CC Racing Developments Group 1 Ford Capri Mk III's - Page 7

**chunterer** · 17 Feb 2009, 15:50 (Ref:2399097)

Good stuff, well looks like you've found the right place to refocus your efforts, and help us out in the process.

With those numbers it might help other people jog their memories if they owned an ex CC car at some point or other?

There's a few gaps like CC11/12 and then CC15-20 and also I guess the real grey area; whether or not there actually were more cars built after CC20?

Dave Cook seemed to think there were (if only we could tempt him onto here!!) and that the last ones pretty much all went outside the UK, but against that, someone I know was pretty positive that #20 was the last one.

Intriguing.....

ORP · 17 Feb 2009, 16:09 (Ref:2399110)

Yes, there are some gaps - I will try and get some more information in due course. Pretty sure CC20 was the last Gp1 car built and raced in the UK..!

Jesper OH · 17 Feb 2009, 18:07 (Ref:2399165)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunterer

There's a few gaps like CC11/12 and then CC15-20 and also I guess the real grey area; whether or not there actually were more cars built after CC20?
Intriguing.....

From an Autosport sales advert on October 7, 1982 Gordon Spice Racing offers four Capris for sale: 1 being Spice's 1982 car (presumably build in 1982), 1 being the Rouse 1982 car, build in 1981 it says, while a spare car without any date of build is a third Group 1 car. Finally the TT Group A car, without engine, is offered. With Spice supplying vintage for at least the Rouse car there ought to be a few "missing" chassis' here - that if is the Spicer cars were CC products, as I'm not aware of this.

Also had a look at the Autosport TT report that says the Vince Woodman car in the race was his spare car rigged up for Group A, while the Spice car had a Ford factory 2.8i engine (sourced from a Granada!).
Another sales add from the fall, tells of the Capri that finished 19th in the TT is for sale having only done another two races. Checking on the results this was the Barry Barnes/David Mercer entry - Stuart McCrudden was supposed to have driven this car in the TT.

Jesper

**chunterer** · 18 Feb 2009, 09:48 (Ref:2399528)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

From an Autosport sales advert on October 7, 1982 Gordon Spice Racing offers four Capris for sale: 1 being Spice's 1982 car (presumably build in 1982), 1 being the Rouse 1982 car, build in 1981 it says, while a spare car without any date of build is a third Group 1 car. Finally the TT Group A car, without engine, is offered.

With Spice supplying vintage for at least the Rouse car there ought to be a few "missing" chassis' here - that if is the Spicer cars were CC products, as I'm not aware of this.

Yes i'm pretty sure all of Gordon Spice's cars were built by CC. The possible difference may come as to actually ran them afterwards, as Spice had a pretty high profile Team Manager in Keith Greene during the latter seasons of Group 1. I also have a logical suspicion that in addition to the Grp A 'hack' the 'spare car from that advert might also have been a Belga Spa chassis.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

Also had a look at the Autosport TT report that says the Vince Woodman car in the race was his spare car rigged up for Group A.
Another sales add from the fall, tells of the Capri that finished 19th in the TT is for sale having only done another two races. Checking on the results this was the Barry Barnes/David Mercer entry - Stuart McCrudden was supposed to have driven this car in the TT.

Jesper

I've also got that Autosport report but completely missed the Woodman spare car passage Jesper, so thanks for pointing it out! I'm guessing that the spare car was the one Vince and Jonathan Buncombe used sometimes as back up in the Tricentrol series and could possibly be CC15.

What we can be pretty sure of is that as the spare Woodman car was driven by Buncombe at the final round of the '82 BTCC, CC would have had about a month to put the car back to Group 1 spec after the TT!

That Barnes/Mercer car is interesting. Barnes was a Modsaloon regular in the 80's and ran all sorts of Capris and Bee-ems. I wonder whether he hired this car from an exisiting Group 1 Capri owner for the weekend in some kind of deal with Mercer who always had pretty good sponsorship in everything he did IIRC. The possible involvement of McCrudden who was a senior Ford employee a the time I think would've made it easier to source a car I suppose. Stuart sometimes posts about TGP F1 so we should ask him if he remembers!!

ORP · 19 Feb 2009, 18:02 (Ref:2400339)

Yes interesting, the Woodman spare car was described as being 'rigged for GpA'. But it was entered in the 82 TT with the 3.0 V6 rather than the 2.8 V6 of the Spice/Rouse car.

The Barry Barnes car I seem to recall was ex Jeff Allam (CC3), it was raced by Barry Barnes in Modsaloons circa 83/84 and after passing through a couple of owners it ended up with Dave Streather who raced it succesfully, also in Modsaloons.

**chunterer** · 19 Feb 2009, 19:17 (Ref:2400379)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ORP

Yes interesting, the Woodman spare car was described as being 'rigged for GpA'. But it was entered in the 82 TT with the 3.0 V6 rather than the 2.8 V6 of the Spice/Rouse car.

The Barry Barnes car I seem to recall was ex Jeff Allam (CC3), it was raced by Barry Barnes in Modsaloons circa 83/84 and after passing through a couple of owners it ended up with Dave Streather who raced it succesfully, also in Modsaloons.

indeed ORP, Maybe the Woodman car had the minimum of Grp A upgrades allowed to pass scrutineering for the TT as opposed to a full house Group A 3.0 engine?

Your info about that Barnes car adds a further piece of the jigsaw to its history after it's heyday in Allam's hands so to speak. I'll pm Ade Vickers and he'll be delighted to learn this as he was really keen to find out more about his car 'CC3'.

Jesper OH · 20 Feb 2009, 10:37 (Ref:2400723)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunterer

indeed ORP, Maybe the Woodman car had the minimum of Grp A upgrades allowed to pass scrutineering for the TT as opposed to a full house Group A 3.0 engine?

Here's what the Autosport TT report says regarding the Woodman Group A Capri

With help from Ford, Vince was running his spare G1 car in Group A trim with a 3-litre engine. “It’s much better than I hoped,” said the Bristolian Ford dealer. “It hasn’t got anywhere near the power of the G1 car with its standard valves, manifold and single carp, but the regulations help in other respects. It’s got superb brakes – we are allowed to run discs on the rear of the Capri in Group A where we have to run drums in G1 – but that could give us a problem later this year

The last sentence is Woodman's reflection on braking power Group A vs. Group 1 with the Silverstone BTCC finale looming three or four weeks ahead.

Regarding the Barry Barnes car, it was supposed to be a three race (including the TT) old car that was for sale late in 1982, so how does that fit with a Jeff Allam Capri?

Jesper

**chunterer** · 20 Feb 2009, 11:01 (Ref:2400737)

Thanks Jesper, i'll have to look out my Autosport from that week and read the TT report again!

Still not sure about the Allam car. ORP is clearly a Capri man and is hoping to look into more things concerning the CC cars for us in due course.

What i'm 90% sure of so far is that the Allam car went into Nick Whiting's hands in around 1980 and Nick ran that car for the 80/81 seasons winning a round at Brands in 1981 IIRC?

Of course there seems to be an issue about this Barnes car as you say Jesper if at the TT it was only a few races old it couldn't really have been the ex Allam car which was originally built for the 1978 season.

Something else to consider is that Whiting's 'All Car Equipe' squad also had another car which was driven on ocasions by people like Wayne Wainwright and one or two others in 1981?

Perhaps it was this one that passed onto Barry Barnes? It's going to be tricky confirming all this but all part of the investigative fun!!

GBRM · 20 Feb 2009, 19:39 (Ref:2401008)

Spices' 1979 car run by Keith Greene was a CC car, as was Dad's 1978 car - which was Vandervell's 1977 mk2 CC car with a mk3 body for 1978 (I think I've mentioned that bit before but I can't remember the chassis number though).

andycos · 22 Feb 2009, 20:53 (Ref:2402000)

As a newbie here i'd just like to say a big thank you to all that have contributed to the last 11 pages iv'e just read

I have gained more info on racing capri's in one day, than i have since i became interested in capri racing back in 1984 !!

It brought back some good memories of seeing the ''OK-YAH'' capri for the first time in a magazine (motoring news ?),and thinking "Wish i was racing that"

Thanks,Andy..

**Peter Mallett** · 23 Feb 2009, 05:20 (Ref:2402157)

Welcome Andy.

**chunterer** · 23 Feb 2009, 10:58 (Ref:2402320)

Excellent stuff, this thread has breathed new life and in the space of a week attracted 2 new members ORP and andycos !!

Thanks for coming on andy!!

You'll find this thread especially interesting (I hope) as it was set up to explore the cars that were built by CC Racing Developments that ran in the BTCC upto the end of 1982 - a couple of years before the Capri fired your passion so to speak.

Many of these cars still exist. The problem has been working out who has them now and their original identities!!!

**chunterer** · 24 Feb 2009, 11:33 (Ref:2403054)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GBRM

Spices' 1979 car run by Keith Greene was a CC car, as was Dad's 1978 car - which was Vandervell's 1977 mk2 CC car with a mk3 body for 1978 (I think I've mentioned that bit before but I can't remember the chassis number though).

Yes good point Gregor, a few MkII's got 'rebodied' for 1978 didn't they, some MKII's even carried on into '79 IIRC. Stuart Graham's i'm sure was another one?

If you do ever come across the MKII chassis numbers it would be good to see how they compare/differ to the MKIII's.

free-litre-v6 · 2 Mar 2009, 19:09 (Ref:2407530)

There's a few gaps like CC11/12 and then CC15-20 and also I guess the real grey area; whether or not there actually were more cars built after CC20?

Hi Guys, just got back from the garage where my CT capri is and they have pointed out a few interesting things on the car as follows:-

1) it was red, many of the CC cars were red. ie spice cars
2) it was definately a 1600 shell, must of had a big off, the nearside wing has been replaced, with a 2.8/3.0 inner wing that has a ford fitted top-plate, the offside front looks original, but has had a major repair where it joins the front panel, this inner wing hasn't got a toplate, so its a 1600 inner wing, there are no corner braces.
3) the shell has been seam welded all round with braze another CC trait.
4) possibly the big give away, underneath the strut concentric alloy top mounts, it is stamped out "CC racing developments"

i am not saying it is one but there is quite a few items that seem to be to near the mark! did CC just have bespoke parts made for themselves or were they also sold elsewhere which would explain the top mounts? mark.f.

GBRM · 3 Mar 2009, 09:10 (Ref:2407888)

There were very few Mk3 spares in the '78 season, so much so that my late Dad had to miss a round of the championship as front wings and uprights weren't available, so maybe smaller-engined car's parts were used?

**Peter Mallett** · 3 Mar 2009, 09:49 (Ref:2407905)

Mark,

What did they do about the gearbox mounting? If it was a 1600 shell and not just a body part you'll find the gearbox mount is either re fabricated or there are extra tapped holes for the mounting which is further towards the rear on the 3.0l.

**chunterer** · 11 Mar 2009, 09:18 (Ref:2413486)

Mr Babb, come on Peter's waiting for his answer!!

Came across pic of another Group 1 car the other day. On the backing display card for a toy Corgi Triplex Rover, there is a Patrick 3500 with a yellow 3.0 hot on it's tail at the Thruxton chicane. I suspect the shot is from 1980 or '81 but the only yellow Capri I can think of from the time was driven by Holman Blackburn but I don't think he entered a Capri in the final couple of years?

Couldn't make out the number. but anyone got any clues?

**Peter Mallett** · 11 Mar 2009, 15:25 (Ref:2413701)

Slightly OT. It's Holman Blackburn's birthday today. 65 years young.

**chunterer** · 26 Mar 2009, 10:03 (Ref:2425119)

Happy belated birthday to Holman!!!

After a superb bit of a leg up for this thread a few weeks back with the beginning of some chassis numbers, the momentum has been lost again!

Does anyone have any old pics or info from the time that can be added?

Also, 'Deepy-Driver' offered to make contact with an ex CC engineer, Mike Bilby (now of Autotek?) a while back.

http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....8&postcount=79

There was also some reference to a pile of old CC Capri paperwork belonging to the late Jim Tucker that Deepy now has.

Any luck Deepy??

**chunterer** · 4 Apr 2009, 08:17 (Ref:2432990)

Dug out a couple of little snippets from 1981 yesterday.

Apparently as with Andy Rouse's team, the Gordon Spice cars were not run by CC in 1981, the period when Keith Greene was Team Manager. However the red cars were back under the auspices of CC for 1982 when Rouse rejoined Spice's outfit.... That's not to say that they weren't built by CC though?

This might make the chassis history area even more interesting/difficult?!

The yellow car I referred to a few posts ago is highly likely to have been the one that Chuck Nicholson owned in 80/81? The info I found suggests that he scored points with it in 2 rounds (including Thruxton, where that images I mentioned is taken) before moving onto to support Win Percy in the TWR RX7 sqaud.

No mention of who prepared or ran the Nicholson car but I wonder if TWR had anything to do with helping out as Chuck was already linked to Tom Walkinshaw by then?

Tony Sugden took over the yellow Capri for a few rounds apparently, does that ring any bellls with anyone? I'm sure Sugden's name was mentioned earlier in this thread in conjunction with Mike Newman's car a few years later.

The other bit of interesting info I saw was that Wayne Wainwright, the Sports 2000 racer campaigned the ex Stuart Graham car in 1981, with backing from Carroll Shelby?!!! So Wayne wasn't driving the other Whiting All Car Equpe car, that was pedalled by Mike Kimpton.

**chunterer** · 8 Apr 2009, 12:12 (Ref:2436654)

Following on from the Wainwright info in my last post attached is an image of the car in it's next owner's hands by my reckoning - the Terry Nicholl's Gartrac GA engined car which he ran in Special Saloons and latterly Thundersaloons.

We're now pretty sure that this car was originally Stuart Graham's 'Faberge' Group 1 car from the late 70's early 80's.

What would be interesting to learn is whether Stuart Graham sold it straight onto Wainwright, or was there another owner in between, and did anyone else have it before Nicholls extensively modified it?

I guess it would also be useful to know what happened to it after Terry finished with it.

Second image is of a car I snapped at Donington in 1991, possibly at the DTM meeting that October. As I can't find the Programme can anyone help to identify the driver and which car it might have been?

ORP · 10 Apr 2009, 14:40 (Ref:2438102)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunterer

Second image is of a car I snapped at Donington in 1991, possibly at the DTM meeting that October. As I can't find the Programme can anyone help to identify the driver and which car it might have been?

It could be an ex Gerry Marshall car that was modified into 'Thundersaloon' spec by (I think) a guy called Ken Dawes, with a Swindon built 3.4 GAA installed. I think Ric Wood raced the car a couple of times too.

free-litre-v6 · 10 Apr 2009, 18:58 (Ref:2438242)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ORP

It could be an ex Gerry Marshall car that was modified into 'Thundersaloon' spec by (I think) a guy called Ken Dawes, with a Swindon built 3.4 GAA installed. I think Ric Wood raced the car a couple of times too.

Hi Guys, this is the car i have been talking about, it was built and raced by Ken Dawes then Ric Wood purchased it, i am now restoring it and i believe the car is an original CC group 1 shell. any more info please!mark fowler.

**chunterer** · 10 Apr 2009, 19:35 (Ref:2438270)

Thanks ORP, (the Graham Wait caption was incidental btw!)

Interesting info, could be an ex Gerry Marshall car then? If that's the case it could be the old Triplex car that was originally a MkII but likely reshelled to MkIII spec. Gregor can probably tell us more about that one.

Mark, if it was an ex Marshall car it probably wasn't a CC built car. I'm sure Gregor reckoned Gerry's cars were Roger Dowson engineered when he did Group 1 and prodsaloons in the late 70's/early 80's. Unless Gerry bought a car from someone who had it built by CC originally?

If that's the case this red Ken Dawes/Ric Wood car could have a different driver/owner origin, especially if CC did build it?

KA · 15 Apr 2009, 18:04 (Ref:2441600)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunterer

The yellow car I referred to a few posts ago is highly likely to have been the one that Chuck Nicholson owned in 80/81? The info I found suggests that he scored points with it in 2 rounds (including Thruxton, where that images I mentioned is taken) before moving onto to support Win Percy in the TWR RX7 sqaud.

No mention of who prepared or ran the Nicholson car but I wonder if TWR had anything to do with helping out as Chuck was already linked to Tom Walkinshaw by then?

This could be utterly off-topic, but did TWR possibly have access to a Capri in '82?

If you take a look at the results for the Spa 24 hours in '82, the TWR Jag entries were car numbers 4 (Walkinshaw/Nicholson/Percy) and 5 (Pierre Dieudonne/Peter Lovett/Jeff Allam. The interesting thing is that the results also list a Motul-backed Capri, car number 6, for Percy/Allam which qualified 38th but posted a DNS.
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...982%20Spa.html

Given the Motul sponsorship, and both drivers being cross-entered in the XJSs, I'd assume TWR had something to do with this entry- but what was the purpose behind it?- and if it was a 'TWR' entry, could it have been the Nicholson car?

I could be imagining this, but I've got a very vague memory of reading something about a token third entry by the team in order to get more pit garage space, plus a little extra track time for the drivers, with no intention of the car ever starting the race...

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