Group A Rover 3500 SD1/Vitesse - History & Whereabouts

[chunterer]

Yep, now i'm really worried!

My other thought based on reading your link is that the original Grp A rally cars might well have been the old Grp 1 racers uprated?!

How are we going to get a definite line, assuming anyone is permitted to come forward and give us clues.

For all we know there may have been a TWR policy to keep certain info behind closed doors?

Can we get Ken Clarke or another senior ex TWR engineer on to discuss this?

[John Turner]

I'm bringing this one back to the top, because I think the Rover merits a similar approach to the BMW 635CSi. Both threads are likely to go, eventually into the Chassis Archive.

[chunterer]

Yes that would be excellent John!

All we need is someone with some half decent technical knowlwdge of the cars in question to come on here and help us confirm some of them - that may then start some word of mouth and others might come on and carry the number confirmations on a bit?

Lets have a quick brainstorm folks:

Who does anyone know that either posts on ten tenths, or knows professionally so to speak that was working with Vitesses at the time, who can add further weight to what we're trying to achieve?

Ex TWR guys, ex Rouse guys, how about John Davenport he must know something??

There has to be someone!!

[John Turner]

Athough it didn't turn up, a Bastos liveried SD1 was entered for the Heritage GT Challenge Race at Snetterton last week, by Chris Williams. I have no idea whether it is an 'original' though.

[KA]

Yes, the Williams car is the real thing- there are links to pics of it in action at Donington earlier this year, and some history posted a couple of pages ago

[grelley]

TWR cars numbers 5 and 18 are sitting in a garage in Dunedin, New Zealand.Car 18 has been used in classic racing ib New Zealand for a number of years and car number 5 has just been imported. Car 18 is sometimes driven by Allan Scott who worked for TWR and who was responsible for bringing car number 18 to New Zealand, as he owned it at the time.

[chunterer]

Ok folks, i've just kicked it off over on the chassis archive.

Further discussion and memories welcome on here, but any further factual info about chassis numbers, specific drivers, liveries etc please add/amend to the archive list as and when please.

[John Turner]

It's here folks:-

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86265

[John Turner]

I've now added much of this thread to the one started in The Chassis History Archive as there is a lot of good info. and research which led to his summary. However, it would be good to keep it coming. It's here:-

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...t=86265&page=7

I'm 'unsticking' this thread now!

[bigears]

Sorry to bump up this old and excellent thread.

I got rare onboard footage of Trevor Lewis' Rover during the Modified Saloon race at the Birmingham Superprix in 1987 (or 1988?) so I am planning to upload it into youtube so is anyone interested?

Chunterer, I am extremely interested to see those photos of the race-long scrap during that race at the Birmingham so is there any chance of seeing them yet?

Same for any other people with any Birmingham Superprix related photographs as well.

[Chris Griffin]

Originally Posted by bigears

I got rare onboard footage of Trevor Lewis' Rover during the Modified Saloon race at the Birmingham Superprix in 1987 (or 1988?) so I am planning to upload it into youtube so is anyone interested?

errrr VERY!

[terence]

Hope this to be of some help,A] Martin Thomas, Dont think he still has it, certainly not when I last visited him a couple of months ago. B] Brian Chatfield]My ex employer ,Arthur Carter ex Holly Enterprises Arthur bought the "Bastos"from Brian ,when it arrived it had been repainted in the Esso colours.We stripped it back to bare and whilst doing so came across "Jean Louie Schlesser" on the roof.We had been told that it was one of the TWR Bastos cars so thats how i repainted it,[masking off "Bastos" was an absolute pain,but well worth the effort,I did nothing to the roof panel,it was in good enough order not to worry about it soas not to have to rewrite the Jean Louie script again.Unfortunatly I have no idea as to the where abouts of the car now.I think maybe I could find out in the near future,as and when I,ll let you know.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by terence bower

Hope this to be of some help,A] Martin Thomas, Dont think he still has it, certainly not when I last visited him a couple of months ago. B] Brian Chatfield]My ex employer ,Arthur Carter ex Holly Enterprises Arthur bought the "Bastos"from Brian ,when it arrived it had been repainted in the Esso colours.We stripped it back to bare and whilst doing so came across "Jean Louie Schlesser" on the roof.We had been told that it was one of the TWR Bastos cars so thats how i repainted it,[masking off "Bastos" was an absolute pain,but well worth the effort,I did nothing to the roof panel,it was in good enough order not to worry about it soas not to have to rewrite the Jean Louie script again.Unfortunatly I have no idea as to the where abouts of the car now.I think maybe I could find out in the near future,as and when I,ll let you know.

Thanks Terence this is excellent additional info. I notice you've expanded your thoughts in this thread

Please see my questions and therories in the archive as well!!

Martin Thomas ran Mike O Brien and Neil McGrath in 1986/87 I think.
Neil raced the ex Gordon Spice car which ended up in Skid Scarborough's hands in 1987.

I'm fairly sure that O Brien's was an ex TWR car and have a feeling that this car is the one you know of that was 'restored.'??

This car might have been the sister car to the one Dave Carvell drove in 1987;the 2 cars possibly being the 1984 Sanyo pairing in BTCC that were driven by Tony Pond and Lovett/'Schles'.

[bigears]

Originally Posted by bigears

Sorry to bump up this old and excellent thread.

I got rare onboard footage of Trevor Lewis' Rover during the Modified Saloon race at the Birmingham Superprix in 1987 (or 1988?) so I am planning to upload it into youTube so is anyone interested?

Chunterer, I am extremely interested to see those photos of the race-long scrap during that race at the Birmingham so is there any chance of seeing them yet?

Same for any other people with any Birmingham Superprix related photographs as well.

Here you are then.

I hope someone out there got some photos of that race (or other races) at the Birmingham Superprix.

[A Quartermaine]

Originally Posted by Charlie123

This is where we've got with regards to the history of the car so far. . It started life as chassis 17 before Tom Walkinshaw crashed it at Zandvoort. Dennis Leech then reshelled the car. Most recently Ken Clarke who was one of the TWR mechanics at the time has given it a total rebuild and restoration; and then we step in. . . My father bought it last year, and we're competing in a few races in the Heritage Touring Cars. We took it to Spa a month or so ago as well, where Jeff Allum's son informed us that Jeff would be bringing his TWR Rover out for a jolly at some point. . so there's the whereabouts of another of them.

In conclusion, our Rover isn't the most original as it was reshelled, but it is basically the same car with all the original parts attached, and damn good fun!

History on the Dennis Leech car
Charlie, my father owned this car during the early 90's he purchased it from Nick Humphrey referenced further back in this discussion forum. The history i know is summarised below:

The car was reshelled by Dennis in the late 80's, that shell was then destroyed by Nick at Mallory park. A new shell was prepared in pure white with the underside painted blue. Nick then sold the car to my father with buckets and buckets of spare TWR components - all very well engineered.

The car did not run well at firs,t it ate Crown wheels regularly and the engine suffered from problems - when extracted the block had been ARALDITED together as mentioned in an earlier discussion. The engine was rebuild and a dry sump system fitted.

The car was used in Modified saloons against Brian Chatfield and the other BASTOS car mentioned, so that makes 3 in one series in the early 90s.as i dont believe the derek hale car was a TWR car. It was also used in thunder saloons but was a little underpowered by comparison to some of the more exotic machines. In order to help it along we did fix perspex and fibreglass panels (all the steel panels and glass were retained).

The car was sold on in 93/4 during our ownership it was always white an ran with sponsorship from ESTDALE. It was a fabulous car that was very regretfully sold. I have some pictures floating around that i will post in due course.

Best wishes
Adam Quartermaine

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bigears

Here you are then.

I hope someone out there got some photos of that race (or other races) at the Birmingham Superprix.

Car sounds tremendous. Interesting looking a the back of Dave Streather's Capri, Brian Chatfields ex TWR Vitesse (briefly!) and Nick Cresswell's Autocavan Golf which was a real little rocket!

Originally Posted by A Quartermaine

The car was sold on in 93/4 during our ownership it was always white an ran with sponsorship from ESTDALE. It was a fabulous car that was very regretfully sold. I have some pictures floating around that i will post in due course.

Best wishes
Adam Quartermaine

I guess the car was originally reshelled by Dennis in 1988 after he pranged it at Thruxton scrapping with he M3's?

Llook forward to seeing the pics Adam!

[terence]

As I have already stated in the Chassis History thead,the Chatfield Bastos car was in the Carter collection in Norfolk,I also did a small amount of work on the Bornebusch car whilst Carter owned it,again purchased from Brian, this car was indeed "plain white" with fluoresent red wheels. It was built to the same spec as the other TWR cars,when we received it ,it was in surprisingly good order,not requiring much doing at all. This car was sold on after a couple of years but unfortunatly I cant remember the buyers name.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bigears

Chunterer, I am extremely interested to see those photos of the race-long scrap during that race at the Birmingham so is there any chance of seeing them yet?

Well I hope I don't jam up anything!!

The first pic is the scrap you mention with Jim Mensley leading (god knows the history of this car!), Barry Barnes is second I think in the ex Grp 2 1979 ETC Rover and 3rd is Chatfield in the ex Bastos car that Terence Bower must be referring to.

The 2nd shot is of this particular car leaving the wholesale market paddock prior to the race.

[big andy]

heres some footage from brscc modified saloons 1987 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4NSDQYurEc

[chrisgram]

Refer youtube for video I took of Chassis No 18 Rover Vitesse in New Zealand. I have a few other videos also-closeup, inside, engine bay etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJFaO2YYUXc

[terence]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Well I hope I don't jam up anything!!

The first pic is the scrap you mention with Jim Mensley leading (god knows the history of this car!), Barry Barnes is second I think in the ex Grp 2 1979 ETC Rover and 3rd is Chatfield in the ex Bastos car that Terence Bower must be referring to.

The 2nd shot is of this particular car leaving the wholesale market paddock prior to the race.

Im sorry to dissapoint but that is not the car I restored,the paint scheme could have been altered ,but I,m quite certain it is not the one. Chris, thanks for PM.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by terence bower

Im sorry to dissapoint but that is not the car I restored,the paint scheme could have been altered ,but I,m quite certain it is not the one. Chris, thanks for PM.

Arghh!! More confusion

Terence, which one are you referring to?

The no. 18 of Chris in NZ or the one in my pic coming out of the Bham wholesale market?

[bigears]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Well I hope I don't jam up anything!!

The first pic is the scrap you mention with Jim Mensley leading (god knows the history of this car!), Barry Barnes is second I think in the ex Grp 2 1979 ETC Rover and 3rd is Chatfield in the ex Bastos car that Terence Bower must be referring to.

The 2nd shot is of this particular car leaving the wholesale market paddock prior to the race.

Fantastic photos! They are wonderful!

Hope you got some more from other races (or other years from 1986-1990) if you got any as well. You can PM me if you want to. If there is any particular photo or car from the BSP (short for Birmingham Superprix) then let me know!

[chunterer]

Attached is shot of a TWR Sanyo/Esso Vitesse taken in 'parc' ferme' after the Thruxton Whitsun Trimoco race in 1984.

No 11 was Tony Pond's car I think?

This is likely to be either chassis 004 or 005 and could be the one Dave Carvell ended up with in 1987 and then disappeared in Belgium the following year!

Great livery as i'm sure Chris Griffin will agree!!

Sorry folks, the jpeg doesn't appear to have uploaded. I'll investigate on Monday!

[chunterer]

I think it should have worked this time.

So, for second time of asking attached is TWR Sanyo/Esso Rover Vitesse (either chassis 004 or 005) from Thruxton Whitsun bank holiday meeting 1984.

The race itself was memorable for the lead battle between guesting Steve Soper's Fleet ETC example and Andy Rouse's ICS model. Soper won the battle and got one back over Andy for the defeat in the opening round!

Note this was the penultimate event for the ARG supported cars. The works cars actually sported colour coded blue bumpers in their final event 2 weeks later at Silverstone's Euro F3 round.