Group A Rover 3500 SD1/Vitesse - History & Whereabouts

[charlie1williams]

Originally Posted by KA

Might be the Charles Williams car?- If so, I think it's an ex-Dennis Leech BTCC car, which was a reshell of (or at least incorporated parts from) a crashed 1985-season TWR/Bastos car.

Indeed it was!!

[GBRM]

Originally Posted by charlie1williams

Hi, Charlie Williams here. It was indeed our car at Spa pictured above (Ex TWR before he smashed it up at Zolder '85 or '86 I forget which, then reshelled by Dennis Leech) with myself and Dad - Chris - at the helm. Was running well at Spa. Not sure how to use this website, do I reply to thread or use the quote options?!

Hi Charlie
Is that the black one that was raced in BTCC and Thurnderaloons?

[charlie1williams]

Originally Posted by GBRM

Hi Charlie
Is that the black one that was raced in BTCC and Thurnderaloons?

Black and orange yes. It was TWR, then Tom crashed it, then Dennis Leech took it on with black/orange shell, we believe it was reshelled again since then, most recently Ken Clarke (who was Tom Walkinshaw's chief mechanic back in the day) has reconditioned it into its condition as you see today

[GBRM]

Thanks for confirming that Charlie, that's what I thought.
There's quite a few pictures of it in this thread, plus my late father raced against it many times.
I thought it looked great at Spa, the only thing I didn't like was that it was too quiet!!

[charlie1williams]

Originally Posted by GBRM

Thanks for confirming that Charlie, that's what I thought.
There's quite a few pictures of it in this thread, plus my late father raced against it many times.
I thought it looked great at Spa, the only thing I didn't like was that it was too quiet!!

It is quiet I agree and I have been having a long standing quarrel with my father about this. I think we should chop a silencer out, but (and my father has a valid-ish point) it's around the required level for UK noise tests so changing it just for a couple of races at Spa each year would be a hassle. So the debate goes on...

[GBRM]

It does sound remarkably, perhaps more than the 105db for the UK.
Agreed on Spa though, if it's only two races a yar then the hassle probably isn't worth it - especially if you can keep the speed up there!!

[Red Throbber]

Plenty of Peanut Slab photos on Flikr..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817@N07/2788308550/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817@N07/2795350039/

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by MG Rover Sport

Afternoon all! Apologies for my absence, and I promise to catch up and respond to a few of the rally based posts shortly, but in the meantime...

Group A 'Computervision' MG Metro Turbo and 'Fleet' Rover Vitesse being demonstrated at the Mini 25 event at Donington...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16788879@N02/5140326363/

Hi David, good to have you back!

Interesting little shot, reminds me of that one we talked about taken at the Rallysprint in 1984 which appeared to be the ex Gitanes car running around with one of the little buzzboxes.

With this one, i'm wondering who's at the wheel of the Rover, might be Tony Pond as the driver appears to have a plainish white helmet and is sitting quite low in the car as Pondy did in the Sanyo cars.

Could be any of the TWR pilots though?

[billycooper]

Hi Pics are from my flickr side, thanks for comments guys, i think the Rover pilot was Jean-Louis Schlesser and the Metro Patrick Watts, but iam only 50 % sure, thy did about 10 laps changing places all the time and was a highlight of the weekend for me.

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Hi David, good to have you back!

Interesting little shot, reminds me of that one we talked about taken at the Rallysprint in 1984 which appeared to be the ex Gitanes car running around with one of the little buzzboxes.

With this one, i'm wondering who's at the wheel of the Rover, might be Tony Pond as the driver appears to have a plainish white helmet and is sitting quite low in the car as Pondy did in the Sanyo cars.

Could be any of the TWR pilots though?

This one?
http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....&postcount=864

I can't make out who's driving the Fleet Rover either- Schlesser wore a white helmet with a dark-coloured pattern around the crown- you can just make it out in this 86 Brands GP meeting shot...
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._3608344_n.jpg
(though it's much clearer in a Williams
http://www.motorpasion.com.br/wp-con...r_williams.jpg )

[KA]

Originally Posted by MG Rover Sport

The Computervision show car...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16788879@N02/5140934180/

Originally Posted by billycooper

Hi Pics are from my flickr side, thanks for comments guys,

I see we were both at Silverstone on the same day then... 1985 TT at a guess?

http://tentenths.com/forum/attachmen...2&d=1214587262

I must have a pic of the Bastos one somewhere as well- I've definitely got the 1986 version
http://tentenths.com/forum/attachmen...3&d=1214587262

[Jesper OH]

Two Rovers in Finland by 1986, both in pre-1986 evolution mode:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Ahvenist...81/aGLeLJeSzrc

Jesper

[KA]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

Two Rovers in Finland by 1986, both in pre-1986 evolution mode:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Ahvenist...81/aGLeLJeSzrc

Jesper

Thanks Jesper- that's a good find. IIRC, we've mentioned Rovers in Scandinavia before, but the only one we really know much about is the Kaj Bornebusch ex-TWR car in Sweden.

So does anyone know anything about these two? a pair of LHD cars, #80 white with a blue stripe (that stripe pattern is similar to the 'Sinziger' colourscheme on the early German cars from 1984...) and #81 plain white.

[MG Rover Sport]

A couple 'More' Magazine photos for you, which I don't think have been linked to as yet...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817@N07/5164748282/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817@N07/5164141367/

...both taken at the 1985 Nissan Sport race, Pukekohe, New Zealand.

[KA]

Originally Posted by MG Rover Sport

A couple 'More' Magazine photos for you, which I don't think have been linked to as yet...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817@N07/5164748282/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817@N07/5164141367/

...both taken at the 1985 Nissan Sport race, Pukekohe, New Zealand.

That's a good find David.

There are a lot more from the Nissan-Mobil 500 races, including the 'More' and 'Whitakers' Rovers, in the same album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/
The couple you've posted are definitely new (only uploaded to Flickr in the last couple of weeks), so hopefully, there might be more to come

[corliss]

Originally Posted by KA

That's a good find David.

There are a lot more from the Nissan-Mobil 500 races, including the 'More' and 'Whitakers' Rovers, in the same album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/
The couple you've posted are definitely new (only uploaded to Flickr in the last couple of weeks), so hopefully, there might be more to come

The 1986 Wellington Race with the Whitaker cars, i was absolutely certain that one of the cars had been hit in the rear at the first corner hairpin splitting the fuel tank, glad old age hasnt dampened my memory, pity the comentary hasnt got Dick Johnsons famous quote about the Rovers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA6Vq...0C411&index=34

Its in 4 parts, so quite long, complete race though, sorry but cant find the 85 race,

Skip

[redshoes]

http://rodgrant.lakainc.com/australia.htm

Stumbled on the above link whilst searching for something completely unrelated. Don't think it's been posted in this thread before.

There's a brief reference to the 86 Macau Guia race with Gianfranco Brancatelli and Tom Walkinshaw in Rovers, with a picture of the #8 car.
http://rodgrant.lakainc.com/images/TW.jpg

[MG Rover Sport]

An excellent find there 'Red' - I particularly like the Tom Watson's Racing livery!

I wonder if this was sheer coincidence, or simply a ficticious company used instead of racing it under the 'normal' TWR banner for some reason?

[redshoes]

It's Team Watson's, not Tom Watson's.

Watson's has been a regular sponsor of various Macau / Far East cars for many years.

[MG Rover Sport]

Ooopps, sorry 'Red' for the error! Does seem to be a helluva coincidence though don't you reckon?

[KA]

It's a nice coincidence, and I think the only time they were involved with a TWR Macau entry?
As Redshoes said, Watson's and their associated brands have been a regular Macau sponsor for years, and usually on one of the big-name teams.

I think they're a major chain of chemists in the region?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AS_Watson

Can't remember whether these have been posted before, but another shot of a Macau car http://www.fotop.net/Reis/Reis36/12_3500

The other albums in that collection show a fair selection of Watson's sponsorship on Macau touring cars, including Eggenberger Volvo, TWR Rover, Rouse RS500 and particularly BMW

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by KA

It's a nice coincidence, and I think the only time they were involved with a TWR Macau entry?

I think that 1986 would have been the last TWR entry at Macau, 1984 and the JPS-XJS' being the only other entry I can think of.

Jesper

[basmsport]

Hello,
I'm Bert Smeets who will campaign chassis 019 in the Belgian Historic Championship next year. I'm better known in Triumph TR circles but I'm looking really forward racing the SD1. I know it's not the place to ask for but I'm looking for GroupA spares. Any help much appreciated. Many thanks.
Bert
bsmeets@basmotorsport.be

[MG Rover Sport]

Good afternoon Bert and welcome to Ten Tenths!

You are certainly a well known name amongst TR circles, and I wish you well with your Vitesse - maybe one day you will be as well known with that as you are with the TR. Good luck!

On another matter, there's a full 1983 13 issue bound copy of Austin Rover's motorsport newsletter 'Racecard' for sale on ebay HERE if anyone is interested?...

...currently @ £14.99 with one single bidder and 3 days and 4 hours remaining!

(PS - Apologies if somebody on here is the sole bidder and I have just publicised something that you were trying to keep quiet for yourself!)

[MG Rover Sport]

PS - I am NOT the seller of the above item by the way!