Group A BMW 635 CSi - a popular, solid performer

[275 GTB-4]

Dave...I saw some recent pics of two 6 Series Gold Leaf cars with the Bowdens..does everyone know about these examples??

[David Towe]

From what I understand, one of them is the 85 Bathurst #1 car and the other is the shell that JPS used to put spectators in so they could watch a video of a lap of bathurst. This shell only had plastic plumbing pipe or exhaust pipe as the cage and was never race ready, it only had the standard 6 series road car rear seats as the front seats and didn't even have a motor in it. Shell nos....??? Why he has #1 on both of them is beyond me.

[ian beckett]

I think Gerard Hodges has been running a 635 in this years New Zealand BMW series? Is this his usual Group N car which we have discussed before as part of the Sytner debate? Anyone got any pictures of it? Ian.

[Alex E]

Regarding the 2 635`s. I am pretty sure the second car used as video / display was actually an original race car. It was originally silver & raced in the ETCC with Sepp Manhalter. Have the chassis # somewhere.
Alex.

[ian beckett]

Hi Alex,read your comment above and was puzzled so have just gone through all my records,I cannot find a single mention of Sepp Mannhalter having driven a 635 let alone having owned one? Ian.

[Alex E]

Hi Ian,
It was chassis # 73 & sold to Manhalter in `85. Unusual at it was one of only 2 cars supplied in Polaris silver, Faltz had the other. Manhalter often raced in Austria so you might not find him in the usual places.

regards Alex

[Adrian B]

Originally Posted by David Towe

From what I understand, one of them is the 85 Bathurst #1 car and the other is the shell that JPS used to put spectators in so they could watch a video of a lap of bathurst. This shell only had plastic plumbing pipe or exhaust pipe as the cage and was never race ready, it only had the standard 6 series road car rear seats as the front seats and didn't even have a motor in it. Shell nos....??? Why he has #1 on both of them is beyond me.

I am pretty sure that the first car mentioned is the 1986 Bathurst #1 car driven by Richards and Longhurst, not 1985.

[David Towe]

Originally Posted by Adrian B

I am pretty sure that the first car mentioned is the 1986 Bathurst #1 car driven by Richards and Longhurst, not 1985.

But wasn't the car debuted for the endurance championship of 85 and continued into 86? Your car was retired after the ATCC of 85 I thought? At least that's was I was told when I owned it.
Coming to Oran Park in June??

[Adrian B]

[QUOTE=David Towe]But wasn't the car debuted for the endurance championship of 85 and continued into 86? Your car was retired after the ATCC of 85 I thought? At least that's was I was told when I owned it.

The #1 car used by Jim Richards in 1986 did not appear until the 3rd round of the ATCC at Sandown in April. Prior to that he had used the 1985 car.

[Gerry Taylor]

Originally Posted by ian beckett

Two months without any posts! Come on guys!!!!

OK I am a lazy B, and havn't posted for ages. So, here's me in the Beema at Donington circa late seventies. Anyone remember?

[GBRM]

Originally Posted by Gerry Taylor

OK I am a lazy B, and havn't posted for ages. So, here's me in the Beema at Donington circa late seventies. Anyone remember?

Good to hear from you Gerry. Was that Donington first re-opened? The armco looks brand new!!

[JPS]

Hi all. I recently purchased RA2/66, and stumbled onto this site trying to search a bit more history. Interested in finding out how many of these JPS promotional cars were made?

[Gerard Hodges]

Hi JPS you obviously own Hugh Tunleys old car, i did some time with JPS Racing in the 6 era, i can remember 2 /3 of those promo cars. Frank, Jim and Neville used them as road cars occasonaly. There is another one in NZ it was owened by the late Kelly Tarlton, and i think his wife still owns it. We would love to see your car stay in the BMW Car Club New Zealand ranks.
Gerry.

[Alex E]

JPS,
RA2-66 was the first of them, the other chassis used as road cars were 67-68-69-70 & 71.
Alex

[JPS]

Gerry, Alex. Thanks for your replies. Seems there are fewer of these than I was led to believe. Other than the chassis, and trim, I presume these are the same as other road spec 635's, yes?

I remember seeing some of the racing versions years ago, awesome sounding, and always thought they were one of the best looking machines around.

JPS

[chunterer]

Whilst picking through some more archives I came across this paddock shot of the CC team, which I think was taken at Thruxton, Easter Monday 1984.

Behind the cars are (I think) Pete Clark (left rear, facing camera), Dave Cook (right rear) and Vince Woodman (right, peering down), but I'm not sure who the 4th guy is?

[KA]

More 635 pics- Nissan-Mobil 500, Pukekohe NZ, 1986.


#3 'Metro Magazine': John Morton/Jim Richards
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

#6 'Trans-Tasman Insurance': Graeme Crosby/Lew McKinnon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

#20 'Hewlett Packard': Jim Keogh/Robertson- presumably Keogh's regular ATCC/Bathurst mount- an ex-JPS Group C chassis converted to Group A I think?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

#31 'Archibalds': Trevor Crowe/Tony Longhurst
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

#72 'State Coal': Charlie O'Brien/McIntyre- note this is RHD- the ex-CC Motorsport car sold to O'Brien during '85 by Frank Sytner?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

[Gerard Hodges]

Originally Posted by KA

More 635 pics- Nissan-Mobil 500, Pukekohe NZ, 1986.


#3 'Metro Magazine': John Morton/Jim Richards
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

#6 'Trans-Tasman Insurance': Graeme Crosby/Lew McKinnon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

#20 'Hewlett Packard': Jim Keogh/Robertson- presumably Keogh's regular ATCC/Bathurst mount- an ex-JPS Group C chassis converted to Group A I think?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

#31 'Archibalds': Trevor Crowe/Tony Longhurst
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

#72 'State Coal': Charlie O'Brien/McIntyre- note this is RHD- the ex-CC Motorsport car sold to O'Brien during '85 by Frank Sytner?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/

Hi KA, I can fill in some gaps here, the trans tasman insurance car is chassis no RA2-01 ex eggenberger it is undergoing a full resto here in NZ including conversion back to LHD and origional colour scheme. The metro magazine car is ex Sytner and is still here in NZ, along with the archibalds car ex JPS, this one sits in the owners car sales showroom in Christchurch (NZ) and is un changed from that photo.

[chunterer]

I reckon both the 6 and 72 are ex CC cars. Both are right hookers?

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

I reckon both the 6 and 72 are ex CC cars. Both are right hookers?

I thought only the two CC race cars were rhd, with the spare/test car being lhd. Isn't Mike Newman's car an ex-CC rhd chassis?

If I remember correctly, we established that the CC cars went to Frank Sytner, and were the sold on at various points during the year- one to Newman, the lhd spare (think it was an ex-Eggenberger chassis?) to Belgium, and the other rhd to Charlie O'Brien for Bathurst.
However, without reading back through the thread, I remember we got into some confusion about exactly how many 635s passed through Frank's hands....

[chunterer]

Yes good points!

The yellow one (6) is ex CC, ex Sytner but I guess the red one (72) couldn't be an ex CC car as Newman still has his I believe!!

[Gerard Hodges]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Yes good points!

The yellow one (6) is ex CC, ex Sytner but I guess the red one (72) couldn't be an ex CC car as Newman still has his I believe!!

Hi guys, 3, 6, 72 all came to NZ via sytner, 3 has been restored and competes regularly in classic racing, no 6 i find the most interesting. It is owned by a friend of mine who has a large collection of classic race and rally cars (including ex tony Pond Metro 6 R4) and does wonderful resto.s on them. He has done all the research on this car (RA2-01) including a letter and photo,s from Rudi Eggenburger of the car and some of the development aero gear (hoop over rear window a la CSL the mounting holes are still there ) they tried on this car. It was origionally LHD and converted to RHD bye either cc who were the second owners or Sytner. As part of the resto it is being converted back to LHD and origional Eggenburger colour scheme. As far as i now 72 is still in NZ but haven,t seen it for many years.
Must go i am running my car (RA2-46) IN Targa NZ starting on monday will send some up dates.
Gerry.

[KA]

Originally Posted by Gerard Hodges

Hi guys, 3, 6, 72 all came to NZ via sytner, 3 has been restored and competes regularly in classic racing, no 6 i find the most interesting. It is owned by a friend of mine who has a large collection of classic race and rally cars (including ex tony Pond Metro 6 R4) and does wonderful resto.s on them. He has done all the research on this car (RA2-01) including a letter and photo,s from Rudi Eggenburger of the car and some of the development aero gear (hoop over rear window a la CSL the mounting holes are still there ) they tried on this car. It was origionally LHD and converted to RHD bye either cc who were the second owners or Sytner. As part of the resto it is being converted back to LHD and origional Eggenburger colour scheme. As far as i now 72 is still in NZ but haven,t seen it for many years.
Must go i am running my car (RA2-46) IN Targa NZ starting on monday will send some up dates.
Gerry.

RA2-01 was the CC test/spare car from memory- think there's a pic of it in CC colours somewhere back in the thread, and I think it was still LHD in their ownership- not sure if they ever raced it?. The stuff about the aero developments tried on the car sounds interesting- I know there are pics of a Schnitzer/Original BMW Teile' 635 with either a CSL or M3-style rear wing earlier in the thread, apparently tried around 1986

Good luck with Targa NZ!

[chunterer]

I think the ex Eggenberger car was run for one, maybe 2 rounds?

After Vince Woodman shunted in qualy for the season opener, he may have used it (Int'l Trophy and Easter meetings?) whilst his new car was rebuilt, or maybe Weaver ran it for the Silverstone June Euro F3 round after he had rear ended his regular car in paractice for the Thruxton Whitsun meeting in.

Not sure on these points though?

There was some talk at the time IIRC that the Eggenberger engine was a bit down on power to CC's Neil Brown units (most likely because it was an ex endurance machine, not built for sprint racing?) so they weren't keen on racing it?

I have a feeling that Vince and James may even have shared this particular car to that 2nd place in the Donington 500 that year?

[KA]

Going back to Sytner cars, I've just had another look at the Donington 1985 ETCC pics on Racingsportscars.com- Remember we've discussed in depth how many and which cars Frank had in 1985, and one of the mysteries has been the second cars fielded at the two ETCC rounds?

I think we came to the conclusion the South-African crewed second Sytner car at the TT was the ex-CC chassis before sale to Australia, and it appeared at the TT still in CC colours, with the South African sponsorship added, but I don't think we ever decided whether it was also the second Sytner car at Donington (race #10, for Hamish Irvine/John Clark)- I think there was some speculation, possibly fuelled by me, of a plain white car- wish I had pics of the Sytner entries at Donington- I didn't take a camera to that one....

The 635s at Donington were:
3x CiBiEmme cars, I think all in the same colourscheme (ex-Eggenberger 83/4 colours)
http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-05-05-014.jpg

Mike Newman- as always in basically the ex-CC silver livery
http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-05-05-012.jpg

and the Sytner pair- Frank's #9 shared with Michel Delcourt, in the usual white GSI livery, and the #10 car for Irvine/Clark.
Look in the background of this Volvo pic- a white 635.
http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-05-05-011.jpg
(also in the pitlane in background of the CiBiEmme pic above?)
I can't make out the signwriting on the car at all, so is this Frank, or is it Irvine/Clark in a plain white car....? Presumably, it can only be one of the Sytner pair, unless one of the CiBiEmme trio was white- Schnitzer and most of the other European 635 teams sat this one out...