst 87. It had a pretty tough season, being crashed heavily at Donington and Silverstone early-season- it also seems to have changed colour to green at some point- Was this a reshell, possibly after the Silverstone shunt?
A second, plain white car appeared at the TT- again this appears to have had a white rollcage.

Away from CHMS, MIL Motorsport also ran a Corolla for Kevin Eaton and John Llewellyn, in Eaton's white/red/grey 'East Midlands Transport' colours. This had a distinctive red rollcage- was this an ex-CHMS car?
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...on-1988-69.jpg

Date	Series	Circuit	#	Driver	Sponsor	Colour	Result	Class	Notes
27/3/88	BTCC	Silverstone	60?	Richard Belcher	AJG Transport?	Red?	14th	3rd
1/4/88	BTCC	Oulton Park	60	Mark Hales	AJG Transport	Red	11th	2nd	http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...on-1988-60.jpg
15/5/88	BTCC	Donington	60	Mark Hales/Patrick Watts	AJG Transport	Red	21st	5th	Rolled heavily in practice...http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...CC-1988-60.jpg
5/6/88	BTCC	Silverstone	61	Mark Hales	AJG Transport	Red?	DNS		Race stopped and re-started-Crashed at 1st start
10/7/88	BTCC	Silverstone	61?	Dave Loudoun	AJG Transport?	?	20th	2nd
24/7/88	BTCC	Birmingham	61	Nick Whale	Willis Faber	Green	DNS		Race not run. http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...lisCorolla.jpg Is that a CHMS spare car next to it?
4/9/88	ETCC	Silverstone TT	148	Chris Hodgetts/Colin Pearcy/Geoff Kimber-Smith	Smith & Latimer	White	34th	8th	http://tentenths.com/forum/attachmen...2&d=1218705303
			153	Patrick Watts/Malcolm Harrison	Mezzanine	Green	33rd	7th	http://tentenths.com/forum/attachmen...5&d=1218705303
2/10/88	BTCC	Silverstone	61?	Mark Goddard	AJG Transport	Green	14th	2nd	Leased CHMS Corolla as his regular Escort was out of action

What happened to the cars after this?

[KA]

Originally Posted by KA

Just noticed I linked the wrong pic here- should be this one....

http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-09-28-114.jpg

Also, a pic of Hodgetts/Bagnall at Zolder in '87
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...EG-1987-92.jpg

[Eircamae86]

[willofan]

Pics of the TTA Corolla AE86 Group A going back in this week.







Hopefully all good for a run next weekend and Muscle Car Masters in Sept

[KA]

Just been looking around Flickr and found something interesting, photographed at a Goodwood classic car event earlier in the year- a CHMS Corolla!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wessexc...otatouringcars

There was a note in Autosport a few weeks back that Chris Hodgetts will be doing the Britcar 24hours at Silverstone in a Toyota GB-entered GT86, shared with son Stefan, in which Chris mentioned a visit to GPRM who are building the GT86 for Silverstone- 'There was the new car, and alongside it was a replica of my old AE86 Corolla in it's old livery'.
So perhaps the car in the pic may not be an original CHMS car, but a modern recreation?

Did we ever work out what happened to the CHMS cars after their BTCC careers ended?

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by KA

Just been looking around Flickr and found something interesting, photographed at a Goodwood classic car event earlier in the year- a CHMS Corolla!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wessexc...otatouringcars

There was a note in Autosport a few weeks back that Chris Hodgetts will be doing the Britcar 24hours at Silverstone in a Toyota GB-entered GT86, shared with son Stefan, in which Chris mentioned a visit to GPRM who are building the GT86 for Silverstone- 'There was the new car, and alongside it was a replica of my old AE86 Corolla in it's old livery'.
So perhaps the car in the pic may not be an original CHMS car, but a modern recreation?

I think that AE86 in the photo was built by GPRM recently.

[andy97]

Ex Chris Hodgetts (I assume) BTCC car on display at Autosports show on the HSCC stand, as part of the history of touring cars display. Lovely!

[chunterer]

That's the recently built replica I think Andy.

Lovely and period correct looking though!

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by chunterer

That's the recently built replica I think Andy.

Lovely and period correct looking though!

Someone said that the car on display had come from Toyota GB? Out of the group, it was the one I would have liked to take home!

[KA]

Could well be that Toyota GB commissioned the replica then- GPRM built the GT86 that Chris Hodgetts drove in the Silverstone 24 hours last autumn, painted in a similar colourscheme to his old Corolla, so maybe GPRM did the Corolla for them around the same time?

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8174/8...6da8373e_z.jpg

There's a pic on this Toyota blog showing the shell of the GT86 ready for painting late last summer- and the CHMS replica Corolla is standing next to it in the workshop:

http://blog.toyota.co.uk/britcar-toy...-second-update

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

Someone said that the car on display had come from Toyota GB? Out of the group, it was the one I would have liked to take home!

Agreed and it said it was owned by Toyota GB on the info label.

[Keeffo]

Hi
just registered after seeing the "Group A Toyota Corolla History" thread.
this is what i have been looking for.

Its very hard to find AE86's built for racing, well in Ireland anyway
(its all drift) I want 1986 BTCC AE86 setup !
info, pics, details, etc

I own two AE86's but i don't think i'm still an AE86 enthusiast
but
with the site I think it going to help a feed the AE86 addiction

[andy97]

There always used to be a fair few rally ones in Ireland in tarmac spec, not sure where they have all gone? Would be good club racing cars for CSCC, 360 6 hours (in fact one rqaced in the first event IIRC), Pre 93 etc

[willofan]

Welcome Keeffo,
What sort of information are you after? I own an original TTA TRD factory works car built in Japan for the Australian Touring car scene back in the eighties and may be able to help.
In fact there is still a few aroundf being raced in Historics here in Aus.
Otherwise there is plenty of Group A and N2 info around on various forums.
Rgds, Chris

Originally Posted by Keeffo

Hi
just registered after seeing the "Group A Toyota Corolla History" thread.
this is what i have been looking for.

Its very hard to find AE86's built for racing, well in Ireland anyway
(its all drift) I want 1986 BTCC AE86 setup !
info, pics, details, etc

I own two AE86's but i don't think i'm still an AE86 enthusiast
but
with the site I think it going to help a feed the AE86 addiction

[Eircamae86]

[Keeffo]

Sorry for the late Reply,
I am a Marine Engineer so a 4-5 month trip at sea is normal.
anyway

straight to your question: What sort of information are you after?

as i said i am looking for 1986 BTCC AE86 setup or present ideas for racing,
but mostly BTCC T50 (gearbox) information.
are T50's used? split case modified? bearing upgrade? straight cut gears?
or is it just a TRD close ratio upgrade?

I am always looking for parts, ideas and information only problem is money and free time, lol

Any information will help

Im not a usual thread reader so i would love to post pictures of my race spec AE86 Levin (in progress, as always) and my Standard UK model AE86 also in progress but i dont think its the subject of discussion on the Thread.

all the best
kevin

[Keeffo]

Mr. Eircamae86

we Irish share very similar interests in AE86's,
I have been to Japan too to see the amazing 2010 AE86 festival,

Your AE86, do you every show it on display at events in Ireland?
I would love to see it.

Kevin

[ae86]

Hi there

I can see there have been soem post about the CHMS cars (face lifted model)

there was build 5 cars, one was write off in SPA 86

all cars have alu roll cage by gartrac
and the alu front up right with big bearings (see homologation form)
acid dipped chassis
alu radiator

have only part off the stories for one off cars, one was build for a lady driver and that car had the owner off knock hill racing circuit for many years (green) was sold to a UK AE86 parts dealer in the end off the 90'ies

I have seen chris have been here in the forum have any one asked him what happens with the cars ?