1983 Trimoco RAC British Saloon Car Championship - Discussion & Results

[chunterer]

Mulling over some old images over christmas relevant to this season and thread.

An additional 3.0 Capri was entered for the BGP supporter by Mark Hales. We covered it in the CC Capri thread some time ago. From livery in the picture the consensus reached was that it was one of the ex Rouse/CS-H cars from 1981....

Did Hales qualify for the race as a reserve but not start the race because of that?

The other question I have is about the Cheylsmore 635. We know it was classed as a 'works' car albeit entered by Cheylsmore Garages and prep'd by Bob Sparshott Automotive. Sparshott being an ex Lotus F1 mechanic who had been running F2 cars in the early 80's.

But where did the car come from originally ans who was it intended for?

I read fairly recently that Frank Sytner originally planned to enter a second Ted Grace built 635 in 1983 to be driven by Brian Yogi Muir? Apparently there was a pre season hitch and a deal couldn't be found to sponsor a 2nd car...

Yogi later shared Sytner's car at the TT and died on the way home later that Sunday.

So it begs the question, was the BS car a separate entry entirely or was a 2nd car built at grace's shops originally destined for Muir but then sold on?

A non specific but related question is how come the BS car was so unreliable in 1984, when it has been fine in Stuck's hands in 1983?

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

The other question I have is about the Cheylsmore 635. We know it was classed as a 'works' car albeit entered by Cheylsmore Garages and prep'd by Bob Sparshott Automotive. Sparshott being an ex Lotus F1 mechanic who had been running F2 cars in the early 80's.

But where did the car come from originally ans who was it intended for?

I read fairly recently that Frank Sytner originally planned to enter a second Ted Grace built 635 in 1983 to be driven by Brian Yogi Muir? Apparently there was a pre season hitch and a deal couldn't be found to sponsor a 2nd car...

Yogi later shared Sytner's car at the TT and died on the way home later that Sunday.

So it begs the question, was the BS car a separate entry entirely or was a 2nd car built at grace's shops originally destined for Muir but then sold on?

A non specific but related question is how come the BS car was so unreliable in 1984, when it has been fine in Stuck's hands in 1983?

There's a note a couple of pages back, from a report in Performance Car magazine of the BS/Cheylesmore car's debut at the GP meeting that the Diners Club backing on the car was a one-off for just that meeting, and that although the team hoped to have the car out again, they felt it was unlikely to happen.

If at that stage, it was only a one-off by a team who didn't have sponsorship in place for the rest of the season, then putting a driver of Stuck's calibre in the car seems like a pretty serious statement of intent! Obviously it had the desired effect as a budget was found for the rest of the year.

It does beg the question though- why did Cheylesmore apparently have a Group A 635, apparently without a deal for a driver/sponsor in place? Had the car been bought by Cheylesmore to enter for someone whose deal with them fell through, or did, as you suggest, they pick up a car that was going spare after someone else's deal didn't come to fruition?

[chunterer]

Yes it does seem strange that if it was indeed 'their' car that Cheylsmore didn't do the full season....

The Stuck deal was great for the series but does smack of a PR stunt by BMW or something like that...

If a car was already built and sitting dormant in the UK it would certainly have been logical to get hold of it rather than buy/lease a car from Germany..

Bit like Rouse running a 2nd Merkur at a couple of big events in 1985, good PR for Ford and I suspect related to what Rouse was looking for from Ford's going forward.