1980 RAC Tricentrol British Saloon Car Championship

[JesperOH]

This is not to start a new full results and discussions thread, but..

https://www.touringcars.net/database/race.php?id=418
http://touringcarracing.net/Races/19...stone%202.html

These are links to round 5 at Silverstone supporting the FIA F2 race. Tom Walkinshaw seems to have made a one-off start during this season. In either a #33 class B BMW 635CSi or a #33 class B Mazda RX-7, and non-starting an un-# BMW 530i with a flexing chassis. Either way he qualified second.

First, the 635 was a group 2 car by 1980, and only for 1983 was it produced in sufficient numbers to be homologated into group A, which had the same production minimums as group 1.
Running the Mazda programme it would make sense that he raced an RX-7, but I bet that he could still have pulled a 530i out of the workshop from the 1977-78 season, for what ever reason.

Can anyone help or elaborate on this question, then please.

Jesper

[chunterer]

Hi Jesper long time no see!! Happy New Year and hope all is well?

As you refer to, I don't think the E24 635 was ever homologated in Gr.1 spec so it won't have been that model.

As we know it had a displacement of just under 3500cc so that would have made it a big class car, as indeed it was when it was homologated for Gr.A for 1983.

I suspect the #33 Class B entry would have been an RX7 as Tom had been running the odd overseas round in one of his TWR built cars that year, such as in Belgium? I think running extra races helped with development plus i'm sure Tom would have received some sort of entry payment for doing so!

I need to check but I don't think the old TWR 530i was entered in the BSCC after 1979. I believe there were some scrutineering issues with it at one round, but that may have been in 1978?
IIRC the car had run underweight in a practice session and also had some minor performance mods which weren't eigible in the UK but had been ok in the Trophy L'Avenir events in Europe which allowed certain extra tweaks that the RAC run British seried did not.

[JesperOH]

Thank you chunterer, with the hopes of a happy new year to you and all.

The RX-7 looks like a nice solution, but looking over the whole season the car was pretty much a class car. Starting second at Silverstone among the Capris and Rovers was something Win Percy would have done in 1981. My bet is on the BMW 530i.

Could it be that Tom Walkinshaw was looking at the British Leyland Rover contract, upstaging the current operator Dave Price and the Capri fraternity, showing what could be done with an old BMW 530i. As far as I know, TWR ended up not only running the class A Rovers in 1981, but also taking the class C Audi from Richard Lloyd. ..and continuing very successfully with Mazda.

Jesper

[GCCheddaris]

This all seems very strange, with Walkinshaw apparently outqualifying the regular drivers by over two seconds. I had a look in the 1980 Thruxton Easter Monday Formula Two programme and a Mazda RX7 was entered with the number 33 for TBA, entrant Walkinshaw Racing as opposed to TWR Pentax so presumably number 33 at Silverstone was also an RX7. Perhaps this car, as Chunterer mentioned above, was running to a different spec to the other RX7s. I think in those days cars were only inspected for compliance with regulations after the race rather than after qualifying.

From 1977 to 1983, TWR were associated with Alpina and BMW were about to produce the E28 shape M535i. Could this have been the car Tom practised without racing ? Then after discovering it wasn't very promising he turned his sights on Rover.

For a definitive answer you would probably have to access that week's Autosport or Motoring News. There is an Autosport, 12th June 1980, for sale on eBay for the princely sum of £4.99 plus post and packing.

[JesperOH]

A new E28 BMW could well be the car Tom Walkinshaw was giving a go. Just realised that the BMW 528i was homologated for group 1 on April 1 1980 as A5792. An earlier 1976 homologation also existed for the model in question, while the 530i US goes back to 1977.

If it was a class A BMW that Tom was racing that day at Silverstone, it would likely have been numbered from 1-19, as class B started with #20 Win Percy.

The speculation that Walkinshaw might have set his sights on Rover for 1981 is interesting. Dave Price Racing was running the Rovers in 1980, but TWR would take over for 1981 and beyond. Why was Price, known for single seater racing, chosen to run the British Leyland BSCC effort in the first place. Was it Price who ran the Triumph Dolomite engined Unipart F3 cars?
Secondly what happened in the shift from Dave Price to TWR? Price opting out or Walkinshaw elbowing his way in?
As I understand it TWR also took over the class C Audi programme from Richard Lloyd racing for the 1981 season.

As for buying on the net, I no longer do that!

Jesper

[KA]

Evening Jesper, long time no see for me as well! It's been a few years since I was regularly on here trying to make sense of 40-year-old BTCC trivia!

I don't remember where I originally found this, presumably downloaded from some corner of the web, but amongst the stack of old BTCC pics cluttering up my laptop, I have a photo of someone's copy of the race programme (not mine, I definitely wasn't there!), which might shed a bit of light on this question.

Firstly, in Class A, the entry list has car #10, Tom Walkinshaw in a BMW entered by Tom Walkinshaw Racing. The owner of the programme has crossed through the car number, presumably to denote the DNS- but they've also crossed through the model designation and written in '530'. The crossing-out is heavy enough to make it hard to read the original print, but it's either 635 or 535 (presumably the latter, bearing in mind what's already been said about Gp 1 homologation) and the engine size is listed as 3500cc

Secondly, in class B, the printed entry list has a TBA in car #28, an RX7 entered by 'Team Pentax'. There's a handwritten amendment, to write in the driver as H. Tippet - and also to add another RX7, car #33 for Tom

Re: the Rover speculation, yes, Dave Price ran the Dolomite-engined Unipart March F3 effort, so that could well be the origin of the DPR Rover deal

[JesperOH]

And a big hello to you KA!

Nothing like first hand experience, no matter who's first hand it is. So it seems that Tom Walkinshaw was present with a class A BMW 530i AND a class B Mazda RX-7.

Jesper

[68targa]

Hi, not posted here before but for what it's worth the programme listed Tom's BMW as a 635.

Chris

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by 68targa

Hi, not posted here before but for what it's worth the programme listed Tom's BMW as a 635.

Chris

Hi Chris welcome to the forum!
I think we mentioned earlier in that a 635 was discounted as that model was not homologated as a Group 1 car and did not appear in the series until 1983 under the Group A regs.

Perhaps the entry was submitted with the car identity error, or it was a mistake at the printing end.