Group A Volvo 240 - Info and pics thread

[Jespersrs]

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

Hi. It would be one of the two Soderqvist Racing cars that competed in the Nissan Mobil 500 at Wellington. The driver would have been either Garry Croft or Inky Tulloch - but I don't have the results to hand unfortunately.
One of the two cars went to Japan after Wellington for the Fuji 500. The other one remained in NZ where it was driven by Tulloch and Croft in the Pukekohe 500 the week after Wellington and remained in NZ for the New Zealand Touring Car Championship over the summer of 87/88.

It is worth noting that Per-Gunnar Andersson, who shared one of the two cars at Wellington, was a regular competitor in NZ between 1986 and 1989, initially with the Volvo 240T and later with BMW M3s.
Interesting to note that while Andersson competed regularly in New Zealand, he did not to the best of my memory race in Australia, or in Australia's premier race the Bathurst 1000. I wonder what the attraction of NZ was over the Bathurst 1000? I see Per-Gunnar has posted in this thread. Maybe he can pass on some memories of his New Zealand campaigns if he has a chance.

Hello, I'm new here as well..

Regarding Wellington nissan mobil 500 1987.
Both car #4 and car #16 were Söderqvist cars, where #16 were driven by granberg/blomqvist and #4 by peggen/tulloch.
Car #16 went on to Fuji with Tulloch and Granberg as drivers.

#4 were left in NZ to Moller Volcorp, I have a "receipt" signed by Greg Lancaster that says they bought it.
Where the #4 car is today is something that I really would like to know as I'm trying to trac down all the SRS cars.
I spoked to Ian Tulloch a couple of weeks ago about where the car might have been going and he had talked to Greg Lancaster who says that the car went to Australia??

Anyone who knows more than this?


// Jesper Söderqvist

[chunterer]

Hi Jespersrs, great first contribution to this thread, we really appreciate that info!

[Jespersrs]

Hehe, thanks..

I think that car #16 from Wellington and Fuji also ran in Macau 1987 with kamachi livery, I don't know but I think brancatelli and granberg were the drivers...
I can check it up with my father later..

// Jesper Söderqvist

[Jesper OH]

I'm quite sure that two 240s were present at the 1987 Macau Guia race. They were the only cars coming close to challenge the three Schnitzer BMW M3s also racing.

Good to hear from another person close to the action of three decades ago. SRS used to have a web-site, but what happened to it and the company?

Jesper

[VolvoGroupA]

INFO:
Car #4 SRS Volvo from Wellington -87 is the former GTM (Belgian ETC car #21 1984, and Mark Petch, AVDT 1985-1986), and is the car that the German Peter Kroeber (that passed away in 2009) owns today. The livery is like the RAS cars.


INFO:
The #16 Wellington SRS Volvo is the former Per Stureson DTM-Winner car from 1985. SRS bought this car in 1987, and the car was present at both Wellington -87 with the U-Bix livery and at Macau Guia Race -87 with the Kamachi livery. After that the car went to Thailand, under the ZepSpeed Dealer Team, (Peggen Andersson was present there to with his old car). After Thailand (around 1990, little unsure here) the car was brought back to Sweden by SRS, and was raced in the Swedish Championships by Swede Stefan Pettersson the years 1991-92 (Whom later raced with a BMW M1). After this the car was sold to a Brage Rönnqvist, only as a rolling chassie, the engine was sold to a Danish Special Saloon team and the gearbox to a company named Köhler Racing. The car was forgotten for about 16 years placed in a barn. And the car is now owned by Swede Pelle Nilsson.

All this can you read on my site, www.240grupp-A.se

[Jespersrs]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

I'm quite sure that two 240s were present at the 1987 Macau Guia race. They were the only cars coming close to challenge the three Schnitzer BMW M3s also racing.

Good to hear from another person close to the action of three decades ago. SRS used to have a web-site, but what happened to it and the company?

Jesper

Actually I were not so close to the action as I was born in 1990 - when almost all the fun were over.... :/

The company is still up and running, but is named "Söderqvist Engineering Sweden" instead, nowadays we work with steam turbines and other rotating machines, but historic motorsport is still a big part of our company as well... Currently we are building one Ford Falcon futura sprint for historic racing, and my father (Hans-Åke) is rallying with a Mini Cooper S 1965...

Björn;
You forgot to mention that #16 from Wellington is the car that walkinshaw modified the chassis on and were ment to race in WTC 1987...
Walkinshaw was going to prepare the chassis and SRS the engine/drivetrain.
But while testing the car att nogaro? I think it was nogaro, granberg were 1,5sec faster per lap than walkinshaw, so he claimed that he had hurt his arm and withdrew...
Thats why Blomqvist raced the car at wellington instead of Walkinshaw.

[MPC]

Thanks all for the great info. I didn't know any of the post 1986 history of the 240T's except that I saw one race in NZ in January 1988. I wasn't aware they continued to have distinguished careers.

I certainly remember Robbie Francevic racing Mark Petch's car here in Australia. When I wasn't track side I was watching live on TV. I was present for his ATCC round wins at Oran Park in 1985 and at Amaroo Park in 1986. My most fond memories are of that era and the one immediately before during the Group C era.

I remember being disappointed that Robbie left the Volvo Dealer Team for Bathurst 1986 as I was fortunate enough to be present for the race, the Mark Petch Sierra he drive was off the pace and had various issues.

[ovlov]

Now that we have the Hazelton 240T performing to it's potential - with Scott Fleming the Rev Doctor's great weekend of car setup and driving display at Bathurst in February, Robbie Francevic has accepted my invitation to drive the car at the September 2011 Muscle Car Masters at Sydney's Eastern Creek Raceway.

In case some have forgotten, this will be the 25th anniversary of Francevic's 1986 ATCC victory in the Volvo Dealer team 240T.

Robbie will come over for a private practice at Eastern Creek in August, 3 weeks before the event to get the setup to his liking!

We are all looking forward to the return of the Volvo to its deserved place in Australian Gp-A racing history.

few pics at http://www.pbase.com/ovlov21/inbox

[VolvoGroupA]

To talk about another matter, is there anyone who knows where former Team Manager of the RAS Sport Team, John Wickham, is today?


This is how he looks today,


This is what he looked like in 1986,

I need to reach him!

[racer69]

Originally Posted by VolvoGroupA

Car #4 SRS Volvo from Wellington -87 is the former GTM (Belgian ETC car #21 1984, and Mark Petch, AVDT 1985-1986), and is the car that the German Peter Kroeber (that passed away in 2009) owns today. The livery is like the RAS cars.

Its interesting that one of the ex-ATCC Volvo's was sold to SRS in 1987.

At the end of 1986, when the Australian "Valvoline Volvo Dealer Team" was shutdown, a deal was initially done for Lyndon Reithmuller & Phil Ward to buy the cars. However the cars were ordered back to Sweden by Volvo, and the deal didn't go through (the Reithmuller/Ward team ended up buying the AMG Mercedes 190s from Bathurst '86)..... did Volvo perhaps just lend the cars to SRS?

The SRS car that went to Mt Fuji in 1987 was also repainted in the '86 Nordica colours, looking exactly as the works cars in 1986 did.

Walkinshaw's public excuse for not driving the Volvo at Wellington was that the "International Touring Car Championship which was supposed to include Bathurst, Wellington, Fuji and Macau has been cancelled" .... quite what the "International Touring Car Championship" was, given the WTCC was running at the same time... i'm not quite sure.

[racer69]

Originally Posted by bludvl_x19

Not all the Mark Petch Volvos are overseas...




I took these photos at Drive Bathurst last year, and took my sweet time getting around to uploading them...

Probably only of use to Australian viewers, but this replica is featured on this weeks edition of "Inside Speed" from the Irace meeting at Queensland Raceway.

[VolvoGroupA]

Originally Posted by racer69

Its interesting that one of the ex-ATCC Volvo's was sold to SRS in 1987.

At the end of 1986, when the Australian "Valvoline Volvo Dealer Team" was shutdown, a deal was initially done for Lyndon Reithmuller & Phil Ward to buy the cars. However the cars were ordered back to Sweden by Volvo, and the deal didn't go through (the Reithmuller/Ward team ended up buying the AMG Mercedes 190s from Bathurst '86)..... did Volvo perhaps just lend the cars to SRS?

The SRS car that went to Mt Fuji in 1987 was also repainted in the '86 Nordica colours, looking exactly as the works cars in 1986 did.

Walkinshaw's public excuse for not driving the Volvo at Wellington was that the "International Touring Car Championship which was supposed to include Bathurst, Wellington, Fuji and Macau has been cancelled" .... quite what the "International Touring Car Championship" was, given the WTCC was running at the same time... i'm not quite sure.

I was aware of the Reithmuller/Ward deal with Volvo, but like the history tells, Volvo changed their minds and recalled the cars back to Sweden.

The Australian Volvo Dealer team was under contract that if anything would change, like what did happened, Volvo withdrew from racing and group-A, that Volvo would have first word of anything what was to be done with the cars. And the cars was recalled to Sweden as said before, Volvo was done in other words.


The AVDT Volvo #4 (A405), one of the cars that was recalled to Sweden.

The deal with Hans-Åke Söderqvist (SRS) was that he had quit his job at Volvo Motorsport and started the Söderqvist Racing Service company (SRS) instead. Then he bought the LH Australian Volvo #4 from Volvo Motorsport. He also bought Per Stureson's DTM Volvo (the same that he won the DTM-series with in 1985). Per Stureson delivered the Volvo to Tom Walkinshaw in England 1987 himself.


The Per Stureson Volvo in 1987, before he sold the car to SRS and TWR Partnership.

Since SRS and TWR had made arrangement of a partnership in 1987. Win Percy and Ulf Granberg tested the Ex. Stureson Volvo at Donington, and Tom himself tested with Granberg at Nogaro in France. And at Nogaro Granberg was about 1,5 second faster then Walkinshaw. AND thats the reason why Walkinshaw withdrew from working with SRS, he claimed that he had hurt his arms ans wasn't able to drive...Tom couldn't take that Ulf was faster then him, sadly So when TWR left SRS, Söderqvist was standing without finances to compete at Wellington and in the WTCC series. So he let a couple of Italians rent the Ex. AVDT #4 Volvo, they competed in ETCC 1987, to get the finances together.


The Ex. AVDT #4 Volvo with SRS, that the Italians rented during 1987, their names was Giorgio Cipolli and Bruno Corradi.

So if we go back to what happened after TWR left SRS. The driver and Swede Stig Blomqvist joined the team! And he never had the chance to test the car, his testdrive was at Wellington! They finished 12th at Wellington. An other SRS Volvo (Ex AVDT #4 Volvo) was present at Wellington to, they did not finish, drivers was Peggen Andersson and Ian "Inky" Tulloch.


Ulf Granberg/Stig Blomqivst in the SRS/U-BIX sponsored #16 Volvo at Wellington 1987, this is the Ex. Stureson Volvo. This was in1987/10/26.



SRS at Fuji Speedway with The Ex. Stureson Volvo in the Nordica colours. Drivers was Ulf Granberg/ Ian "Inky" Tulloch. And this was in 1987/11/15.



SRS at Macau 1987 with The Ex. Stureson Volvo in the Kamachi colours. Drivers was Ulf Granberg/ Gianfranco Brancatelli. And this was in 1987/11/29.

So this was little about the SRS team cars in 1987!

[VolvoGroupA]

Originally Posted by racer69

Probably only of use to Australian viewers, but this replica is featured on this weeks edition of "Inside Speed" from the Irace meeting at Queensland Raceway.

Who is the person behind the wheels in the Mark Petch replica and is it a 240T or a GT? Would like to get in contact with the owner!

[Jesper OH]

http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....3&postcount=16

Thought it would be more appropriate to continue the above issue here.

I found the production numbers of the Volvo 240 series from beginning to end here: http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/history/...ats_search.php

It seems that the 1983-1984 production run was the last for the 2-door version with a run of 7.887 cars - making up for only 3.5 % of the total of 226.720 240s produced. As I take it, this batch of cars would have been produced after the summer holidays of 1983 till the beginning of the summer of 1984. No wunder then that Kissling might have had problems sourcing even a standard 2-door 240 for their 1985 campaign.
I think that the Australian dealer team used a 1979 242 GT for their home grown car ..or was that the rarely seen Laurie Hazelton Turbo?

Jesper

[VolvoGroupA]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....3&postcount=16

Thought it would be more appropriate to continue the above issue here.

I found the production numbers of the Volvo 240 series from beginning to end here: http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/history/...ats_search.php

It seems that the 1983-1984 production run was the last for the 2-door version with a run of 7.887 cars - making up for only 3.5 % of the total of 226.720 240s produced. As I take it, this batch of cars would have been produced after the summer holidays of 1983 till the beginning of the summer of 1984. No wunder then that Kissling might have had problems sourcing even a standard 2-door 240 for their 1985 campaign.
I think that the Australian dealer team used a 1979 242 GT for their home grown car ..or was that the rarely seen Laurie Hazelton Turbo?

Jesper

Correct, the Australian Volvo Dealer Team used a 1979 242GT.

The 1979 242GT that the AVDT built, in only six weeks, was based on a standard used car. The Laurie Hazelton is a different car.

But the AVDT 242GT Volvo still lives on today! The car is undergoing restoration in Norway today.

[Spen Again]

Ah, Mark Petch, still the only mechanical seal company to sponsor a race team, to my knowledge. My industry is too underground...

[chunterer]

Could this be of interest to any owners in Europe?

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130844

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Don't worry, it'll come i'm sure. There's plenty of Group A fans on 10-10ths!!

Well regarding the prospective British entry I seem to recall it being reported that one car was rumoured to be entering in either 1985 or 1986. I can't remember the exact detail of the stories but either John Maguire or Julian May might have been the names connected with possibly Patrick Watts or someone like that as a driver. The car wouldn't have been new but I believe sourced from Sweden, not Eggenberger.

However I suspect that the names of the entrants and drivers are not accurate!!

It may just have been speculation at the time as it never materialised - I was gutted as at that time the series struggled for quality and quantity so any additional competitive entries would have been brilliant!!

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

I think you're wide of the mark here. I have a hunch that I know who it was, but would like to know EXACTLY what the magazines said at the time before I spill the beans here... Come on chaps, get the quotes from Autosport!

I tripped over the news item about this while looking through some old Autosports and MNs at the weekend- and didn't think to take a note of the date....
Next time I get a chance to look back through them, I'll take a note of the source and exactly what was said- it definitely mentioned Patrick Watts as the potential driver, and IIRC suggested support would come from one or more UK Volvo dealers- I think it also said the car was likely to be one of the ex-Belgian Dealer Team cars from 1984

[VolvoGroupA]

Originally Posted by KA

I tripped over the news item about this while looking through some old Autosports and MNs at the weekend- and didn't think to take a note of the date....
Next time I get a chance to look back through them, I'll take a note of the source and exactly what was said- it definitely mentioned Patrick Watts as the potential driver, and IIRC suggested support would come from one or more UK Volvo dealers- I think it also said the car was likely to be one of the ex-Belgian Dealer Team cars from 1984

One of the ex-Belgian Dealer Team cars from 84? Hmm I wonder since there are only one left that rest fully restored in Germany that a friend of mine owned, there car remains in his family (sadly he passed away in 2009). You can see this car in a earlier post in this thread.

So now I wonder if the car have been sold now. I must investigate!

Thanks for the info KA!

[racer69]

Originally Posted by VolvoGroupA

Who is the person behind the wheels in the Mark Petch replica and is it a 240T or a GT? Would like to get in contact with the owner!

The driver is Matt Vreal

The car is listed on natsoft as being a Volvo 242 GT-T
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/re...03/2011.QR1.R9

[andy97]

Not a Group A car, but interesting for someone, maybe?
http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/c...lly-car/937508

[OpelOmegaEvolution500]

Spotted the DTM revival at the 'Ring in 2012

[Graham Clayton]

Originally Posted by Brickyard

Two ex-factory cars raced in Portugal from 1985, one to Antonio Rodrigues and another to Artur Mendes.

I have the cars as:

a) the Mendes car was the '84 Zolder ETC winner.

b) the Rodrigues car finished the same race in the third position. The problem is that the third on that race was a Jaguar not a Volvo.

Any comments?

Regards
Luis

Is this car either the Rodrigues or Mendes car?

[chunterer]

There was a 240 Turbo to be driven by a Brit on the provisional entry for the Heritage Touring Cup at Spa this weekend but it's not on the current list.

Is this the car thar was for sale in Belgium last year?

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by chunterer

There was a 240 Turbo to be driven by a Brit on the provisional entry for the Heritage Touring Cup at Spa this weekend but it's not on the current list.

Is this the car thar was for sale in Belgium last year?

Yes, that is the car Roks had for sale, in the colour scheme last owner ran it in. It was entered for Spa by the new owner if I have got my facts right, so not sure what has happened.