Ex DJR / Trakstar RS500 Cosworth

[roop]

I was at the Ford RS Owners Club National Day at Donington on Sunday. Andy Lloyd was ou tin his Ex-Dick Johnson Sierra RS500 . This car is Dick's 1987 car (originally built for him by Andy Rouse) that was driven by Dick in the 1987 Bathurst 1000 amongst others. It was subsequently sold to the Trakstar team here in the UK and driven by Robb Gravett. The car in now in private hands and has been restored to it's Shell Ultra-Hi colour scheme and I think you will agree, looks great. Pictures and a short video below.





Video here : http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g56

Cheers,

Roop

[LongQ]

Does that explain why Sunday was louder than Saturday and with a little less tyre squealing?

[FourWheelDrift]

Is that the Championship winning Trakstar/Gravett Sierra?

[kleonard]

nice car....my dad had the only group n sierra cosworth built by trackstar motorsport..(m smith and rob gravett)... i was in there factory back then and i thought they built there own cars and used mountune engines...???

[roop]

LongQ said:

Does that explain why Sunday was louder than Saturday and with a little less tyre squealing?

Saturday was a general Donington track day, not a specific RSOC one as the event was one-day only this year. This was because Donington put the price of the circuit hire up dramatically from last year. Sunday, there were a couple of very loud cars including an ear splitting tarmac spec RS200. Security was still not good and at least two RS cars were stolen from the event so I doubt it will be at Donington again.

FourWheelDrift said:

Is that the Championship winning Trakstar/Gravett Sierra?

kleonard said:

I thought they built there own cars and used mountune engines...???

No. For 1989, Trakstar bought two Dick Johnson RS500's. One was Dick's car, driven by Robb and the other was a second DJR team car driven my Smiffy. Unfortunately, Robb put his car into the wall at Thruxton which necessitated a new section of shell for the rear of the car. For 1990, they had a new car built for Robb which won the championship and Mike did only one or two races I think due to financing problems after the principal sponsor pulled out. The 1990 championship winning car is now, sadly, just a shell. I know of it's whereabouts but it will never be original again and is therefore not worth building up unless you really wanted it as cost will far outweight value. (Gp.A RS500's cost between £100 and £150k to build back in the 1980's).

[anonymous-user]

roop said:

Saturday was a general Donington track day, not a specific RSOC one as the event was one-day only this year. This was because Donington put the price of the circuit hire up dramatically from last year. Sunday, there were a couple of very loud cars including an ear splitting tarmac spec RS200. Security was still not good and at least two RS cars were stolen from the event so I doubt it will be at Donington again.

thats really bad news to hear about cars being stolen but how is it donnington's fault?

[roop]

The RSOC hire the circuit and security as a part of a package - security is organised by Donington. This is the second year in a row where cars have been stolen and the security were completely useless / disinterested.

pablo said:

thats really bad news to hear about cars being stolen but how is it donnington's fault?

[rubystone]

Great cars indeed - I watched them race at Brands and Silverstone many tmes. Is that shell at Graham Hathaway's by any chance?

[roop]

I don't believe it's Graham Hathaway that looks after the car although I could be wrong. I think Andy Lloyd pretty much does it all himself.

Last year we had this car out plus the 1987 Bathurst Rouse/Moffatt ANZ car, a 1988 Eggenberger car declaed as the 1987 Bathurst Soper/Dieudonne Texaco car, the 1990 Bathurst Brock/Rouse Mobil 1 car and the ex-Tim Harvey Labbatts car. Drivers at the event included Rouse and Harvey...

rubystone said:

Great cars indeed - I watched them race at Brands and Silverstone many tmes. Is that shell at Graham Hathaway's by any chance?

[LongQ]

roop said:

LongQ said:

Does that explain why Sunday was louder than Saturday and with a little less tyre squealing?

Saturday was a general Donington track day, not a specific RSOC one as the event was one-day only this year. This was because Donington put the price of the circuit hire up dramatically from last year. Sunday, there were a couple of very loud cars including an ear splitting tarmac spec RS200. Security was still not good and at least two RS cars were stolen from the event so I doubt it will be at Donington again.

Ah, right, that would explain it. My DPRAC info sheet listed it as a 2 day event but I figured the Saturday sounded more like a track day - and then some thinking about it. Also why only the Sunday had any commentary.

The thefts are bad news. I have noticed some attempts to tighten up on circuit access at the paddock end on trackdays but in the end the only thing you can rely on is your own security efforts.

Oddly we never hear much about the events and activities of thieves at Donny when the local plod report how successful crime reduction has been each month in the local rag.

Probably the responsibility of a different division ...