Group A Ford Sierra RS500

[PZR]

Japanese Group A - 1990 season - Sierras:

#2 - ENDLESS / ADVAN
#8 - F.E.T.
#3 - ARTNATURE
#11 - TRAMPIO
#13 - DUNLOP / SHIMIZU
#22 - CIESSE PIUMINI
#20 - NAPOLEX
#43 - CITY LIFE 43
#91 - ALAN MOFFAT / AIWA / CONTINENTAL AIRLINES
#99 - TEAM CMS Sweden

[PZR]

Japanese Group A - 1991 season - Sierras:

#8 - F.E.T Sports
#66 - Team CMS Sweden




And that concludes the Sierra's career in Japanese Group A.

Just as a little extra - here's a magazine ad from January 1991 for F.E.T. Oil, featuring their 1990 season Sierra. I had a very soft spot for this car when I was in Japan attending these races, as it always seemed to be and underdog up against the dominance of the Skylines, and I liked the idea that F.E.T. as a company name had such a long history of involvement with racing cars in Japan. Seems such a long time ago now.......




Enjoy.

[Jesper OH]

Absolutely a treat, PZR - thank you very much

I will return with comments regarding the individual pictures.

Jesper

[chunterer]

Yes great stuff PZR, the images and info from Japan only serves to bolster the thread even more!

You're certainly better at posting images in appropriate sizes than me!

[William Dale Jr]

PZR, thank you very, very much for the fantastic pics! As everyone else has said, it's nigh-on impossible to find any pics from that era of the JTCC, and pictures of that quality are like gold. Cheers!

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

The #83 GT-R looks suspiciously like an ex-Gibson Australia car with the Winfield logos removed. As drivers I have R. S. Putiratto / R．S．プティラット and M. V. Manit / M．V．マニット - the translations are mine and doubtful. My guess is that this was an entry from mainland Asian - Thailand or Malaysia springs to mind, as one of the Winfield cars at one stage was raced there.

Spot on, that is one of the ex-Winfield cars. According to contemporary reports, it is, in fact, the 1991 Bathurst-winner.

[racer69]

What spec would Gibson have sold it in, '91 spec of CAMS '92 spec (as the car did the early rounds of the 1992 ATCC)


Between 1989-1993 did Japan fiddle with the Group A rules at all like in Australia and in Germany?


nad back on Sierra's, its interesting to see the CMS Sweden entry running as late as 1991, is that the very same car that the team had used in the 1988 ETCC & and at Bathurst that year?

[drbob]

The AIM GT-R32 is definitely an ex Gibson Motorsport car. It raced in Oz up to '92 Last race was round 5 of the ATCC at Lakeside on 3 May 1992. It was sold overseas ( in Winfield colours) and replaced for round 6 at Eastern Creek on 24 May 1992 by a new car. ( the Bathurst '92 winner and now owned by Terry Ashwood )

The earlier car was bought by Prutirat Ratanakul Serireongrith, a wealthy Thai racing car driver who has an illustrious Asian and European racing history.
The car is now back in Australia

William Dale Jr.... it is said by some that the R32 in the Fox collection was the '91 Bathurst winner. Others say differently apparently. What history or stories support the AIM car as being the winner in '91.

Was the ANZ Sierra that raced in Japan the #9 ANZ Sierra that raced in Oz. I know it was not the #10 ANZ Sierra because that only did 4 races - Bathurst '89 to '92 inclusive. The #10 car was an Eggengerger customer car built specifically for Moffat in '89. Its chassis number is EGMO 7/89. That car is also back in Oz.

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by racer69

nad back on Sierra's, its interesting to see the CMS Sweden entry running as late as 1991, is that the very same car that the team had used in the 1988 ETCC & and at Bathurst that year?

I don't think the CMS car was brand new by 1988 (My gut feeling, sorry, not very substantialy). Ulf Granberg raced the car in the 1989 Swedish championship winning the opening round at Mantorp on 7th May. Three DNFs and no other victories landed him in 4th position of 1989. Just recently learned that Granberg rented the CMS Volvo 240 Turbo of 1987 ETCC/WTCC fame for 1988. 1989 might just have been a further development of that deal.
By 1990 son Christer Simonsen raced the car an won one lucky victory at Falkenberg 15th July - the most spectacular race I have ever witnesed personally
1991 was the last year and generally Christer was an also-ran, beaten on occasion by the best of the Volvo's! I have no info that support that the team was active during 1992.

Jesper

[KA]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

I don't think the CMS car was brand new by 1988 (My gut feeling, sorry, not very substantialy). Ulf Granberg raced the car in the 1989 Swedish championship winning the opening round at Mantorp on 7th May. Three DNFs and no other victories landed him in 4th position of 1989. Just recently learned that Granberg rented the CMS Volvo 240 Turbo of 1987 ETCC/WTCC fame for 1988. 1989 might just have been a further development of that deal.
By 1990 son Christer Simonsen raced the car an won one lucky victory at Falkenberg 15th July - the most spectacular race I have ever witnesed personally
1991 was the last year and generally Christer was an also-ran, beaten on occasion by the best of the Volvo's! I have no info that support that the team was active during 1992.

Jesper

According to the 1988 Bathurst annual, the CMS Sierra was built from a Rouse kit by the team, and made it's debut at the Silverstone TT, then doing the Nogaro ETCC round and Bathurst. Was this their only Sierra though? as you said they'd run a Volvo in 87, and part of 88 (think it was entered alongside the Sierra at the TT but DNQ'd)

Looking at the pics posted here alongside a pic of the CMS car at Bathurst 88, there are some minor detail differences in the shell- most visibly the location of the extinguisher/electrical cut-off switches (in a recess in the front wing ahead of the door on the Bathust car- this seems to be a particular feature of Rouse shells- and at the bottom of the windscreen on the cars in the Japanese pics). Simple modifications/repaired accident damage, a re-shell or a different car?

[ian beckett]

To PZR,a very big thank you from me personally but I am certain from all the fans on this forum of Group A racing.This has been an example of what the internet and information sharing is all about and long may it continue!! Ian.

[PZR]

Glad you enjoyed the photos. It's fun looking back over some of this stuff. I'm trying to avoid getting involved in the Gr.A BMW thread though - there were swarms of them in Japan....

Carrying on the OT subject of that ex-Winfield / AIM Skyline GT-R for a moment:

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

The #83 GT-R looks suspiciously like an ex-Gibson Australia car with the Winfield logos removed. As drivers I have R. S. Putiratto / R．S．プティラット and M. V. Manit / M．V．マニット - the translations are mine and doubtful. My guess is that this was an entry from mainland Asian - Thailand or Malaysia springs to mind, as one of the Winfield cars at one stage was raced there.

Originally Posted by William Dale Jr.

Spot on, that is one of the ex-Winfield cars. According to contemporary reports, it is, in fact, the 1991 Bathurst-winner.

Originally Posted by racer69

What spec would Gibson have sold it in, '91 spec of CAMS '92 spec (as the car did the early rounds of the 1992 ATCC)

Originally Posted by drbob

The AIM GT-R32 is definitely an ex Gibson Motorsport car. It raced in Oz up to '92 Last race was round 5 of the ATCC at Lakeside on 3 May 1992. It was sold overseas ( in Winfield colours) and replaced for round 6 at Eastern Creek on 24 May 1992 by a new car. ( the Bathurst '92 winner and now owned by Terry Ashwood )

The earlier car was bought by Prutirat Ratanakul Serireongrith, a wealthy Thai racing car driver who has an illustrious Asian and European racing history.
The car is now back in Australia

William Dale Jr.... it is said by some that the R32 in the Fox collection was the '91 Bathurst winner. Others say differently apparently. What history or stories support the AIM car as being the winner in '91.

The Thais seemed to have a bit of a torrid time of it in their only Japanese race in this car - the INTER-TEC race at Fuji Speedway on 8th November 1992. They qualified a full seven seconds slower than the pole-sitting GT-R, and finished in tenth place overall, six laps down on the winner, and beaten to the flag by three BMW M3s racing in Class 2.

I vaguely remember seeing the AIM GT-R circulating and mistaking it for one of FISCO's GT-R Safety Cars - which I recall were red with a white stripe.

Maybe Fred Gibson removed a little of his *magic* before letting it out of his hands....... ?

[ian beckett]

As BMW's are my first love,it would be wonderful if you could sometime find the time to do a similar overview of the M3's competition in Japan as you did with the RS500.I realise just how many appeared there as I have laboured to try and follow them for many years,at times with complete frustration! A few months ago I tried to help a guy in New Zealand who was considering buying a car which had raced there but I was never certain that we had got to the bottom of the matter!!Thanks yet again,Ian.

[KA]

Had a search through my old photos, and found a few RS500 shots- should have more somewhere, but can't lay hands on them. I'll start with some more Trakstar- all Brands Hatch 1989/90.
Mike Smith at the round supporting the WSPC,1989,
Gravett's car in the Paddock at the Brands F3000 support, 1990
Gravett/Smith (looks like Smith in the car?) at the 1-hour race 1990

[KA]

Labatt's- again Brands Hatch WSPC meeting 1989, Tim Harvey. As I remember the bodywork damage was from an incident with Mike Smith

[KA]

Back to the Brands F3000 meeting, 1990. Rouse, Dennis Leech, and a rare one- the Crypton Engineering-entered car for Italian Amato Ferrari. This only appeared at a couple of late-season rounds- Brands and Birmingham. From memory, the car was of Eggenberger origin, and there may have been some Eggenberger involvement with the entry. I should have more of this one somewhere, including a paddock shot or two- I'll dig them out

[KA]

Brands 1990, the 1-hour race. Rouse, sharing with Paul Radisich from memory, and Sean Walker's FAI Automotive-backed Rouse car, shared with Ian Flux.

I'll see if I've got any more- should have more from these meetings, plus some 1988 TT stuff somewhere, but can't lay hands on them right now.

[drbob]

Both the Trampio/Piumini Sierra and 1990 ICS Rouse Sierra are owned by a collector in Singapore

[William Dale Jr]

Originally Posted by drbob

William Dale Jr.... it is said by some that the R32 in the Fox collection was the '91 Bathurst winner. Others say differently apparently. What history or stories support the AIM car as being the winner in '91.

I was having trouble finding the source of that info. I thought it was in AMRY 22 but it had no mention of where the old car went, only that there was a new one for Eastern Creek. Finally figured out where it was; in the early days of Motor Racing Australia, David Greenhalgh did a series of articles on the history and current locations of Great Race-winning cars.

The section on the 1991 winner (appearing in MRA Issue 3) states that the car was sold to Thailand. Greenhalgh asked Gibson about why such a significant car - the first and, at the time of the question, only Japanese car to win the race - was allowed to be sold off. To quote the article:

"...Gibson shrugged and said that it was only a car, and they were all much the same to him. Perhaps when he sold it he was already confident that the 1992 race would produce another Bathurst winner for his museum!"

Originally Posted by KA

Had a search through my old photos, and found a few RS500 shots...

Great photos, KA! I'm looking forward to seeing whatever else you can find. I've never seen a photo of the Amato Ferrari Sierra before.

[PZR]

Originally Posted by ian beckett

As BMW's are my first love,it would be wonderful if you could sometime find the time to do a similar overview of the M3's competition in Japan as you did with the RS500.

Ian,
I sent you a PM about this. Please take a look.

Originally Posted by William Dale Jr.

The section on the 1991 winner (appearing in MRA Issue 3) states that the car was sold to Thailand. Greenhalgh asked Gibson about why such a significant car - the first and, at the time of the question, only Japanese car to win the race - was allowed to be sold off. To quote the article:

"...Gibson shrugged and said that it was only a car, and they were all much the same to him. Perhaps when he sold it he was already confident that the 1992 race would produce another Bathurst winner for his museum!"

I'm guessing that Gibson supplied some of his staff to run the car at the Inter Tec race in Japan ( kitted out in 'AIM Motorsports' uniforms ) - unless the guys seen in this grid photo were from elsewhere?:

[racer69]

Originally Posted by PZR

The Thais seemed to have a bit of a torrid time of it in their only Japanese race in this car - the INTER-TEC race at Fuji Speedway on 8th November 1992. They qualified a full seven seconds slower than the pole-sitting GT-R, and finished in tenth place overall, six laps down on the winner, and beaten to the flag by three BMW M3s racing in Class 2.

I vaguely remember seeing the AIM GT-R circulating and mistaking it for one of FISCO's GT-R Safety Cars - which I recall were red with a white stripe.

Maybe Fred Gibson removed a little of his *magic* before letting it out of his hands....... ?

He could have (more probably would have), but the GTR was severely handicapped by the rule-makers in Australia in 1992 to bring it back to the field, perhaps the car was sold onto to Thailand in this configuration?

Which in a round-about way can bring us back onto the Sierra's, remembering how Ford Germany pulled out of the DTM at the end of 1989 citing the handicap rules as the reason. This led to Eggenberger moving to run Opel's (though he strangley still came to Bathurst with Allan Moffat's Sierra's in 1991 and 1992)

[T-Man]

Originally Posted by racer69

Which in a round-about way can bring us back onto the Sierra's, remembering how Ford Germany pulled out of the DTM at the end of 1989 citing the handicap rules as the reason. This led to Eggenberger moving to run Opel's (though he strangley still came to Bathurst with Allan Moffat's Sierra's in 1991 and 1992)

Actually Ford Germany only pulled out, because the ITR (organisator of the DTM), created a new reglement which outlawed any Turbo- & Supercharged engines from the 1991 season on. The Ford Teams were all very much peed off as they didn't knew what to do the next season. Ruedi Eggenberger got offered a Mercedes deal a few weeks before which he didn't sign. So, Eggenberger only did 3 races in 1990 (24hr Spa, 24hr Nurby and the Bathurst race toghter with Moffat). The other 3 Ford teams: Ringshausen, Grab & Wolf all had to move down to the 2nd division of german touring car racing, using a Sierra Sapphire in the DTC

[anthony81901]

Originally Posted by drbob

Was the ANZ Sierra that raced in Japan the #9 ANZ Sierra that raced in Oz. I know it was not the #10 ANZ Sierra because that only did 4 races - Bathurst '89 to '92 inclusive. The #10 car was an Eggengerger customer car built specifically for Moffat in '89. Its chassis number is EGMO 7/89. That car is also back in Oz.

Moffat owned 2 Eggenberger built Sierras. The 1st was debuted at round 4 at Waneroo in 88 and raced as #9 throughout its career in 88 & 89 by Moffat and in 90 by Gregg Hansford. It was the #9 car in 5 Bathursts from 88 - 92. The 2nd car was used as #10 from Bathurst 89 - 92. The car used in Japan in 89 was defiantely #9, although not so sure about 90. I know it is commonly thought that #10 was only used at the 4 Bathursts, but I guess it is possible that it was taken to Japan in 90.

A race by race history can be found:
http://www.allanmoffat.com.au/again/...ossysierra.htm

[bigears]

Originally Posted by KA

Back to the Brands F3000 meeting, 1990. Rouse, Dennis Leech, and a rare one- the Crypton Engineering-entered car for Italian Amato Ferrari. This only appeared at a couple of late-season rounds- Brands and Birmingham. From memory, the car was of Eggenberger origin, and there may have been some Eggenberger involvement with the entry. I should have more of this one somewhere, including a paddock shot or two- I'll dig them out

Do you have anything from the Birmingham Superprix race?

I got some shots of the BTCC Sierras at the BSP, but I will need to ask permission first!

[racer69]

Originally Posted by T-Man

Actually Ford Germany only pulled out, because the ITR (organisator of the DTM), created a new reglement which outlawed any Turbo- & Supercharged engines from the 1991 season on. The Ford Teams were all very much peed off as they didn't knew what to do the next season. Ruedi Eggenberger got offered a Mercedes deal a few weeks before which he didn't sign. So, Eggenberger only did 3 races in 1990 (24hr Spa, 24hr Nurby and the Bathurst race toghter with Moffat). The other 3 Ford teams: Ringshausen, Grab & Wolf all had to move down to the 2nd division of german touring car racing, using a Sierra Sapphire in the DTC

Thats interesting, as it was reported over here that the handicapping was the reason.

What was the reason for banning the Turbo's from the series? Or another case of the ITR fiddling with the Group A regs (like their one-class system?)

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by racer69

Thats interesting, as it was reported over here that the handicapping was the reason.

Yes I seem to recall that one or two manufacturers weren't too keen on the regs allowing a little Opel Kadett to get a lot closer to far more powerful cars under the handicapping rules. Fortunately any big aggro about that was avoided when Opel brought the Omega out instead I would guess?