Wednesday 8th September 2004

Endurance racing at Donington

The EERC opens its doors to TVRs, Ferraris and Porsches

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The European Endurance and Racing Club (EERC) plans to run an “open” race for all sorts of GT cars involved in UK championships at its exclusive meeting at Donington Park on 6 November 2004. The two-hour race, which will be run as a separate entity to the Britcar and Britsports/Gold Arts races, will cater for cars from the following series:

 British GT (N-GT and Cup)
 Porsche Cup
 Pirelli Maranello Challenge
 TVR Tuscan Challenge
 
EERC Series co-ordinator James Tucker is confident that a sizeable entry can be mustered, commenting “For the last two winters Britcar has played host to serious contenders from the major UK GT championships once their season has finished. With the 24 hour race at Silverstone now set for next September, and the proposed re-structuring of the Britcar classes in 2005, this is a unique opportunity for both the club and the teams to test the water in a competitive environment, and will offer unrivalled value for money for track time”.

The current Britcar series already boasts many renowned national champions  amongst it’s regular drivers, and some exotic and powerful machinery. The planned  class realignment for 2005, plus MSA Championship status, aims to attract a wider range of entrants.

The 2005 provisional Britcar calendar looks like this :-

March 26  Silverstone International 2 hours
April 16  Brands Hatch Indy  2 hours
May 20/21  Snetterton   5 hours
June 4/5  Spa  (evening race)  4 hours
July 2   Brands Hatch GP  3 hours
July 23   Oulton Park   3 hours
August 21  Thruxton   2 hours
September 9/10/11 Silverstone – Willhire  24 hours
October 15  Zolder     2 hours
November 5  Donington Park (night race) 2 hours
November 26  Brands Hatch GP(night race) 3 hours    

For further details, contact the EERC at [e-mail] , or contact James or John Veness on 01252-834377.

[jamesc]

Lots of racing and good value for money! Tuscans, Porsches and Ferraris all together! This will give the majority of TVR fans what they want.

[V8 Archie]

Oh FFS! Will you please give up! At least until the Tuscan guys have worked out their end.

[griff2be]

If this is being highlighted by James as something the Tuscan guys could do in addition to the Challenge, then fair enough - although I have to say that most of James' recent postings have focussed on suggesting alternatives, which is a little unhelpful when efforts are being made to retain the Tuscans.

Anyway - a couple of observations about this...

...my understanding of Britcar is that normally for a Tuscan to run in the series it needs to be fitted with a second seat. That requires the removal of tonneau panels, re-siting of the fuel tank and pumps, ECU, fusebox and battery. If the TVR race engine is used then there is a problem in where to position the oil tank. It currently sits in what would be the passenger footwell - it could not stay there as it would be very dangerous. A road car engine does not require the oil tank so in some ways is easier to deal with - but fitting one requires the chassis to be chopped about to accomodate the sump.

In other words, quite a bit of work is involved in making a Tuscan eligible for Bricar - and once done the car could not then return to race in the Challenge.

If the Britcar rules have been relaxed for this particular open race then, yes, it might be fun to enter a Tuscan after our season finishes.

However I imagine TVR will want a fair amount of ££'s for the engine lease for a 2 hour race and a Tuscan may need GT compound tyres. The biggest difficulty I imagine would be re-fuelling - a Tuscan fuel tank is enough for about 30 minutes of racing - so a bigger tank would be needed, plus suitable refuelling fittings. It could end up as quite an expensive outing.

[The DJ 27]

I believe this is being run as a seperate race, not with the Britcar competitors. So you won't have to put a passenger seat in