Graham Goode - Datsun Bluebird Turbo

[ghinzani]

Originally Posted by 30psi

How much will all that fibreglass weigh?

Dont know but I loved it on Gran Turismo 2, was rwd and very sideways!

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by KA

That raises an interesting question- Chunterer speculated about what might have been if Graham Goode had opted to run a Skyline, rather than the Bluebird, in the BTCC.
The flip-side to that question has to be, bearing in mind that they'd got plenty of experience with the Bluebird under Group C regs, when Australia adopted Group A in '85, it's interesting that Nissan opted to sit on the sidelines for a year before running the Skyline in '86. Did they look at running a Group A programme in '85- they must presumably have been aware of what was happening in the UK?
Given what Goode managed to get out of the car with no factory support, I can't help wondering if Nissan Australia missed a trick by not looking at the Bluebird for the first year of Group A.
OK, the different class split in Australia would have hurt the car a bit (1600-2500cc in Europe against 2000-3000cc in Aus which put the Volvos and Starions in the middle class), but a factory-backed Bluebird surely would have been a potential class winner?

Nissan were spending too much money to be happy with class wins, they wanted outright glory. Also, the Bluebird was axed in the Australian market in 1986, so it would make little sense to develop a new car for only a season or two, manufacturers never want to race a superceded car. Also, Japan had gone with the Skyline, so it made sense to tap into their development programme rather than start from scratch.

[KA]

Makes sense I guess- not much point in pumping money into a car that's about to go off the market, especially if it's a 'class' car and you're aiming at outright wins.

The Bluebird always strikes me as being 'the one that got away' in Group A- Looking at the speed Graham Goode was able to get out of the car with no support and a privateer budget, then given factory-scale money and development behind it, a serious Nissan effort in the ETC with the Bluebird could have made hay against the Alfas in the 2.5 litre class in Europe in 84/85, and probably still given the Merc 190 and 325i a good fight in '86.

Throw into that mix the Escort RS Turbo, if it could be made reliable enough to last endurance races (another car that never really achieved all it could have- Longman's Datapost car was an absolute rocketship in qualifying for the '85 Silverstone TT, with only big class Rovers and turbos ahead of it...) and whatever further development Austin Rover could wring out of the little Metro Turbo if they'd stuck with it, the ETC 2.5 litre class could have been epic until the M3 arrived in '87...

Found a pic of the Goode Bluebird in Kevin Eaton's colours in '87- I'll scan and post it as soon as I can.

[ghinzani]

oh yeah Ive got a pic of it in Kevins grey and white colour scheme at home, will dig it out as promised some time ago.

[racer69]

Nissan Australia also originally intended to debut the Skyline at the start of the 1985 Endurance Championship, which would further explain their lack of another Group A program in 1985.

The touring car budget anyway was spent (and moreso!) on the one-make Pulsar Super Challenge in 1985


Regarding the Group C Bluebirds... there were 3 built (two in 1981, another in '82 or '83), do we know where the third one is?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by KA

The Bluebird always strikes me as being 'the one that got away' in Group A-

a serious Nissan effort in the ETC with the Bluebird could have made hay against the Alfas in the 2.5 litre class in Europe in 84/85, and probably still given the Merc 190 and 325i a good fight in '86.

Throw into that mix the Escort RS Turbo..

and whatever further development Austin Rover could wring out of the little Metro Turbo if they'd stuck with it, the ETC 2.5 litre class could have been epic until the M3 arrived in '87...

Crikey yeah, can you imagine the sizes of entry lists had this all come to bear?

1 or 2 teams of Bluebirds, GGR's and a quasi works European effort running 2 each, Longman and maybe the Wolf team running 2 RST's each, and UK and possibly German run Metro squads added to the already large squadron of Alfas and Mercs, we would have been talking about 20 odd cars in the second division alone!

[KA]

Poor-quality pics I'm afraid, but they were the only ones I could find- The Bluebird in Kevin Eaton's white/red/grey 'East Midlands Transport' colours at Donington in 1987

[30psi]

Thanks for those shots KA. Interesting to see it with the different colours

[KA]

No problem- just wish they were better pics. The Bluebird seems to have been fairly camera-shy during Eaton's ownership, I think the only pic I ever saw of it in Autosport or Motoring News that year was when he advertised it for sale in Autosport towards the end of the season.
He only appeared in a handful of BTCC races that year- no more than half-a-dozen, just doing his fairly local rounds at Donington and Silverstone (Like Grahame Goode, he was based in the Leicester area)

Funnily enough we've recently been discussing the colourscheme in the Rover thread (Kevin later had an ex-TWR Rover).
Apparently the white/red/grey were the colours of his company, East Midlands Transport, whose name appears on the car as main sponsor. After the Bluebird, he had a Group A Corolla which he used in a few early 1988-season BTCC rounds and the Rover for Modsaloons- both were painted in variations of the same colourscheme.

I've heard a suggestion that when Eaton sold it,the Nissan might have gone overseas- that would certainly explain how it seems to have disappeared off the UK racing scene altogether, unlike a lot of ex-BTCC cars which filtered down to club racing, particularly in Modsaloons, Thundersaloons etc.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by KA

I've heard a suggestion that when Eaton sold it,the Nissan might have gone overseas- that would certainly explain how it seems to have disappeared off the UK racing scene altogether, unlike a lot of ex-BTCC cars which filtered down to club racing, particularly in Modsaloons, Thundersaloons etc.

Wow, now there's a quest for us History buffs!!

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by KA

No problem- just wish they were better pics. The Bluebird seems to have been fairly camera-shy during Eaton's ownership, I think the only pic I ever saw of it in Autosport or Motoring News that year was when he advertised it for sale in Autosport towards the end of the season.
He only appeared in a handful of BTCC races that year- no more than half-a-dozen, just doing his fairly local rounds at Donington and Silverstone (Like Grahame Goode, he was based in the Leicester area)

Funnily enough we've recently been discussing the colourscheme in the Rover thread (Kevin later had an ex-TWR Rover).
Apparently the white/red/grey were the colours of his company, East Midlands Transport, whose name appears on the car as main sponsor. After the Bluebird, he had a Group A Corolla which he used in a few early 1988-season BTCC rounds and the Rover for Modsaloons- both were painted in variations of the same colourscheme.

I've heard a suggestion that when Eaton sold it,the Nissan might have gone overseas- that would certainly explain how it seems to have disappeared off the UK racing scene altogether, unlike a lot of ex-BTCC cars which filtered down to club racing, particularly in Modsaloons, Thundersaloons etc.

That's right, when Kevin sold the Bluebird it went to Malaysia...

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by KA

That raises an interesting question- Chunterer speculated about what might have been if Graham Goode had opted to run a Skyline, rather than the Bluebird, in the BTCC.
The flip-side to that question has to be, bearing in mind that they'd got plenty of experience with the Bluebird under Group C regs, when Australia adopted Group A in '85, it's interesting that Nissan opted to sit on the sidelines for a year before running the Skyline in '86. Did they look at running a Group A programme in '85- they must presumably have been aware of what was happening in the UK?
Given what Goode managed to get out of the car with no factory support, I can't help wondering if Nissan Australia missed a trick by not looking at the Bluebird for the first year of Group A.
OK, the different class split in Australia would have hurt the car a bit (1600-2500cc in Europe against 2000-3000cc in Aus which put the Volvos and Starions in the middle class), but a factory-backed Bluebird surely would have been a potential class winner?

As I know Fred Gibson took over the Australian branch of Nissan Motorsport from Howard Marsden after the 1984 season. I don't know if this also included a moving of shop, but among the first priorities was to develop the DR30 Skyline Turbo for group A. The model was relatively prolific in the 1985 Japanese series but underachieved quite a lot in terms of speed and results. This seems to have been improved massively for 1986, presumably when the Gibson programme of homologations had had some effect.
Seems I missed this thread first time around.

Jesper

[KA]

Yes, couple that with what David said a few posts back about Nissan Australia focusing on outright wins rather than classes, and the obvious focus on the Skyline for the Japanese and Australian programmes, it explains why the Bluebird was overlooked despite it's obvious potential. Interesting that Graham Goode was the only privateer to look at the car though- I don't think any of the Japanese privateer teams tried it?

Interesting to see that the car went to Malaysia- We did have a brief thread on the Malysian/South-East Asia Group A races, (and some discussion in the Volvo thread- Peggen Andersson had some success out there with a 240T) but I don't recall the Nissan being mentioned.
http://ww1.ten-tenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103941

[Jesper OH]

Funny you should ask about a Japanese Bluebird! I have been looking at the 1987 Japanese series for a future thread. Look for #91, way down among the DNS' for the Fuji WTCC race:

http://www.jaf.or.jp/CGI/msports/res...i?race_id=2042
http://www.jaf.or.jp/CGI/msports/res..._id=2042&no=91

And there were at least one possible two New Zealand Turbos, although I'm not sure if these were real group A cars. There were a lot of discussion about some of the Kiwi cars were locally homologated cars running to group A regulations.

Jesper

[KA]

The Halliday car in NZ, which was a 4-door, rather than a Coupe

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

I don't know what kind of spec that was running to, whether it was 'full' Group A, or built to (or adapted from) the local NZ Production regs
AFAIK the 4-door was certainly homologated into Group A- Clifford Spencer campaigned one in British rallying for a while around 1984/5
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n7/Hurdsey/car59.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3179715...n/photostream/

[KA]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

That's right, when Kevin sold the Bluebird it went to Malaysia...

I was watching some video of the 1988 Macau touring car race on Youtube a while back, and noticed something distinctly Bluebird-shaped down the field....
(can't recall which part of the video I took the screencap from, though the car is briefly visible just after the start of Part 1, around the 35-second mark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_scAHWw5xhs )


Could it be the ex-Goode car? If it went to Malaysia after Kevin Eaton's 1987 BTCC appearances, it was certainly in the right part of the world, and Group A Bluebirds weren't exactly ten-a-penny... Alternatively, the mysterious Japanese-based car Jesper mentioned a few posts back?

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by KA

I was watching some video of the 1988 Macau touring car race on Youtube a while back, and noticed something distinctly Bluebird-shaped down the field....
(can't recall which part of the video I took the screencap from, though the car is briefly visible just after the start of Part 1, around the 35-second mark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_scAHWw5xhs )


Could it be the ex-Goode car? If it went to Malaysia after Kevin Eaton's 1987 BTCC appearances, it was certainly in the right part of the world, and Group A Bluebirds weren't exactly ten-a-penny... Alternatively, the mysterious Japanese-based car Jesper mentioned a few posts back?

I don't think that the car ever ventured out of Malaysia after Kevin sold it. Plus I'm sure that it retained a predominately white colour scheme...
I think it's more likely that this car at Macau is the Japanese-based car (or even another one not already un-covered).

[KA]

Thanks- there definitely seems to have been more than one out there.

On the other hand, this is definitely the Goode car- Kevin Eaton at Silverstone, 4th October 1987- this would be the last time the car appeared in the BTCC

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tracksi...57632440834137