Sanyo sponsored Rover SD1s

[Peter Mallett]

I knew you'd get in on this one.

The Colin Pearcy car was also used in the CSCC promo information for Group 1 in '94 wasn't it? As I recall colin told me that it was the Hulme/Allam TT winning car from 1985(?).

[GTRMagic]

Didnt Andy Rouse have a number of these Rovers as well?

One made its way downunder permanently in the hands of WA's Tim Slako (painted a lurid pink & green in its last Bathurst event)

[ken clarke]

The Hulme /Allam car was sponsored by Southern Pacific or something & painted White. This car won the TT in 1986 Tom & Win won in a Bastos Rover in 1985 This was chassis no 17. This was a brand new car built again by yours truly since Spa 24hrs. This car won again at Nogaro & then was destroyed in a first lap first corner accident by Tom at Zolder. At the end of 85 Tom's car (the old car pressed back into service, chassis no 16) was cut up & scrapped. Alan Scott (TWR engine guru) bought one & took it with him when he returned to NZ circa 1990.(possibly no 18) Many of the others were changed to rally cars & subsequently sold off or destroyed.

Andy Rouse built 2 cars, 1 for himself & 1 for Pete Hall The Pete Hall car subsequently became the Tim Harvey Istel group A car 1987, now owned by our own Nigel Garrett, much altered & ready for Classic Thunder.

[Peter Mallett]

S'funny. I remember Hulme winning cos I was watching from the SRC Club grandstand. Could have sworn it was a Bastos car. Hey ho. Must be getting old.

[ken clarke]

Must Be

[Peter Mallett]

Hmm.

[Peter Mallett]

BTW Ken. Isn't there a car you should be working on?

[Peter Mallett]

It was 1986 Hulme/Allam. Oh well not thar foar out was I?

You can find the results here -http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jong/Pages/1986/1986%20Silverstone.html

[KA]

The Hulme/Allam 86 TT winner was white- it ran in the colours of event sponsor Istel.

from memory, Hulme had raced in 'South Pacific Racing' colours earlier in the season

[KA]

Originally posted by GTRMagic
Didnt Andy Rouse have a number of these Rovers as well?
One made its way downunder permanently in the hands of WA's Tim Slako (painted a lurid pink & green in its last Bathurst event)

The Tim Slako car was ex-Rouse according to the 1986 Bathurst annual. From memory, it was the car Charles Sawyer-Hoare drove in Britain in 1984. Think that one's still around- I'm sure I remember seeing it advertised for sale in some of the UK classic car magazines a couple of years ago- it looked as if it had been modified a fair bit and certainly wasn't pink and green any more (the photos in the Bathurst book show it as pink with bright green bumpers and rear spoiler- very tasteful...)

[Peter Mallett]

Ka,

With the greatest respect to you and my very good friend (at least I hope so) Ken. I do remember a bastos liveried car, driven by two good blokes, one of which was Denny, winning the TT at Silverstone!

I also come from the school of thought that Win Percy is a good bloke.

Okay, so I got the year wrong. Hang me for it!

[carrera]

In the stuff I'm trying to clear out is a poster of 3 and a bit Rovers.

Lead car is the Sanyo 3 (Soper) followed by a yellow Glacier Hepolite car, another Sanyo car and a dark green? car just entering the picture (only headlight width of car showing - screen decal ends in DON.

Poster states-

Steve Soper - Trimoco RAC British saloon Car Champion 1983
Rover Vitesse - outright winner Manufacturer's title

[Peter Mallett]

Yeah, but he was in the Hepolite car not the Sanyo one. And they were protested. Ken can confirm this.

[ken clarke]

Green Rover would be Gordon Spice. 1983. Soper Hepolite,Allam/Lovett Sanyo. 1985 Walkinshaw/Percy Bastos Rover. Winner TT 1986 Allam/Hulme South Pacific Racing/Istel Winner TT

[KA]

Originally posted by Peter Mallett
Yeah, but he was in the Hepolite car not the Sanyo one. And they were protested. Ken can confirm this.

Didn't the 83 championship end up being awarded to Andy Rouse, sometime the following year(!) as a result of the protests- ultimately resulting in Rover walking out of the serties mid-way through 84?

[KA]

Originally posted by ken clarke
Winner TT 1986 Allam/Hulme South Pacific Racing/Istel

I dug out my 86 TT programme last night- the cars are lsited as:

2 entered under 'Bastos Texaco Racing Team' (no.7- Hahne/Brancatelli & 8 Walkinshaw/Percy) and one entered under 'Istel/A.R.F/B.C.R' (no. 9- Allam/Hulme)

I'm pretty sure I've got photos of the winning car somewhere- I had a quick look through my photo albums, but don't have anything much from that period to hand- only TWR Rover I could find was an ex-Bastos car in a Sliverstone Thundersaloon race in 87 (Brian Chatfield) think the ones I need are 200 miles away at my parents. I'm going to be up there next weekend, so I'll look out my 85 & 86 TT photos, and see if I've got anything worth posting (any excuse to look at old racing pics...)

I'm enjoying this thread- these were some of the first races I ever went to, and the Rover is the car that really started my interest in touring car racing, so it brings back some happy memories- I'd forgotten the variety of cars that competed in the ETC back then (Mazda 929 anyone?), and when you look at current touring car grids, the idea of 44 tourers starting at Silverstone....

[Peter Mallett]

Then there was the world speed record attempt for a pushbike. The connection? They put a "barn door" on the back of a Bastos Rover and gave the cyclist a tow in the slipstream.

[KA]

Originally posted by Peter Mallett
Then there was the world speed record attempt for a pushbike. The connection? They put a "barn door" on the back of a Bastos Rover and gave the cyclist a tow in the slipstream.

I'd forgotten about that one! One of the motoring magazines track-tested a Bastos Rover at the end of that season (think it was 86), and used the same car (less 'barn door')-think the article (which I might still have somewhere) included a photo of the record attempt in progress

[Peter Mallett]

I believe they use a bit of the M25 before it was opened.

[ken clarke]

They used the M42. Funny thing wasthe Rover attached to the barn door would not pull any more than just over 100mph so to save the day they used Tom's road Vitesse fitted with 3.9 250+ bhp to tow the Bastos car which in turn towed the cyclist (no ropes)

[racer69]

There were also the Mobil Rovers which came over to Bathurst in 1984, and dominated the Group A class in that race, driven by Steve Soper/Ron Dickson and Jeff Allam/Armin Hahne, the Allam/Hahne car winning the class. I presume these were the factory ETCC cars from 1984? They were supposed to stay in Australia for the 1985 ATCC, but after the 1985 Nissan series in NZ, where Tom Walkinshaw shared with Ron Dickson, they weren't seen again. Did they go back to Europe for the 1985 ETCC.

Also in the 1986 Nissan-Mobil Series in NZ, TWR ran a two car Rover Vitesse team Walkinshaw/Dickson, and Allam/Hahne. The cars were totally outclassed, by among others the HDT Commodores, which helped motivate Walkinshaw into action for the 1986 ETC, in which the HDT Commodores would be competing. Were the cars used here 1985 cars, or new one's built for 1986?

Here are two of the Bastos Rovers from Silverstone 1985

[Craner Curves]

What was Dennis Leech's late 80s BTCC version then? Where did it originate and where did it go?

[Peter Mallett]

I believe it is with a gent in Lincolnshire. I haven't seen it for a couple of seasons.

[Chris Griffin]

Dennis built his own I believe. Richard Williamson used to race it with the CSCC up until a couple of years ago. He has since sold it so I was told but I don't know who to.

http://www.csccgb.co.uk/images/photos/gpasd1.jpg

[ken clarke]

The Mobil Rovers. I was a new car (Soper/Dickson) & one was an old car rebuilt for Bathurst etc. They returned to UK after these races& were used in ETC & France.