Friday 3rd December 2010

Historic Touring Cars Set To Return

This could be good - a new series for '77-'85 tin-tops

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Motor Racing Legends has announced plans for a new historic race series featuring the Group 1, 2 and Group A Touring cars that pounded British and European circuits between 1977 and 1985.

The new series will be called the JD Classics Challenge, and the races will be for real race cars from the era, running to the correct period specification. To get us in the mood, they've sent us a couple of evocative pictures from the era to back up the announcement. (Which also prompted us to think this might be a good time to start a 'show us your period Touring car pics' thread...)

"We believe a lot of the genuine race cars still exist, sitting in garages, but they're not being brought out en masse as there isn't a series catering exclusively for them," says MLR's Duncan Wiltshire. "We hope to change all that. We're also looking at inviting selected cars from American series - IMSA production cars from the 1977-85 period.

"In Europe, it was the era of TWR XJ-S and BMW 528, of Alfa GTV6, Audi Coupé and Ford Sierra XR4i, piloted in their day by such stars as Win Percy and Andy Rouse. Before that came the likes of Triumph Dolomite Sprint, BMW 3.0 CSL and Jaguar XJ 12C - not forgetting the evergreen Ford Capri."

So do we like the sound of this here at PH? Yes, we think we do!

The first race is planned for the Donington Historic Festival over the weekend of 29 April to 1 May next year. Meanwhile, who's got pics?

[mwstewart]

Absolutely splendid!

[r11co]

How many people can remember the old Celica Supra (darting off the starting line in the first pic)? Way back before the Supra became a model in its own right!

Lol at the 'Stallion' too (the car that was of course replaced by last week's 'Shed').

Edited by r11co on Thursday 2nd December 13:49

[plasticpig]

I would love to see this race:

[sideways sid]

Great news and surely an opportunity for PH to race a Shed for a season...

[sideways sid]

Great news and surely an opportunity for PH to race a Shed for a season...

[r11co]

sideways sid said:

Great news and surely an opportunity for PH to race a Shed for a season...

I suspect that most of the eligible cars will have reached 'collectible' or at least rate status. An SD1 would be a good option though as Rimmer Bros. have just dropped the price of all their body panels.....

Edited by r11co on Thursday 2nd December 13:52

[Horatio]

Extend it to '87/'88 and let those RS500's loose..
Those Eggenberger Cars were Magic, Happy Memories

[Twincam16]

This is good news.

and '80s Group A' revival race and a '90s Super Touring' class reunion would make for great events too.

[Foxmod]

My Mate Andy has this:-




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7iK-o1g-ss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JAD0Z7Ilfo

I'll tell him about the series

Dave

[Nicholas Blair]

Excellent stuff!

[bilko2]

Never pay to watch touring cars but i would for this!
Definitely!

[cml]

plasticpig said:

I would love to see this race:

Too valuable now? Not sure how many they made, not many though.

[chevronb37]

cml said:

plasticpig said:

I would love to see this race:

Too valuable now? Not sure how many they made, not many though.

Chris Scragg has one which is active. It was tested by Willie Green and has since raced in Masters Touring 70s events, I believe.

[alfa pint]

bilko2 said:

Never pay to watch touring cars but i would for this!
Definitely!

I'm with you fella! Watched this sort of thing as a kid, but the current stuff leaves me a bit cold.

[dowahdiddyman]

Finally some proper car racing is going to hit our race tracks.

[Small Car]

This is nothing new is it? It's been running for years as the Classic Touring Club with pre 93, Group 1 etc. Great fun to watch and I had one of the cars that is back racing in the pre 93, the Supra, which I think has ended up third in this years Championship? Why is this one any different?

[dandarez]

I watched a lot of the British Saloon Car Championship racing in my time (changed its name to Touring Car in 87 after restructuring of classes).

For me the best period by miles was undoubtedly the early 70s - the era of the unbeatable Bevan/McGovern Imp.
It took the Championship outright 3 years on the trot. Up against the Longman Minis, Broadspeed Escorts, the Yank tank Camaros - Frank Gardner said to Bevan of the Imp 'that ******* car of yours runs like clockwork!' and so on.
The 3-wheeling was just a sheer delight to watch.

The Bevan Imp was simply a fantastic car, with a fantastic engine builder in the late George Bevan (who built the most powerful Imp engines in his garden shed! - the steel bodied 1-litre Imp was repeatedly timed at 136mph down Silverstone Hangar Straight and regularly exceeded 10,000 rpm!), and of course, had a fantastic driver in Bill McGovern. A brilliant home grown team and no need for 'works' assistance, they did it the 3 times on their own.
The car has recently been rebuilt and I can't wait to see it in action again.


Here's Bill at the wheel at Thruxton in 1972 carrying the appropriate No. 1.

Edited by dandarez on Thursday 2nd December 15:45

[hesnotthemessiah]

Wouldn't miss it for the world!





Well that may be a slight exaggeration but nevertheless, I can't wait!

[j3ffers]

Anyone got a link to the rest of the calendar/circuits?

[ManOpener]

I'm pretty sure they ran some historic races alongside the National Saloon Car Championships a few years back. Really enjoyed watching them, and would love a proper series.