thunder saloons and hybrids

[gravel_monkey]

hi guys, trying to find some pics, possibly video and information on the old thunder saloons and hybrids. such things as rod birley in the prelude, suggy in the 130 rs wildcat and the dfvw of colin hawker, can anyone point me in the right direction at all? and are any of these things still out and racing?

[R59]

Originally Posted by gravel_monkey

hi guys, trying to find some pics, possibly video and information on the old thunder saloons and hybrids. such things as rod birley in the prelude, suggy in the 130 rs wildcat and the dfvw of colin hawker, can anyone point me in the right direction at all? and are any of these things still out and racing?

Rod's old Prelude is now owned by Peter Thurston, and has been out in the BARC SE Sports & Saloons, as well as the Track & Race Cars series in the past. There are plenty of pics of it on Rod's website - rodbirley.com

If you have a dig around on here in the Photography forum, you'll find people who snap at Croft, and you'll find pics of Tony and his Skoda.

Duke had some videos of Thundersaloons on their listing some years back, not sure if they still have them listed.

I have the ex-Trevor Griffiths/Ian Connell Vauxhall Belmont, though these days it's powered by a 6.6L Chevy (which is causing me woe!), and has had even more of a "godzilla conversion" than before, pics etc.. on my website www.teamdangerous.com

Bill Shepherd's Calibra.... errrr well both of them... are still around. Ric Wood in Stockport has the second car (that Bill built), and Jon Mann in Bedford has the original Pilbeam built car. Ric has used his in NW Sports & Saloons from time to time since the demise of Formula Saloons, and Jon is currently building his up to run in the Track & Race Cars series.

The "Mighty Carlton" is still owned by Pete Stevens, and was last seen at the Goodwood Festival of Speed a couple of years ago when they had a big Vauxhall/GM presence.

Black Thunder (Rob Cox's Big Block powered Sierra - formerly the Gartrac Sierra-Porsche) has been modified beyond recognition - and is now a mid-engined, spaceframed beasty, owned by Mike Blomfield, and runs in the NW Sports & Saloons, and the DDMRC Sports & Saloons (Croft).

Of the Supersaloons - Doug Niven's V8 Beetle is being restored, the DAF55 Marathon is being restored, and there are others languishing in sheds all around the country waiting for the same. Some of the exotic single-seater based machines may have been turned back into single seaters as the original cars, but not sure about that.

Don't know anything about the DFVW.

This has also been discussed in the Historic sections of the forum too..

Rob.