RE: Gardner Douglas puts a roof on its GD T70

[anonymous-user]

chevronb37 said:

John - I presume from the M1B/C and P34 chat that you work with Wills/Twyman? Very exciting to see the P34 out from the museum after so long. I wonder if we will ever see Roger, Martin Stretton and Mauro Pane out together in the same race? That would be quite a spectacle.

I race prep some of Rogers cars yes, i was prepping the McLarens before Roger bought them and now help look after a lot of his cars with the guys in the team.

It's great to be working with the P34, Rogers is the first proper one, P34/2, the first was a 007 with the front of the P34 grafted on. It ran all of 76 and the first two races of 77 then became the test car for the rest of 77. It's had one race meeting since we restored it, doing Portimao at the end of last year, where Roger finished 4th and then 3rd in the HFO races, so back on the podium straight out the box, and first of the none ground effect cars in race 2.

Two of the P34's were recently re-united during some of the film shooting for Ron Howards Film about the Hunt/Lauda rivalry called Rush, both were wearing 1976 bodywork for that.

[chevronb37]

johnfelstead said:

chevronb37 said:

John - I presume from the M1B/C and P34 chat that you work with Wills/Twyman? Very exciting to see the P34 out from the museum after so long. I wonder if we will ever see Roger, Martin Stretton and Mauro Pane out together in the same race? That would be quite a spectacle.

I race prep some of Rogers cars yes, i was prepping the McLarens before Roger bought them and now help look after a lot of his cars with the guys in the team.

It's great to be working with the P34, Rogers is the first proper one, P34/2, the first was a 007 with the front of the P34 grafted on. It ran all of 76 and the first two races of 77 then became the test car for the rest of 77. It's had one race meeting since we restored it, doing Portimao at the end of last year, where Roger finished 4th and then 3rd in the HFO races, so back on the podium straight out the box, and first of the none ground effect cars in race 2.

Two of the P34's were recently re-united during some of the film shooting for Ron Howards Film about the Hunt/Lauda rivalry called Rush, both were wearing 1976 bodywork for that.

Hi John - you have a fascinating job! Couple of photos of P34/2 - first at the Donington Collection and then again with Roger at the wheel at Goodwood. I understand he drove it at Goodwood virtually as it left Donington so with little preparation. He's not afraid of using it as intended though. I have seen photos of a car in the States running '76 bodywork in historic events but it wasn't present at the only North American Historic F1 event I've attended, sadly.





In order to keep things vaguely topic, a couple more shots of glorious big banger sports racers. These are just random shots from my own archive which are already online so not much order to them.

Le Mans Classic 2010:




Lotus 30 at CTL workshops November 2009:




Silverstone Classic 2007:



Donington Masters 2009:



Goodwood Revival Whitsun Trophy 2009:




Donington Master 2008:



Silverstone Classic 2008:



Goodwood FoS 2009:



Donington Historic Festival 2011:




Goodwood Revival Whitsun Trophy 2010:

[anonymous-user]

Yes, the P34 ran at Goodwood straight out of the museum, bar us stripping out the old foam from the bag tanks and doing some safety work. It then had a complete strip down to the last rivet and was rebuilt keeping the car as close to original as possible. If you buy the FIA HFO 2011 season review book there is a section in the back that i wrote with a colegue on the restoration of the car, lots of photos too.

The last two photos are of cars i've worked with, the 2009 race winning M1B of Julian Bronson i did the suspension setup on, that's quite a famous car that was driven in period by Masten Gregory. The last is of Roger leading in his M1B in the 2010 race, with it's post qually tessa tape special repair front bodywork. Roger broke the outright lap record for Goodwood in that race, that was previously held jointly by clark/moss in F1 cars. Andrew Smith then went even quicker in his T70 spyder, they finished with Andrew winning, Roger second, in the best race i have ever seen round Goodwood, it was awesome to watch.

Edited by johnfelstead on Sunday 29th April 12:06

[chevronb37]

The Smith/Wills batttle was a stunner. Great to see such powerful cars being driven so beautifully. Possibly the fastest race ever at Goodwood? Nobody else cam close to touching them. There was another superb Whitsun Trophy where Ray Bellm in the GT40 and Frank Sytner in the T70 went toe to toe which I also enjoyed very much. As I recall Frank ended up in the infield gyrating while Bellm attracted the scruniteers' attentions. After all, a Group 4 GT40 should not really be as quick as a Group 7 T70...

Andrew Smith was also out in the 2010 Oulton Park Gold Cup.



And Joe Twyman was in Roger's M1B.



I dug out a couple of shots of Roger in the M1C fighting Ollie Bryant at Donington in the WSM clash a couple of years ago too.

[anonymous-user]

Probably was the fastest race around Goodwood, they were under the lap record many times. I was running the McLarens in all those pictures.

[hairykrishna]

Having seen the half way prototype of the T70 with a roof at Stoneleigh yesterday I think I'm in love. It's right up the top of my 'cars I must own one day' list.

[200Plus Club]

not seen it in the flesh yet, will be taking a trip down to GD as soon as its done to view.

[dinkel]

Original T70 Mk3 with Aston V8 in. I guess this is the only original left.
Pete Austin took this snap.


Back in the days the Aston Lola wasn't particulary successfull.


Jon Minshaws beastie.

[GTRene]

GD T70moda

its lovely me thinks, a few specs...more on their website

moda = 440pk LS3 = 1.000kg
moda S = 500pk LS3 = 1.000kg
moda R = 560pk LS7 = 880kg << grrr R nice.









how it works>>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-X-3xoMXFE

more pictures>>

http://www.gdcars.com/cars/gd-t70moda/

http://www.gdcars.com/home/t70-pressrelease/

Edited by GTRene on Saturday 29th September 15:44

[Emley]

Rarely moved to contribute, but god, just discovered Gardner Douglas
Is this not the answer to all our prayers?

Will be, going along to Blyton Park on the 29th June to sample.

No doubt some numpty will post a reply such as.

" yes but would it not be better if it was nearer £25k"

Or
"Yes but I would choose the BMW M135"

Or
"For that price you could have a Nissan GTR"

Please, I just want a GD T70

[dinkel]

You are a true Pistonhead.

[DJRC]

So what is the rough price of one of these then?

[Yazza54]

GTRene said:

GD T70moda

its lovely me thinks, a few specs...more on their website

moda = 440pk LS3 = 1.000kg
moda S = 500pk LS3 = 1.000kg
moda R = 560pk LS7 = 880kg << grrr R nice.









how it works>>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-X-3xoMXFE

more pictures>>

http://www.gdcars.com/cars/gd-t70moda/

http://www.gdcars.com/home/t70-pressrelease/

Edited by GTRene on Saturday 29th September 15:44

Stunning

[coppice]

One of the first racers I ever saw was a Lola T70 at Oulton in 1968 and I fell in love with the looks and THAT noise. If folk like this sort of thing can I recommend the Silverstone Classic-a gridful of these, Chevrons and GT40s is heaven.Special treat is standing in the pit garage when one starts up- just the most seismic , nerve tingling bellow.BTCC is like watching the M25 after these beasts(and yes yes they lap reasonably quickly but come on..)

[dinkel]

Indeedy, not much to beat:

Bryants real one.




Carlos Barbot early 80s rep. Based on original factory team parts BTW.


Jon Minshaw sold his - and he says he regrets this . . .

Lola offered Continuation models.

[RichardD]

DJRC said:

So what is the rough price of one of these then?

At Stoneleigh I overheard a Dutchman being told 70k EUR but I don't know what the spec of the car was for that. Probably LS3 rather than LS7 but then there isn't a massive difference in price between the engines anyway (relative to the entire car).

[DJRC]

That isnt bad really. I think the Coupe looks awesome for this. Not entirely sure I need more than 440BHP and 900Kgs

[RichardD]

DJRC said:

That isnt bad really. I think the Coupe looks awesome for this. Not entirely sure I need more than 440BHP and 900Kgs

As a fellow northener who doesn't like wasting money on overpriced cereal I'd say a LS7 plus suitably tall gearing = good mpg .

Plus fat tyres and more weight at the back than a similarly powered TVR, they can get the power down.

(I was at the stand discussing intake p*rn with the owner of the car pictured here )