Group A Rover 3500 SD1/Vitesse - History & Whereabouts

[KA]

Channel 4 are showing a series of programmes called 'Speed' with Isle of Man TT motorcycle racer Guy Martin taking on a number of speed challenges-

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/s...ith-guy-martin

The first of these, being shown at the moment is an attempt on Dave Le Grys' 1986 cycle speed record, although paced by a racing truck rather than a Group A Rover...

The film clip of the 1986 record is shown a couple of times early in the programme

[KA]

An interesting pic that chunterer posted in the CC Capri thread- it's part of the grid for the Group A touring car race supporting the 1983 German GP at Hockenheim.

Apart from the TWR XJS (either Walkinshaw or Enzo Calderari), there are a couple of Rovers present- in the middle of the pic, the black #57 car which I think is Armin Hahne in the German ATN car.
There seems to be a rear corner of a white SD1 visible alongside the Jag on the grid as well- Eddy Joosen I think, probably in the LHD chassis #005 which later became the 'Barclay' car

http://tentenths.com/forum/attachmen...5&d=1389028162

[chunterer]

Excellent, thanks KA, saved me the trouble!

You're right of course, I didn't see the white Vitesse hidden on the left, but a refresher of the entry list shows it entered.

[KA]

Something interesting in this week's Autosport- Andy Rouse may be reunited with his 1984 BTCC championship winning Rover at the Goodwood Festival this year- apparently the current owner has restored it to original spec, and Andy may be driving it on the hill at Goodwood

[grantp]

This may be of some interest.



http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....&postcount=798

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by KA

Something interesting in this week's Autosport- Andy Rouse may be reunited with his 1984 BTCC championship winning Rover at the Goodwood Festival this year- apparently the current owner has restored it to original spec, and Andy may be driving it on the hill at Goodwood

I think it might be in the hands of Nigel Garrett at present? It as been restored to ICS livery (with a few Ken Clarke tweaks possibly!)

Originally Posted by grantp

This may be of some interest.



http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....&postcount=798

Yes thanks for that link it's Richard Postin's car, chassis 001, the first TWR Group A car and ex Duez French ST car. It's entered at Donington this weekend....
Fabulous restoration job.

[BianchiBennett]

Hi all,
Very late on this thread and first post so please excuse any mistakes.

Via Lois & Alex Dowsett (children of Phil), came across this on Twitter. Asked Stuart Hall (son of Pete) if it was the GpA version and he said it was.

Andy

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by BianchiBennett

Hi all,
Very late on this thread and first post so please excuse any mistakes.

Via Lois & Alex Dowsett (children of Phil), came across this on Twitter. Asked Stuart Hall (son of Pete) if it was the GpA version and he said it was.

Andy

Great stuff! That's Andy Rouse and Nigel Garrett in pic I think?
The car has been restored to 1984 BSCC spec and you can see from the pic on the wall what it looked like when it last raced!

Looking forward to seeing it racing again, (Oulton Gold Cup?) let alone the mooted Goodwood appearance in the summer. ...

[chunterer]

Just thought I'd do a quick add up of cars known to be in action or owned in storage.

TWR 001 (Marlboro) R Postins. Racing in historic touring cars.
TWR 002 (Hepolite) K Clarke. In process of rebuild and hoped to be on track again in 2015.
TWR 005 (Marlboro) A Dippie. Near completion in New Zealand.
TWR 007/012 (Gitanes) In Japan, still to be located.
TWR 010 (Fleet) Chassis stamp/plate and parts owned by K Clarke with intention to build a car up in future
TWR 011 (Mobil Bathurst) Currently in Portugal?
TWR 014 (Bastos but likely to be reliveried to Istel) A Scott purchased from B Kershaw late 2013 and now in NZ.
TWR 015 (Bastos) Shell in hands of D Holder?
TWR 017 (Bastos) chassis was written off but lot of the main parts/running gear in Chris/Charlie Williams's Bastos liveried ex Dennis Leech car
TWR 018 (Bastos) A Dippie. Racing in NZ historics.
TWR 019 (Bastos) B Smeets. Sometimes racing in UK and European historics.
TWR 020 (Bastos) T Morley. Yet to be seen in UK historic racing....

Also:

Nigel Garrett's ICS Rouse car. Now totally restored and expected to be seen at Goodwood FOS and maybe Oulton Gold Cup this year.

Please can anyone add any other info?

[DPUZEY]

Just for completness:

TWR 003 Computervision rally car under restoration in UK
TWR 006 Daily Mirror/Unipart rally car in UK

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by DPUZEY

Just for completness:

TWR 003 Computervision rally car under restoration in UK
TWR 006 Daily Mirror/Unipart rally car in UK

Dave, thanks for the info!

[DPUZEY]

Allan Scott's new book 'TWR and Rover's SD1' is due for release in June 2014. Chaters are taking advance orders

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by DPUZEY

Allan Scott's new book 'TWR and Rover's SD1' is due for release in June 2014. Chaters are taking advance orders

I think I'd better get my name down for a copy of that. If he tells it really how it was it should make fascinating reading.

[Gavin RS]

Greetings everyone.

Just having a History overload on SD1's

Looking for some assistance.
My Rover has now done 10 races and lowest placed was a 9th but then all the other races have been in the top 6 .it has had a 2nd and a 3rd place at Kyalami late last year. I last raced in Feb at the international series which was great, had a 5th in the first race and a 6th in the 2nd race out of a 30 car field. The car gets driven to the track by the way.

Anyway I digress.
I am seriously considering either a Group A replica or even going the Group 1 route. I have bought another car, series 1 V8 SDS as well as another motor which has been freshly built and I managed to buy a Brand new Block still in the wooden crate.

I would love to get some ideas as to what was done to the suspension and brakes ,Our regulations in South Africa are very strict concerning the replica of an original race car so I need to get all my facts straight before going this route.
The only DPR car in SA has not turned a wheel on track since it was sold a few years back which is sad. any photos of suspension roll cage etc etc would be greatly appreciated. my e-mail is gavins@aucor.com

Goodwood with the Group A Rover will be great to see. I will have to wait for my DVD to come out a few months after Goodwood unfortunately.

[chunterer]

Earlier today someone posted a pics on a page elsewhere of a Eurodefi liveried car on track at the 1988 Zolder ETCC race. The first shows the car running as no31 sporting classic TWR Ronal wheels and the second shows it in a rather sorry state with what appears to be serious frontal damage complete with later 'mag' wheels bolted on.

This may well be lost chassis 004 which back along was suspected to have been written off in Belgium in 1988.

Did it ever get rebuilt or if not what happened to the remains?

[MG Rover Sport]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Earlier today someone posted a pics on a page elsewhere of a Eurodefi liveried car on track at the 1988 Zolder ETCC race. The first shows the car running as no31 sporting classic TWR Ronal wheels and the second shows it in a rather sorry state with what appears to be serious frontal damage complete with later 'mag' wheels bolted on.

This may well be lost chassis 004 which back along was suspected to have been written off in Belgium in 1988.

Did it ever get rebuilt or if not what happened to the remains?

[VIVA GT]

I think there's a nice picture of that car in Allan Scotts TWR Rover book. I'll have a look tonight and see if there's a caption.

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Earlier today someone posted a pics on a page elsewhere of a Eurodefi liveried car on track at the 1988 Zolder ETCC race. The first shows the car running as no31 sporting classic TWR Ronal wheels and the second shows it in a rather sorry state with what appears to be serious frontal damage complete with later 'mag' wheels bolted on.

This may well be lost chassis 004 which back along was suspected to have been written off in Belgium in 1988.

Did it ever get rebuilt or if not what happened to the remains?

There's a find!!!

A quick check on Racingsportscars & Frank de Jong's ETC history site confirms that the 'Eurodefi' outfit had a pair of Rovers in 1988, which appeared at Spa as #31 (Bovy/Maillien/Lagniez) and #32 (Guyaux/Delcourt/de Lesseps)- both DNF with rear axle trouble.

Neither site seems to have a complete result for Zolder, and no mention of Rover entries- however we now seem to have clear photographic evidence for at least one, and that it obviously got shunted at some point. Question is, who drove it, and were both cars at Zolder?

Looking back at the list of chassis numbers Dave Puzey posted a while back, from the article in the SD1 owners club mag, the Eurodefi cars were #004 (ex-Allam BTCC, Mobil/Bathurst '84, Linden Racing & finally Dave Carvell 1987 BTCC) and #014 (ex-Schlesser French Marlboro car, later Bastos & South Pacific before going to Belgium)

As you say, 004 seems to have vanished, believed shunted in Belgium, while 014 is alive and well, having been sold to Allan Scott in NZ late last year.

There's a good clear pic of the #32 car at Spa on Racingsportscars,
http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-07-31-032.jpg

and pics showing both here
http://lemansmotorsport.free.fr/spa%201988.htm

[MG Rover Sport]

Originally Posted by MG Rover Sport

This photo was captioned at the original Facebook source as follows...

alber-charouz(13e) et maillen-bovy(ab)

...suggesting that the Rover was driven by Maillen and Bovy.

[KA]

Thanks David- that suggests it was the newer of the two cars,#014, as Bovy/Maillen had also driven that one at Spa the previous year, in a white 'Zeus Computers' paintjob. #004 at that time would still have been in the UK as Dave Carvell's BTCC car.

http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-08-02-013.jpg

Looking closely at the pic, I'm pretty sure it's #014, as the rollcage seems to be white, like in the the 1987 pics,- the other 1988 Eurodefi car seems to have had a black cage

http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-07-31-032.jpg

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

I think there's a nice picture of that car in Allan Scotts TWR Rover book. I'll have a look tonight and see if there's a caption.

Well, I am either going mad because I imagined there was a picture of this car in that book, or I am going blind because I've just flicked through the book four times and cannot find it!
(I just cannot imagine where else I could have seen the picture I thought I'd seen. Maybe I am going mad?)

[chunterer]

I will try and post a pic when I get a chance or ask the person who took it to let me do so, but chassis 011 has turned up trackside!

I missed it at first and I don't think it ran in anger but the car was present at the Ricard Peter Auto Touring car event recently in Mobil Bathurst livery which it would have run when new back in 1984 iirc?

I believe its story goes that it was and then sold to Portugal in 1986 and spent many years there(owned by Heider Oliveira?). It then ended up in the Stavelot museum at Spa of all places in a typical ETCC Bastos livery, which it may never have run in in it's competitive lifetime (need to check!) and then the current owner recently acquired it and had it re-commissioned.

From what I can tell it has the 1986 deeper front spoiler on it at present, which isn't correct for its livery but nonetheless it is brilliant to know that another TWR Rover is hitting the tracks again and I hope it comes over here in 2015.

[KA]

The Oliveira car was certainly white when it went to Portugal, as you'd expect from an ex-Mobil/Bathurst chassis.

More recently it was owned by Antonio Noguiera, who ran it in historic races in Portugal first in white, then in a pseudo-Bastos paintjob, with modern Vodafone sponsorship (He seems to have quite a collection including a Group 2 Capri, a couple of Escorts, and various GT cars including a Marcos and a couple of Porsches) I don't think it ever ran in Bastos colours in period.

Sounds as if it's changed hands again, and the new owner has returned it to a historically-correct paintjob

[KA]

Interesting to see Eddy Joossen as the subject of this week's 'Race of My Life' feature in Autosport, talking about the 1984 Spa 24 hours with the blue Gitanes Rover.

Nice pic of the Gitanes at Eau Rouge- and some fairly interesting comments about his team-mates in it, particularly Jabouille, who struggled to find the pace in the difficult weather and track conditions- Eddy suggests J-PJ couldn't really be bothered and was basically just there to collect his pay cheque... On the other hand, he describes Tony Pond as 'fantastic- really quick and consistent'

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by KA

Interesting to see Eddy Joossen as the subject of this week's 'Race of My Life' feature in Autosport, talking about the 1984 Spa 24 hours with the blue Gitanes Rover.

Nice pic of the Gitanes at Eau Rouge- and some fairly interesting comments about his team-mates in it, particularly Jabouille, who struggled to find the pace in the difficult weather and track conditions- Eddy suggests J-PJ couldn't really be bothered and was basically just there to collect his pay cheque... On the other hand, he describes Tony Pond as 'fantastic- really quick and consistent'

Jabouille had done a fair bit of touring car stuff, but maybe just wasn't as good as these two in that car.

Nice to hear the bit about TP, and I think most people who competed against him or were worked with him would agree!!