'77 BTCC Group 1 Dolomite Racer?

[Kojac77]

Does anyone have any idea where the Tony Dron 1977 british GP Dolomite ended up. There is a photo of it on page 74 of Thoroughbred and Classic Cars Feb. 1991.

Otherwise can anyone help with tracing history of the Broadspeed cars, and if possible a contact point for Tony Dron

[Al Weyman]

Come down to Brands this Sunday, there are no less than 5 of them booked into race, you never know one may be the car you are looking for!

[bauble]

You may be able to contact Tony Dron via the Daily Telegraph as I think he has written for them. check their web site.

[Alan Cherry]

Originally Posted by bauble

You may be able to contact Tony Dron via the Daily Telegraph as I think he has written for them. check their web site.

Didn't Tony Dron die a couple of years ago from an illness ?

[MONDELLO MAN]

Tony Dron should be contactablr through Classic Car magazine.

[TimD]

So as to stop a very incorrect rumour starting, Tony Dron is very very much with us.

Alan, could you have been thinking of Russell Bulgin (another tall journo) or Tony Lanfranchi perhaps?

[Kojac77]

Guys,
Thanks for responding... I will try to make contact with Tony Dron, however I have loacted a Dolomite in Australia, which is awfully similar in many respects to that car. However, with the passing of time certain things may have chaged. It seems though that little or no tracing of cars has been done in UK as in Australia. So my dilema is that i know I have an English (not Australia car). I know it was imported into Western Australia. I know too that it is a Broadspeed car. It has some original bits still, although some were were sold by owners not realising what they had. The bits still available are the unmisdtakable 48mm manifold. The gearbox, Engine gone but whereabouts known. Panhard rod, deep located top arms in a box channel arrnagement (been there a long time) and distinctive red/white blue (works) livery. The odd thing is the vinyl roof is gone, in which case we have something else to think about. I include a pic of the car from WA in early eithies. The guy imported it hoping to blow al the Escorts to the weeds in rallies... did not succeed, so sold it, frustrated 9 months later. No guarentees about wheels shown, and note the distinctive roof, could have bee done either in Australia or UK. Can anyone recognise it. I am in touch with heritage people becasue as luck would have it I located its first log book registration in Australia as a grp 1 car with chassis number/engine numbe etc.
.

Does anyone recognie this car?

[Peter Mallett]

Are you talking about Group 2? If so I can point you at someone who restored one a dew years ago. See your pms.

[chunterer]

There's a firm over in Kettering/Wellingborough who look after MG/Triumph restorations and stuff, but I can't remember what their called. In 2003 they were tending to an ex Rouse '75 Grp 1 title winner.

Somebody's bound to know them?

[Alan Cherry]

Originally Posted by TimD

So as to stop a very incorrect rumour starting, Tony Dron is very very much with us.

Alan, could you have been thinking of Russell Bulgin (another tall journo) or Tony Lanfranchi perhaps?

Glad I was wrong, many apologies for writing rubbish on the forum. I could have been thinking of Russell Bulgin - although I knew he had died. Just to make sure I'm not going entirely senile, it was Tony Dron who raced a March for the Unipart team in F3 wasn't it ? - I believe he has a journalist broher - Peter Dron ?
Once again, apologies for any anxiety caused

Alan

[rex g]

This is an old message thread but I thought I'd reply anyway. Tony Dron is indeed alive and well and I just got a Christmas email from him. Contact me direct and give me your email and I'll send it on to him.
The Broadspeed cars were transferred to Gerry Marshall Racing for the 1979 race season, with Gerry driving Tony Dron's car and me (Rex Greenslade) in John Fitzpatrick's car, all in Triplex Racing with Esso and Motor colors. Gerry's/Tony's car was totalled in his famous British GP shunt when punted by Tom Walkinshaw coming into Club Corner. I'm not sure if that was rebuilt or whether a new car was created for the balance of the season. At the end of the year the cars (Gerry subsequently told me) were sold to a team in the Netherlands. I have no more information beyond that.
Of all the cars I drove in my fairly short (9-year) race career the Dolomite Sprint was my favorite. They were fast, fantastic to drive as long as you didn't overdrive them and liked a touch of oversteer and could cope with lousy brakes - we were always struggling to make the tiny brakes last and I had to pump the brake pedal with my left foot into every corner to get a firm pedal before jumping off the throttle and braking with my right foot. Despite these shortcomings it was much more fun than the Rover 3500 I drove the following two years and gave me two of my most important wins.
Rex Greenslade

[terence]

Originally Posted by Alan Cherry

Didn't Tony Dron die a couple of years ago from an illness ?

I'll ask him if you like.

[Peter Mallett]

Welcome Rex. I remember the Rovers (and your reports in Motor) more than the Dolomites but weren't the Broadspeed Dolys Group 2? In which case the British GP support was Group 1 so Gerry's wasn't a Broadspeed car. I do know Gerry built a lot of Group 1 versions.

I do stand to be corrected but I know of one of the Broadspeed Gr2 cars.

[chunterer]

Broadspeed did do Grp 1 with them as well - wasn't Rouse's '75 title winning Sprint prep'd by Ralph's concern?

Broad and Rouse also had a latter link up for a season in 1981, but with Capris this time, although they were entered as Charles Sawyer Hoare Racing

[Frank de Jong]

Broadspeed raced Dolomites from 1974 in the BSCC: http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jong/Pages/BSCC.html
I think they were involved with the 1975 Avenir cars as well, and they fielded a Group 2 Dolomite in some ETCC races in 1976-1977 too.

[Peter Mallett]

I'm corrected. Thanks.

[gfm]

Robbie Gordon had one of the championship winning Dolomites which I drove and was surprised how sensitive it was for a saloon car.

[rex g]

Broadspeed was involved in the Dolomite Sprint from the start (1973 or 1974) in both Production Saloon Cars and the British Saloon Car Championship (now the British Touring Car Championship). The BSCC started out as Group 1 but to help some manufacturers who had trouble homologating performance options it was modified to Group 1 1/2 later which gave some more freedom on certain areas of the cars. The Sprints were fabulously successful in Group 1 but not so much in Group 2 (which was basically the International formula for the European Touring Car Championship), the main limitation being the design of the cylinder head which although 16 valves had a single cam which compromised the available cam timing versus the DOHC design allowed in Group 2. I never drove the Group 2 car but the Group 1 car was magic.
But I can confirm absolutely that the 1979 cars from the BSCC were the ex-Broadspeed Dolomites from Dron and Fitzpatrick. They even had the modified inner wheelarches at the rear which gave more tyre clearance to allow the bigger rubber....

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by rex g

Broadspeed was involved in the Dolomite Sprint from the start (1973 or 1974) in both Production Saloon Cars and the British Saloon Car Championship (now the British Touring Car Championship). The BSCC started out as Group 1 but to help some manufacturers who had trouble homologating performance options it was modified to Group 1 1/2 later which gave some more freedom on certain areas of the cars. The Sprints were fabulously successful in Group 1 but not so much in Group 2 (which was basically the International formula for the European Touring Car Championship), the main limitation being the design of the cylinder head which although 16 valves had a single cam which compromised the available cam timing versus the DOHC design allowed in Group 2. I never drove the Group 2 car but the Group 1 car was magic.

Until recent changes in the CTCRC regs they were pretty successful in Post Historics too.

Originally Posted by rex g

But I can confirm absolutely that the 1979 cars from the BSCC were the ex-Broadspeed Dolomites from Dron and Fitzpatrick. They even had the modified inner wheelarches at the rear which gave more tyre clearance to allow the bigger rubber....

Oops, modified bodywork? How dare they?

[Al Weyman]

Until recent changes in the CTCRC regs they were pretty successful in Post Historics too.

What changes were they specifically Peter as the model still seems pretty competitive to me.

[Peter Mallett]

The changes involved the competiton not the Dolomite.

[terence]

I remember there used to be a certain person who had a Belgian "Works" car.Not sure if he still owns it now though.

[Alex E]

In case it is of interest I know of a Dolomite in Finland that the owner bought & collected directly from Gerry Marshall. Not sure to what spec it was though. So far as I know it is still there but has been used for ice racing.
Alex.

[Peter Mallett]

Tell us more Alex!

[Alex E]

Peter,
This is all I know. A gentleman I bought some old BMW touring cars from about 7 years ago offered me some other cars. Among them was a Dolly Sprint, he told me he personally drove to England and met Gerry Marshall (even described some big american thing Gerry was driving...) to buy this Dolly. He never said if it was Gp 1 or 2 and the pictures he send me showed the car with wheel arch extensions but they could have been added later. He did tell me who built the engine, a name I recognised but can`t remember. As I said he had used the car for ice racing in the winters. I have the pictures he sent somewhere.
Maybe out Finnish posters can add some detail. As the car must have been there for best part of 30 years now.
Alex.