Old Touring car videos

[eccles]

went a bit mad last weekend and splashed out £3 for three old videos, british touring cars 1988 and 1989, and the 1991 british saloon car championship.

got me all misty eyed with nostalgia looking at the quite bonkers fire breathing 500bhp sierra rs 500's battling it out with each other, bmw m3's in the next class down, the "amazing " new 16 valve vauxhall astra sweeping all before it.
as for the drivers, there's quite a mix of the old school chaps from the 70's, and the young guns, quite a few of whom are still around today.
another thing i noticed was the driving standards, far better than todays, with great close racing (and yes the odd nudge here and there), and barely any contact, and when there was it was punished!..... a far cry from todays championship.

one thing that suprised me was how good mike smith (TV blokey)was, he seemed to be far more than just someone getting a drive because of his name, and was actually quite competetive, if a little dirty, in his driving.

[GarrettMacD]

eccles said:

one thing that suprised me was how good mike smith (TV blokey)was, he seemed to be far more than just someone getting a drive because of his name, and was actually quite competetive, if a little dirty, in his driving.

I can't remember which year it was, either '88 or '89. Mike Smith was partnered with Frank Sytner and in one of the last races of the season (possibly the last) Frank Sytner needed to win his class and get fastest lap to get overall honours.

It was a wet race, starting to dry, but nobody came in for slicks. Except Mike Smith. He goes out and sets fastest lap, buggering-up Sytner's plans. Remember that they were team mates, and Mike Smith was a long way down in the championship, so the extra point he got was almost worthless.

You should have seen Frank Sytner go absolutely fooking mental after the race when he heard that Smith had set fastest lap. He actually went around the team giving them a bollocking for allowing Smith in for a tyre change. One of the funniest moments in racing, seeing this small bald man doing a Rambo impression. Great!!!

[F.M]

Great days...Mike Smith got spun by the field in the Birmingham round too...
A bit of an action man what with surviving a nasty helicopter crash too...

[eccles]

GarrettMacD said:

eccles said:

one thing that suprised me was how good mike smith (TV blokey)was, he seemed to be far more than just someone getting a drive because of his name, and was actually quite competetive, if a little dirty, in his driving.

I can't remember which year it was, either '88 or '89. Mike Smith was partnered with Frank Sytner and in one of the last races of the season (possibly the last) Frank Sytner needed to win his class and get fastest lap to get overall honours.

It was a wet race, starting to dry, but nobody came in for slicks. Except Mike Smith. He goes out and sets fastest lap, buggering-up Sytner's plans. Remember that they were team mates, and Mike Smith was a long way down in the championship, so the extra point he got was almost worthless.

You should have seen Frank Sytner go absolutely fooking mental after the race when he heard that Smith had set fastest lap. He actually went around the team giving them a bollocking for allowing Smith in for a tyre change. One of the funniest moments in racing, seeing this small bald man doing a Rambo impression. Great!!!

that was 1988 , its all on the video, sytner was absoloutely bouncing after the race (all on film!).......funny enough not long after that smith disappears from things, with no explanation , it wasn't until i watched the 1989 tape and they mentioned him stuffing his chopper that i realised where he'd gone, and he was driving for another team....

[trackcar]

Sytner to me always had the air of a spoiled kid about him "it's my team i'll do what i like" .. fair enough but not sporting to other team members.

Smith always seemed a bit "mansell" in his personality .. ecstatic on good days, downright miserable on poor days but very likeable nonetheless .. seemed to really want to "be there" in the racing rather than just making the grid names "armchair-spectator" friendly. i liked him

[eccles]

yes, sytner does come accross as a little arrogant.

as you say, smith is entertaining, but his driving was a little to much like todays drivers, if someone got punted off, smith was quite often involved, and a few of the drivers mentioned it!

[williamp]

I've got the touring car video from 1992, with THAT Soper crash at the end, letting Tim Harvey win. Great to watch.

[dank]

Where can you get these videos? I really want to get some, I have one from 1994 and it's fantastic racing. Much much better than now.

[F.M]

e bay...motorsport videos...

[rallycross]

Mike Smith was a good driver.

Started competing in a semi-works Rallycross Escort aged 17 (his dad worked for Ford at the time, competitions dep't?).

He also won the Willhire 24hr saloon race at Snettertson in 85 or 86, driving a Series 1 Escort RS Turbo.

[Trackside]

rallycross said:

He also won the Willhire 24hr saloon race at Snettertson in 85 or 86, driving a Series 1 Escort RS Turbo.

With Lionel Abbott, latterly of fast Saab fame.

[Andy1973]

If anyone is willing to transfer some of these 80s videos to DVD i would gladly pay for them

[jimbobs]

There's a highlights DVD covering 1991 - 2002 which does cover some of the good old days. It doesn't go back to Sytner etc, but it does cover the Soper / Hoy / Cleland / Winklehock era. Also features the good old Soper / Cleland / Harvey dust-up from '92, many instances of Hoy & Bailey crashing their Toyotas into each other, and a whole load of moaning about Alfas:

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/509353/BTCC-Tales-F...

Cheers

Jim

[mmm-five]

Or there are these on Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_d_h_?url=searc...

[hornet]

I've got a whole box of these gathering dust...no idea people were still buying them!

[Finchy172]

The best 3 laps in BTCC History:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bCij9mYIokA

Birmingham Superprix
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PHXzrNyMc6I&feat...

Donnington 1998
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zXkWUCBoe4k

[jacobyte]

F.M said:

Great days... Mike Smith got spun by the field in the Birmingham round too...

That's what he wanted everyone to think. In fact, he simply spun on his own, as witnessed by a different camera angle .

[smack]

Ah, the great old days of Group A - Cossie V's Skylines

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pn_n1Jc3uzE&feat...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XMhj22QLH1Y&feat...

It's a quite day in the office!

[Killer2005]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bCij9mYIokA

I wish it could be like this again

[mark69sheer]

I didn't like Sytners barging of Smith off the track.
There are other reasons I was never fond of Frank Sytner including getting a personal telephone call from him once in 1992
I had a Mercedes 190E and I had part exchanged it for a 190E 2.6 sportline in a Southern Mercedes dealership.
About a year later i got a phone call from Frank himself asking about my previously owned Merc.
I had taken it through a hedge one winter on black ice and had it repaired by the local Merc dealership . The repairs were all excellent and bonafide amaounting to no more than a new sill and door skin.
However that didn't stop Frank calling me up to ask about the car and how it had been dameged etc.
WTF was that to do with him I didn't even px it into his dealership nor when I did px it did I claim it was unrepaired.
If someone else after me was telling porkies thats not my concern.