Grp C/Grp A/V8SC 'Where are they now?' continued...

[B!tchie Renault]

On the same site as Mal Rose's enduro Commodore is this DJR BA16

Does anyone know if Adam Sharpe owns the car, or trying to sell it in the UK on DJR's behalf?

I think this is the car that come 3rd at Bathurst in 2007, and Denyer used in the Fujitsu Series in 2009.

[htc]

Does any one know who built and the history of the commodores

Jon Mitchell drove in selected rounds of the 1987 atcc

Ron Dickson's car he drove in the 1987 Amaroo enduro

and Tony Hunter's commodore he ran from the 1987 sandown 500 to the end of 1988 ?

[Camaroz]

Originally Posted by htc

Does any one know who built and the history of the commodores

Jon Mitchell drove in selected rounds of the 1987 atcc

Ron Dickson's car he drove in the 1987 Amaroo enduro

and Tony Hunter's commodore he ran from the 1987 sandown 500 to the end of 1988 ?

I know that Tony Hunter still has his original VK that was involved in a wheel failure at Winton in 1988. Then put away!

His new VK for Sandown & Bathurst with Harrington and the Adelaide GP race in 1988 he sold to the Gemspares team and it became a VL at some stage later. Don't know from there...

[htc]

Originally Posted by Camaroz

I know that Tony Hunter still has his original VK that was involved in a wheel failure at Winton in 1988. Then put away!

His new VK for Sandown & Bathurst with Harrington and the Adelaide GP race in 1988 he sold to the Gemspares team and it became a VL at some stage later. Don't know from there...

thanks for the info.

[Amonfan]

Originally Posted by htc

Does any one know who built and the history of the commodores

Jon Mitchell drove in selected rounds of the 1987 atcc

Ron Dickson's car he drove in the 1987 Amaroo enduro

and Tony Hunter's commodore he ran from the 1987 sandown 500 to the end of 1988 ?

IIRC the Jon Mitchell car was the Scotty Taylor car.....

[htc]

Originally Posted by Amonfan

IIRC the Jon Mitchell car was the Scotty Taylor car.....

thanks for that.

[jd yort]

Can anyone list what the higher profile missing in action Group A and Group C cars??

I have read snippets about a missing Bathurst winning GT Falcon. I assume there must be some of the more prominent cars that their whereabouts is unknown and curious to know which ones they are.

[Henry]

Originally Posted by jd yort

C
I have read snippets about a missing Bathurst winning GT Falcon. I assume there must be some of the more prominent cars that their whereabouts is unknown and curious to know which ones they are.

Winning GT Falcons?

1967 XRGT Gibson/Firth ??
1970 XW GTHO Ph II Moffat - Bowden Collection
1971 XY GTHO Ph III Moffat - rumoured to have finished up in Malaysia
1973 XAGT Moffat/Geoghegan - written off at Phillip Island 1973, given to Murray Carter for parts, stripped and scrapped
1974 XAGT Goss/Bartlett - sold to Garry Wilmington, later converted to road car and written off IIRC...

[racer69]

Originally Posted by htc

Ron Dickson's car he drove in the 1987 Amaroo enduro

The car Ron Dickson drove with Bob Stevens in the 1987 Hardie Irrigation 100 at Amaroo was not his, it was Graham Moore's. It was the ex-HDT car that Moore first used in the 1986 Better Brakes 300 at Amaroo (still in Mobil-HDT livery)

Moore didn't race at Amaroo in '87 as he was at Spa that weekend, but he returned to the car alongside Michel Delcourt at Bathurst, now sporting Strathfield Car Radios sponsorship. From there though i'm not sure...

Did Ron Dickson ever own a Group A car?

[htc]

Originally Posted by racer69

The car Ron Dickson drove with Bob Stevens in the 1987 Hardie Irrigation 100 at Amaroo was not his, it was Graham Moore's. It was the ex-HDT car that Moore first used in the 1986 Better Brakes 300 at Amaroo (still in Mobil-HDT livery)

Moore didn't race at Amaroo in '87 as he was at Spa that weekend, but he returned to the car alongside Michel Delcourt at Bathurst, now sporting Strathfield Car Radios sponsorship. From there though i'm not sure...

Did Ron Dickson ever own a Group A car?

thanks everyone for your help

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by racer69

Did Ron Dickson ever own a Group A car?

Don't know about that one, but one thing I always wondered was if he had such a good relationship with Major Tom, surely he must've been angling to buy either a Jag or Rover at some point to run for himself or another driver in the ATCC?

I guess their relationship was purely about commercial support for TWR's 'raids'?

I also suspect that while Jaguar and Rover cars were running as works teams in Europe, Walkinshaw, evidently didn't want to allow privateers to run any (or made cars prohibitvely expensive to put people off!) Not sure about Jaguar but Rover obviously didn't mind otherwise we wouldn't have seen Rouse running one in Britain for example.

Wouldn't have thought Australia would've have been a problem though surely?

[Group'C']

Originally Posted by Amonfan

IIRC the Jon Mitchell car was the Scotty Taylor car.....

This car is no longer as John had a few hits with it I think its last race would have been Surfers Paridise ?

John reshelled the car (this was Scottys old Group C car converted to Group A) and then was selling it as a road car but forgot to tell the guy the speddo wasnt from that car a read a little different !

The car was latter split up and various peices are around the state, The bloke who was selling the bits was asking big dollars for bits that were stuffed.

The original race shell was believed to be sent to the crusher

[Camaroz]

Originally Posted by Group'C'

This car is no longer as John had a few hits with it I think its last race would have been Surfers Paridise ?

John reshelled the car (this was Scottys old Group C car converted to Group A) and then was selling it as a road car but forgot to tell the guy the speddo wasnt from that car a read a little different !

The car was latter split up and various peices are around the state, The bloke who was selling the bits was asking big dollars for bits that were stuffed.

The original race shell was believed to be sent to the crusher

Then what's this?

http://www.my105.com/classified.asp?id=16047

[racer69]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Don't know about that one, but one thing I always wondered was if he had such a good relationship with Major Tom, surely he must've been angling to buy either a Jag or Rover at some point to run for himself or another driver in the ATCC?

I guess their relationship was purely about commercial support for TWR's 'raids'?

I also suspect that while Jaguar and Rover cars were running as works teams in Europe, Walkinshaw, evidently didn't want to allow privateers to run any (or made cars prohibitvely expensive to put people off!) Not sure about Jaguar but Rover obviously didn't mind otherwise we wouldn't have seen Rouse running one in Britain for example.

Wouldn't have thought Australia would've have been a problem though surely?

Australian magazine "Chequered Flag" carried a story in early 1985 with Ron Dickson claiming that the two Rover's from Bathurst '84 would be running selected ATCC rounds as well as AMSCAR rounds in 1985, with JRA support. He mentioned the drivers would be a rolling roster of TWR drivers like Walkinshaw himself, Percy & Hahne. He claimed money wasn't a problem, even though they had lost the Mobil money to Brock, and that details would be released imminently regarding the program...... in 2010 we're still awaiting the annoucement

One assumes the deal just turned into the Jaguar assault on Bathurst.

Tom definatly had a reputation for not being kind to the privateers. There was a big uproar in the late-80s from Commodore runners when Tom was angling to take over Holden Motorsport , as he didn't have the best rep when it came to the privateers. Garry Willmington mentions in an interview in Australian Muscle Car about the problems he had getting parts for his XJS.

[Backagain]

Originally Posted by Henry

Winning GT Falcons?


1974 XAGT Goss/Bartlett - sold to Garry Wilmington, later converted to road car and written off IIRC...

Converted to road car with XC front panels, for sale many years ago at Collaroy still with roll cage, tank wheels Etc. for $ 3,800 !!!
The wife said no.

[KA]

Originally Posted by racer69

Australian magazine "Chequered Flag" carried a story in early 1985 with Ron Dickson claiming that the two Rover's from Bathurst '84 would be running selected ATCC rounds as well as AMSCAR rounds in 1985, with JRA support. He mentioned the drivers would be a rolling roster of TWR drivers like Walkinshaw himself, Percy & Hahne. He claimed money wasn't a problem, even though they had lost the Mobil money to Brock, and that details would be released imminently regarding the program...... in 2010 we're still awaiting the annoucement

One assumes the deal just turned into the Jaguar assault on Bathurst.

Tom definatly had a reputation for not being kind to the privateers. There was a big uproar in the late-80s from Commodore runners when Tom was angling to take over Holden Motorsport , as he didn't have the best rep when it came to the privateers. Garry Willmington mentions in an interview in Australian Muscle Car about the problems he had getting parts for his XJS.

I hadn't heard about that one before- in the end, one of the Bathurst cars went on to NZ in 'More Magazine' colours for the Nissan-Mobil races (Tom and Ron Dickson), the other was shipped back to the UK and eventually sold on in 1986 to BTCC privateer outfit Linden Racing, still in Mobil colours.

Ron Dickson turned up in Rovers a few more times of course- the 86 Nissan-Mobil races (the brown 'Whitakers' cars) and as part of the 'South Pacific Racing' element of TWR's 1986 ETCC assault. Was there any suggestion of further Australian entries- maybe Bathurst '86?

I've seen other stories about the difficulties of getting parts for the Group A XJS and Rover. I've got an article in a UK rally magazine dated around 1986/7 about building up a Group A Rover on a tight budget for rallying, and one of the points the author made is that much of the stuff homologated for the factory/TWR rally cars was either virtually unobtainable, very expensive, or both

Certainly, although the Rover was used by quite a few BTCC privateers, only a few of these were ex-TWR cars. Until several cars were sold on at the end of the TWR programme and appeared in the BTCC in 1987, about the only one I can think of is the Linden ex-Bathurst car seen in the second half of the 86 season

[rdmdog]

IIRC there was one, maybe even two Barbagello Rovers. Where did they come from/go to?

[KA]

Originally Posted by rdmdog

IIRC there was one, maybe even two Barbagello Rovers. Where did they come from/go to?

Thought there was just the one Barbagallo car- an Andy Rouse-prepared car originally used by Charles Sawyer-Hoare in the 1983/4 BTCC. Tim Slako ran it in a few 1985 ATCC rounds in the original red/yellow/white Sawyer-Hoare colours, then plain white at Bathurst 85, and finally in the famous bright pink colours from 1986 on. I'm sure I've seen a mention on here that it's still around- IIRC someone posted pics of the bodyshell under restoration in the last year or two. Can anyone shed more light on that?

The other Australian Rover I can think of is John Donnelly's red car at Bathurst in 1986- think this was built in Australia by Donnelly's crew rather than an ex-BTCC import?

There was another Rover at Bathurst in '85, which was a UK entry for Barry Robinson/Jon Jeffery- AFAIK this was another Rouse car, a production racer originally raced in the UK by Rouse's longtime sponsor Pete Hall. I think it ran in pretty much production-spec at Bathurst- it was certainly well off-the-pace. Pic at the bottom of this page
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...0Bathurst.html

[David Towe]

Originally Posted by KA

Thought there was just the one Barbagallo car- an Andy Rouse-prepared car originally used by Charles Sawyer-Hoare in the 1983/4 BTCC. Tim Slako ran it in a few 1985 ATCC rounds in the original red/yellow/white Sawyer-Hoare colours, then plain white at Bathurst 85, and finally in the famous bright pink colours from 1986 on. I'm sure I've seen a mention on here that it's still around- IIRC someone posted pics of the bodyshell under restoration in the last year or two. Can anyone shed more light on that?

I believe that Paul Davis in NSW is the owner and the car is undergoing a resto at the moment. It's a long time coming but I think it will be worth the wait knowing how Paul likes to work.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by David Towe

I believe that Paul Davis in NSW is the owner and the car is undergoing a resto at the moment. It's a long time coming but I think it will be worth the wait knowing how Paul likes to work.

There was a Paul Davis who worked for TWR 80's on either Rover or Jag programmes. Not the same guy by any chance is it?

[David Towe]

Not that I know of.

[racer69]

Originally Posted by KA

Was there any suggestion of further Australian entries- maybe Bathurst '86?

Three TWR entries were lodged for the 1986 James Hardie, with a mix of Jaguars and Rovers (2 of one, 1 of the other, i can't remember specifically though). It was pretty late in the day that the assault was cancelled (the entries are talked about during the coverage of the 1986 Amaroo 300 in early August)..... i think it had something to do with JRA struggling for cash.

TWR were also rumoured to have lodged Rover entries for the 1986 Surfers Paradise 6hr, which was to be held around Easter time. The race was canned though due to a lack of entries (only received 10, despite good prizemoney on offer)

Percy and Hahne inspected the track after the NZ series early in the year, when questioned they said they were looking over it on behalf of the TWR Jaguar Group C Team with regards to the World Sportscar round that was planned for late-86 there.... however the article was dis-believing, saying that they were 'far too interested' for two guys who only drove the GrpC Jags at Le Mans...

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by rdmdog

IIRC there was one, maybe even two Barbagello Rovers. Where did they come from/go to?

There was ever only one Barbagello/Slako Rover - it's pre-history already mentioned. This car possibly had a later owner, even appearing in a late 1980s ATCC-round, likely at Wanneroo.
Barbagello/Slako though had two TWR Commodores at some stage, and this might be the source of your recollection.

Originally Posted by racer69

Three TWR entries were lodged for the 1986 James Hardie, with a mix of Jaguars and Rovers (2 of one, 1 of the other, i can't remember specifically though). It was pretty late in the day that the assault was cancelled (the entries are talked about during the coverage of the 1986 Amaroo 300 in early August)..... i think it had something to do with JRA struggling for cash.

Didn't know the plans was detailed to the degree of number of cars. In one of the Bathurst annuals the exchange rate at the time was a serious stumbling block.

Jesper

[GTRMagic]

Is this the ex-Thexton BA/BF?

[anthony81901]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Is this the ex-Thexton BA/BF?

Yes