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16 Dec 2011, 18:02 (Ref:3000911)
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#1 | |
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Veteran
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 5,402
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Group 1/Group A Vauxhall Astra/Opel Kadett- BTCC and DTM
Thought I'd kick off another Group 1/A car thread for the Vauxhall Astra in the BTCC. We've discussed quite a bit of this, but it's scattered through various threads (especially the 1989 BTCC thread), so I thought I'd pull it all together.
In European-market Opel Kadett form, the Mk2 also appeared in the DTM for a couple of seasons, until Opel brought out the Evo version of the big 3-litre Omega. Obviously, in the BTCC the best-known Astras were the factory-backed DCRS cars that took John Cleland to his first BTCC title in 1989, but the BTCC Astra story actually started a few years before... The first Astra seems to have been in 1982, when David da Costa ran a GM Dealer Sport backed, Gerry Marshall-run Astra in the 1300 class, with little success aganst the dominant Metros. Next attempt at racing an Astra was by Andrew Thorpe who occasionally ran a Mk1 GTE in the 1.6-2.5 class in 1984. The red 'Hampshires' car can be seen trailing the Alan Greenhalgh Golf in this shot at the Brands GP meeting http://www.flickr.com/photos/3611177...57625237123972 Unsurprisingly, the 1.8 litre fwd Astra was on a bit of a hiding to nothing in the class against 2.5 litre Alfas, and the 'pocket rocket' Metro Turbos, to say nothing of Graham Goode's Nissan which was beginning to show it's full potential by mid/late season... Next Astra was another occasional entry- Paul Harmer ran a Production Saloon Mk2 in the 1600-2 litre class in a couple of 1987 rounds Last edited by KA; 16 Dec 2011 at 18:30. |
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16 Dec 2011, 18:24 (Ref:3000920)
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#2 | |
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Veteran
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 5,402
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Things got serious for 1989 though- with the introduction of a 1600-2000cc class a couple of years before, and the arrival on the scene of the 2-litre 16-valve Astra GT/E, Vauxhall saw an opportunity and entered a pair of works-backed Dave Cook-run Astras for 1989.
John Cleland in #56... http://www.johncleland.net/images/1989_astra_2.jpg http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...er/6038839809/ .. was joined by rally driver Louise Aitken-Walker in a second car, #58. With only one 'race' spec Astra available at the start of the season, Louise did the early rounds in this LHD converted rallycar. http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...er/6039472764/ http://aitken-walkercars.co.uk/images/louise7.html The rallycar was developed into more of a 'proper' race car over the season, until Louise eventually got a new 'race' spec Astra (was this a brand new car, or did Cleland get the new chassis, with Louise taking over his early-season car?) http://www.vwmotorsport.com/download...01989%20WM.JPG However, by mid/late season, Vauxhall needed to boost the number of starters in the class to ensure Cleland could score full points, and the former rallycar (by now evolved into a full race car, and liveried to match the other two) continued to appear in the late-season rounds as #57 for Jeremy Rossiter http://i56.tinypic.com/11kcfae.jpg A fourth Astra occasionally joined in late-season to support Cleland's championship bid- this was Tony Lanfranchi's red and white Monorep prodsaloon... http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...er/5845495390/ What happened to these? IIRC, I've read somewhere that at least one was used as a test hack in the development of the first Cavalier for 1990's 2-litre regs. Vauxhall don't appear to have one- the car they usually display to represent Cleland's 1989 championship is clearly a show car based on a roadgoing Astra http://autotraderblog.files.wordpres.../10/btcc_9.jpg Anyone got any more? especially pics, or any idea of what happened to these cars More to come, with the DTM Kadetts.... Last edited by KA; 16 Dec 2011 at 18:35. |
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18 Dec 2011, 19:26 (Ref:3001633)
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 Race OfficialVeteran
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 15,722
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Did I read somewhere that John Cleland has his title winning car somewhere?
I also have a sneaky feeling that at least 2 of the cars ended up in rallying. Haven't been able to find where I saw that info yet though. Last edited by chunterer; 19 Dec 2011 at 18:58. |
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__________________
"Double Kidney Guv'nah?" "No thanks George they're still wavin a white flag!"
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19 Dec 2011, 09:42 (Ref:3001790)
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#4 | |
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Veteran
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 5,402
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That's a thought- you certainly might expect JC to have the car he won a BTCC title in- although having said that, I think his 1995 championship winning Cavalier is with Mike Newton http://www.supertouringregister.com/...r/vehicle/160/
It certainly wouldn't surprise me if one or more of the ex-BTCC cars were 'recycled' as rally cars- after all one of them aparently started it's career on the stages anyway... Vauxhall were certainly still rallying the Mk2 in 1990- that was the year Louise Aitken-Walker did a WRC campaign for GM Euro Sport and won the FIA Ladies WRC title. Although the cars were 'Euro Sport' rather than 'Vauxhall Sport' entries, and seem to have carried Opel Kadett GSi, rather than Astra GTE badging, looking at a few pics, they do seem to have been UK-registered, whereas German-entered 'Euro Sport' Kadetts usually seem to have been German registered. Looking at some pics and video, Louise's usual mounts that year seem to have mainly been 'G646TNM' and 'F954PBM'. Could either have been an ex-BTCC shell? http://aitken-walkercars.co.uk/images/louise.html http://www.rallye-cards.net/pages/en...monte1990.html http://faimg1.forum-auto.com/mesimag...e%20Aitken.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2763/...80c2e80d_o.jpg How many actual cars were used is another question, especially when you remember one ended up in a Portuguese lake.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhZFRUcyw0 Do we have any Vauxhall rally experts on 'Tenths? Last edited by KA; 19 Dec 2011 at 09:51. |
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19 Dec 2011, 19:01 (Ref:3001962)
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#5 | ||
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Race Official Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 15,722
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Cracking info there.
now you mention it, the rally cars that came during or after the BTCC campaigh were also built by subcontractors. It wasn't DCRS, I think it was a combo of Safety Devices (who I believe did more than just cages at one point?), Malcolm Wilson, Asquith and MSD maybe? Again, struggled to find my sources for that so I'd welcome you or any others to come forward and say who actually did build/run the rally cars KA! |
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__________________
"Double Kidney Guv'nah?" "No thanks George they're still wavin a white flag!"
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20 Dec 2011, 07:56 (Ref:3002133)
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#6 | |
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Veteran
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 5,402
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I can't recall who built the GM Dealersport rally Astras- though as you say, I'm sure MSD in Milton Keynes were involved with Vauxhall at that time?
Safety Devices were definitely part of Vauxhall's rally programmes in the 80s for a while-as I remember they ran Pentti Airikkala's British Telecom Astra http://www.flickr.com/photos/29877211@N08/5058022592/ After that though they moved on to run Pentti's Group A Starion in 1988 http://www.flickr.com/photos/daffy-dub/5867985364/ The name of Tim Ashton (BTR Preparations) also came to mind, as does Sydney Meeke in Northern Ireland, (he prepped Bertie Fisher's Manta 400), but I think they may have mainly been involved in some of the overseas Astra/Kadett programmes- Sweden, Belgium, Spain, etc http://www.btrprep.com/btr-history |
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20 Dec 2011, 10:00 (Ref:3002153)
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#7 | ||
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Race Official Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 15,722
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Ah yes Tim Ashton was involved, in the semi-works cars IIRC, and, of course Sidney Meeke's concern. Thanks KA!
 MSD were kind of under the radar even though they had been and were later involved in pretty serious campaigns both in rallying and in circuit racing like Hyundai WRC and the Honda BTCC IIRC (maybe a theme for another topic: prep firms who successfully managed on and off track programmes?) |
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__________________
"Double Kidney Guv'nah?" "No thanks George they're still wavin a white flag!"
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20 Dec 2011, 17:03 (Ref:3002321)
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#9 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 47
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Here are 2 pictures from the 1990 Tourenwagen Story Book showing Oberndorfer and Gohlke.
http://imageshack.us/f/20/oberndorfer.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/822/gohlke.jpg/ Both cars were entered by Schübel. Gohlke was chosen by Opel to represent the company in East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall one year before. He was the first East German driver in the DTM and had been quite successful in East European Touring Car Racing. IIRC, his first appearance was at the Avus where he rolled his car multiple times in the qualifying race. At least at that round the car even had additional sponsorship from tobacco company West which had to use the "East" name due to the tobacco ad ban in Germany, just like they used the "East" logos on the Zakspeed F1 cars in a few races. Obviously the little Kadett reached a top speed of around 275 km/h on the 1990 version of the Avus (roughly 4km lenght) But there were also a few earlier Kadett Models in the early days of the DTM. |
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30 Dec 2011, 16:36 (Ref:3005583)
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#10 | |
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Rookie
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 1
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With ref to the MkII Astra GTE 16V race cars from 88/89 I own the Monorep Car that Tony Lanfranchi raced and when I talked to Andrew Duerden at Vauxhall Sport a few years ago, he told me that the UK Race cars were sold off to, I think, an Italian team and were, as far as he knew, destroyed making mine the only survivor. They have actually built a replica of the BTCC title wining car to use for Historic displays etc. My car, and I was told a least one other, was built from a pre-production build RHD car that was the official road test car tested and photographed by Autocar in 1988 (it's road registered on an E-plate and I think all production cars were F-plates onwards) after which it was then Race prepped by Monorep for Tony Lanfranchi.
If anyone has any info on where my car competed, results etc. I'd be intrigued to know more about it. |
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31 Dec 2011, 07:52 (Ref:3005774)
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#11 | |
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Veteran
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 5,402
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Thanks! So maybe we need to be looking for Opel Kadett entries in the Italian Touring Car series in 1990 to have an idea of what happened to the DCRS Astras...
Regarding your Monorep car, it's good to know it's still around- I can't help with it's prodsaloon history without doing a lot of digging through old Autosports, but to the best of my knowledge it made at least three appearances in the BTCC in 1989- Autosport's BTCC reports didn't always list the complete race result in '89, but I think Tony Lanfranchi did the following BTCC races in the Astra:
As a prodsaloon running against Group A cars, Tony was always on a bit of a 'Mission Impossible' in terms of results, but I suspect his main role was to support Cleland's championship bid by ensuring that the minimum required number of cars started in the class for JC to score full points for the class win (IIRC the rule was something like at least 4 cars must start and complete the first one or two laps, otherwise either half-points or none at all were given for the class?) This was always a potential problem for Vauxhall's championship position, as apart from the Astras, the only regular entries in the class were the Alan Minshaw and John Morris Golfs, and Mike Jordan's Peugeot 309, which only did a few early-season rounds A pic of the car in a prodsaloon race http://s1.postimage.org/ycqwaq7xm/89_07_23_Astrasc.jpg Last edited by KA; 31 Dec 2011 at 08:14. |
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10 Feb 2012, 16:28 (Ref:3024157)
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#12 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 56
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"Sepp Haider and Klaus-Peter Thaler also had one run each in a third Irmscher car
" What are the start numbers of that cars ? |
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10 Feb 2012, 16:53 (Ref:3024171)
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#13 | |
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Veteran
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 5,402
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No idea- I don't think I've ever seen a picture of them. The regular cars were #9 (Oestreich), #10 (Oberndorfer) and #40 (Strycek)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...gsi16vdtm.jpg/ |
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10 Feb 2012, 17:06 (Ref:3024176)
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#14 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 56
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Yes i know.
I have heard also a story that one of the Kadett's is sold to the Dutch Rallye Team with Erwin Doctor. |
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11 Feb 2012, 10:52 (Ref:3024507)
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#15 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 47
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There seem to be a few pictures floating around of a DTM Kadett wearing number 43. So my guess is, that this was the car most likely driven by Haider in the last race of the 1989 season, or at least the number his car used then.
Since 1987 the starting numbers in the DTM were assigned to drivers and not the cars. This means that Thaler must have had a different starting number. According to my list #42 was unused, so this might have been Thalers number. |
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13 Feb 2012, 19:01 (Ref:3025382)
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#16 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 5
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I'm also looking for a lot of info about the DTM kadett.. (I see that a lot of photos from my photobucket are linked over here
..)The car at Opel (nr 43) can't be one of the later cars, because those had polyester hood and front bumpers...   I also have one photo, where you can see the original gear stick in the car. And not the sequential stick.. So what that means? I do not know. original kadett gear stick/knob:  sequential stick:  I do know there is a maintenance shop at russelsheim, where they work at older opels, but what exactly they do, i don't know. Roger Ps. This is also a very nice photo (think it is the DTM engine, but not sure) : 
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13 Feb 2012, 20:19 (Ref:3025418)
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#17 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 47
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I found a picture of the car #43, taken at the final race of 1989
http://www.tourenwagen-revival.de/in...nent&Itemid=96 Thalers car was probably the same, only different number and maybe different colours on the sunvisor/headlights for identification About the Gearsticks, could it be that one car is built by Irmscher and the other one by Kissling? Last edited by T-Man; 13 Feb 2012 at 20:27. |
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13 Feb 2012, 21:57 (Ref:3025471)
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#18 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 5
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Nice photo!
the rally car of Sepp Haider is also at Russelsheim, so maybe they also have his DTM car.. |
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4 Mar 2012, 11:58 (Ref:3034930)
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#19 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 56
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I have found a other Kadett that was in the DTM of 1990.
Driver: Kurt König Team: Auto, Test & Tuning Car: 26 DTM 1990. Who knows more, and is there any information hoe many Kadett are built for the DTM and is there information about the chassis numbers ? I will building a site about the Opel DTM car's all information is very welcome. You can write me also in Dutch. |
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4 Mar 2012, 14:38 (Ref:3034974)
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#20 | |||
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Rookie
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 47
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Quote:
Kurt König was a BMW regular since the first DTM season in 1984. In 1990 he drove the red M3 sponsored by Test&Tuning magazine. He also had an M3 in 1991, so it would be unlikely for him to switch to a Kadett somewhere mid-season. Also since the DTM has the rule that starting numbers are assigned to drivers and not cars, the Kadett would have had no.28 which was the number König used on the M3. No.26 was actually used by Toni Seiler on his one-off at the Nordschleife in the Bemani Supra. Anyways great to see that you're building a site about the little Kadett in the DTM. |
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7 Mar 2012, 11:56 (Ref:3036469)
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#21 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 56
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Hi,
my fault you are right the Kadett has Number 28. I have found it here: http://www.dtm-itc.de/dtm/1990/starterliste_1990.htm I have visit now also dtm.de and there was no Kadett no: 28 in 1990 i will removed from the list Last edited by Opelmad; 7 Mar 2012 at 12:05. |
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6 Sep 2012, 11:55 (Ref:3131963)
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#22 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 56
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Is there anyone who know's how many Kadett are built for the DTM ?
Are there chassis numbers from this cars ? |
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29 Jan 2013, 18:37 (Ref:3195871)
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#23 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 5
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Does anyone know the original colourcodes of the yellow, red and blue striping on the DTM cars or mainland rally gsi's 16v ? (the uk versions had a different shade of colour)
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7 Mar 2013, 10:41 (Ref:3215469)
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#24 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 47
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Looks like I found the missing 1989 DTM car.
There is a Opel Kadett carrying no.67 in the Qualification Race for the last race at the Nürburgring. This was the only round Thaler was entered so I guess it must be him. below is a screencap from the 1989 review video |
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29 Jul 2013, 00:31 (Ref:3283081)
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#25 | |
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Join Date: Dec 2005
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