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2 Feb 2009, 16:22 (Ref:2386652) | #76 | |||
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What were the reasons for the no-show racer69? |
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2 Feb 2009, 16:51 (Ref:2386672) | #77 | |||
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Incognito: An Italian phrase meaning Nice Gearchange! |
2 Feb 2009, 17:17 (Ref:2386706) | #78 | ||
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The Maserati Biturbo and Alfa 75 Turbo was also affected by the size of intercooler size, but only when the Group A regulations were reviewed for the 1988 season, which must have been 3-4 years after the Metro/Bluebird cases.
Jesper |
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2 Feb 2009, 20:15 (Ref:2386874) | #79 | ||
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I know someone who is building a replica Group 2 XJ12 Coupe that should be out sometime this year.
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You can't polish a turd but you sure can sprinkle it with glitter! |
3 Feb 2009, 13:03 (Ref:2387384) | #80 | ||
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606711071500/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606711071500/ Also, Jesper has mentioned that Toyota Starlets of various types raced in the JTCC. Well, one appeared in NZ for a few years between 1985 and 87, driven by Warren Burt. Picture here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606711071500/ |
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3 Feb 2009, 13:11 (Ref:2387392) | #81 | ||
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Would have done a number of races in the '85-86 B&H series, 86-87 NZ Touring Car Championship, 1986 Simpson series and the 86-87 Nissan Mobil series. It may have even appeared in a few NZ Touring Car Championship races in the late 80s when the organisers tried to boost flagging Group A fields by allowing cars any car that had been homologated in Group A to run in their original specification - even if the cars were out of homologation. The car was probably quite stock. I remember it had a practice crash at Wellington in either 1986 or 87. |
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3 Feb 2009, 13:28 (Ref:2387406) | #82 | |||
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I think Autosport covered the 1990 or 1991 FAtlantic and FFord series seriously with the TranzAm cars also being mentioned at a regular basis. But few words left for Group A since they were very few apparently and that they probably didn't run at all meetings. Jesper |
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4 Feb 2009, 00:45 (Ref:2387835) | #83 | ||
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Re privateer Jag XJS', the Aust. Muscle Car Magazine had an article on Gary Wilmington including his XJS which he said was one of the cheapest cars he'd raced! This included sourcing very cheap warranty-replaced engines from Jaguar Rover Australia.
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4 Feb 2009, 10:13 (Ref:2388027) | #84 | ||
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'Very cheap warranty-replaced engines from JRA?'
You mean he got some free engines or something? He would still have had to upgrade them to Grp A spec motors though surely? |
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4 Feb 2009, 10:21 (Ref:2388034) | #85 | |||
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The cost for JRA to bring out the team for '86 proved to be prohibitive. |
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4 Feb 2009, 13:04 (Ref:2388142) | #86 | ||
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I believe the original plan was to bring two Jags and two Rovers over to race. The Jags would have been driven by John Goss/Armin Hahne - defending their 1985 win, and Tom Walkinshaw/Win Percy. The Rovers were to be driven by Denny Hulme/Jeff Allam and Neville Crichton/Ron Dickson. I read that Tom was so serious about defending the 1985 victory against what would have been stronger opposition that he converted at least one XJS to left hand drive to better suit the anti-clockwise nature of Bathurst. Once the planned attack was called off, Denny Hulme found a drive in the Mercedes, Neville Crichton joined the Volvo Australia Dealer Team and John Goss converted his old Group C Jag to Group A specs. To get some idea of how the Jags would have gone, its worth watching the video on Youtube of the 1986 Fuji 500. It shows the Walkinshaw Jaguar and the Brock Commodore duelling on Fuji's long straights - where it seemed they were pretty equal to each other. The Jag seemed to have slightly a slightly higher top speed, but the Commodore was able to brake latter. Also, the Commodores and Jags proved pretty equal at the fast Pukekohe circuit when the XJS made its final appearance in the second round of the Jan 1987 Nissan Mobil series. The Commodore won out on that occasion (the Perkins/Hulme car), but the XJS was second. It probably would have been a similar scenario at Bathurst. Certainly the Jaguars would have found the 1986 opposition considerably stronger than the 1985 opposition. In fact the Rovers, which would have been just as fast as the Commodore and XJS on the long haul up Mountain Straight and down Conrad, might have been quicker then both across the top. We'll never know, the the Allam/Hulme Rover may well have been a strong chance if it had started in the 1986 Bathurst 1000. Last edited by brendonwood1; 4 Feb 2009 at 13:08. |
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4 Feb 2009, 13:19 (Ref:2388153) | #87 | ||
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The Group A cars were very much second tier in that series compared to the Formula Atlantic and the Sports Sedans/Transams. The support race for the NZ Grand Prix tended to attract slightly bigger fields of Group A cars. However, most teams tended to save their budgets for the endurance series. Group A was very popular in its early years in New Zealand. Especially the Nissan Mobil series held at Wellington and Pukekohe. However, once the BMW M3 and Sierra RS500 appeared on the scene, Group A started to decline in NZ. The costs became prohibitive for most of the local teams. The Nissan Mobil series remained a high point through until the end of Group A in 1992 - with Australian and European teams coming to compete. The NZ teams had their best chance to win the Wellington 500 in Group A's early years. In fact the first Nissan Mobil 500 was won by the local Mark Petch owned Volvo 240T in the hands of Robbie Francevic/Michel Delcourt. No New Zealand team managed to win the race again until 1993 when Owen Evans and Bruno Eichmann won in a local Porsche 911. However, by then the race was for NZ GT cars, FIA Class 2 (Super Tourers), Group N and NZ Production cars - and the field was of much lower quality than during the Group A years. |
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4 Feb 2009, 13:27 (Ref:2388156) | #88 | ||
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Baigent was disputing the lead of the open round at Manfield with the Commodore VK driven by Denny Hulme. The two cars touched, and the Baigent BMW ended up flipping two or three times. It was a bad smash. Kent broke his arm. I remember seeing a photo of the BMW in the NZ Herald after the crash and wondering how he got out alive. The car certainly never raced again. Not only that, one of the favourite teams for the Benson & Hedges and Nissan Mobil series was left on the sidelines for the rest of the summer. Neal Lowe ended up taking up an offer to join the Mobil Holden Dealer Team. Once he recovered from the injury to his arm, Kent Baigent ended up joining Graeme Bowkett and running a pair of Nissan Skyline DR30 Turbos with support from Nissan New Zealand from 1986 until 1989. |
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4 Feb 2009, 17:19 (Ref:2388295) | #89 | ||
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Thank you brendonwood, for shedding some light on Kiwi matters. By the late 1980s Autosport followed the Nissan Mobil 500 series quite comprehensively by Autosport and with good reason, as the best locals squared up against visiting Australians, Europeans and the odd Japanese entry I believe too.
http://www.progcovers.com/motor/tsukuba870315.jpg Starlets were mentioned a little earlier. Here's a programme cover with a mixed bag of Starlets of the older RWD KP61 and the newer FWD EP71, although none of these cars are Group A cars necessarily. Jesper |
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5 Feb 2009, 15:37 (Ref:2389126) | #90 | |||
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Could we logically deduct that if both the Alfa and Maserati had less restrictions on the intercooler size like the Metro and Bluebird did to begin with (I confess I didn't know the Metro's intercooler was potentially a big help in it's cracking pace) that both Italian cars would've fared much better? Could the 75 have been a real match for the M3? |
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10 Feb 2009, 23:03 (Ref:2394194) | #91 | ||
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In the DTM Magazin you can find some interesting articles about the Group-A-days of the DTM. In 03/2008 there is an six page article about some of the forgotten cars of the DTM with some rare pictures of the Vöhringer-Ritmo, VW Golfs, the Toyota Corolla of a certain Hermann Tilke, the Mercedes 380 SLC of Jürgen Leininger, the Behrens-Nissan or the Mitsubishi Starion of Richard Friederich.
In issue 02/2008 there is an article about ACS and their Camaros. And Jesper, you can find some background information about the failure of 1988. In issue 06/2008 you can find an article about Kissling Motorsport and their self-built Volvo 240. Last edited by Herbert; 10 Feb 2009 at 23:12. |
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11 Feb 2009, 09:18 (Ref:2394365) | #92 | ||
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Thank you for leading the attention to these articles, Herbert. Have been reading through old Rallye-Racing articles recently and got something for the RS500 thread.
Jesper |
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11 Feb 2009, 10:19 (Ref:2394513) | #93 | ||
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Hi Jesper, I added something on the Sierra and Rover thread ...
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11 Feb 2009, 12:36 (Ref:2395394) | #94 | |||
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Eddy Fresco seems to have been the driver of the Dutch Jaguar. Jesper |
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28 Feb 2009, 21:37 (Ref:2406205) | #95 | |||
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Jesper |
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28 Feb 2009, 21:50 (Ref:2406219) | #96 | ||
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Very early in this thread the Spa 1982 and '83 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC was brought up by chunterer. Claude Bourgoignie seems to have been the mover behind that project, but it had a twin:
http://cvc.com.sapo.pt/images/1982/1...rentes%202.jpg http://circuitoviladoconde.com.sapo.pt/1982.htm Look for the Grupo A2 results and the driver Sande e Castro. There's no use to look ahead for future results, because by 1983 he was racing a Jaguar XJ-S! Jesper |
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1 Mar 2009, 17:57 (Ref:2406772) | #97 | |||
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Kevin Eaton was a club level modsaloon driver before and after his stint in the BTCC. He might originally have been either a rallycrosser or hot rodder, can't quite remember. He also ran what is believed to be the last TWR Rover Vitesse built in the late 80's/early 90's TWR 020, mentioned somewhere deep in that thread!! |
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"Double Kidney Guv'nah?" "No thanks George they're still wavin a white flag!" |
1 Mar 2009, 18:50 (Ref:2406809) | #98 | ||
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1 Mar 2009, 19:38 (Ref:2406849) | #99 | ||
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..but still a beauty to watch
Here's links to Thomas Lindström and his Biturbo for the 1989 Swedish championship campaign: http://www.teambild.se/arkiv/details...74&mode=search http://www.teambild.se/arkiv/details...75&mode=search http://www.teambild.se/arkiv/details...76&mode=search Jesper |
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2 Mar 2009, 13:01 (Ref:2407339) | #100 | ||
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Can anyone turn up a pic of Eaton in the Bluebird- I think I've got a pic from Donington somewhere that shows about half of it as it was the car in front of the one I was actually aiming at- if I'd have known then that we'd be talking about it 20-odd years later, I'd have taken another pic.... |
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