1987 World Touring Car Championship Discussion

[VolvoGroupA]

Originally Posted by racer69

VolvoGroupA - That is very interesting reading, as at the time TWR was also publicly tied up with Holden in producing their new VL Group A car for 1988. TWR had also obviously planned on running two Holden's in the 1987 WTCC, and fronted with 1 car at the Nurburgring WTCC round.

Despite the article mentioning the possibility of a TWR Volvo entry at Silverstone, could TWR have been doing 'contract work' so to speak for Team SRS?

TWR perheps saw potential in the Volvo after the ETC season in -85 and -86? For after all Volvo whould have also won the ETC -86 if it werent for the three victorys that was taken from them, they did run with one race with a dashboard that didnt follow the regulations, it was to light. So perheps TWR was doing 'contract work' with Volvo? Must look into this more now...

In the same time I wonder because before I read this article I had no idea about TWR being involved with Volvo in Group-A. So its very strange to that of all the pics I have of Volvo Group-A not even one have a sponsorssticker no nothing that can confirm the fact that TWR was behind Volvo in anything. Perheps he was a 'passive sponsor' like Volvo themselfs were in the beginning of Volvo entering Group-A, it was first in -85 Volvo confirmed their involvment in Group-A with Volvo. I will look in more to this with one of my swedish friends here back home and see what he can tell me about it.

This pics I enclose are the same car only in diffrent versions =) The former Per Stureson DTM winner car from -85.

[DRG]

1987 WTCC - brings back wonderful memories but also makes me think "if only...."

Here in Australia there was huge interest with Channel 7 vowing they would show each race live. When the Brock/Holden split climaxed just before the start of the championship we were left with 10 minute highlights on "Sportsworld", a weekly Sunday morning sports show however this petered out the virtually nil coverage until the championship hit our shores in October.

I guess the Championship may have gone the same way the Australian C'Ship went in the wearly 90's with handicapping once the GTR's would have arrived on the scene and begun dominating. Nevertheless I also rued the fact that such a great conecpt only lasted 1 year....

[racer69]

Originally Posted by DRG

Here in Australia there was huge interest with Channel 7 vowing they would show each race live. When the Brock/Holden split climaxed just before the start of the championship we were left with 10 minute highlights on "Sportsworld", a weekly Sunday morning sports show however this petered out the virtually nil coverage until the championship hit our shores in October.

Channel 7 probably said they'd televise rounds of the 1987 WTCC live with good intentions, but the problem was it would only have been possible if there was a host broadcaster doing the rounds live to provide the live feed. As far as i know Hay Fisher filmed all the European rounds, like they did in previous years with the ETCC, but this was for post-produced highlights, not live coverage (same thing happened when 7 wanted to televise the 1988 TT at Silverstone when Johnson went over live, no local TV station was providing a live feed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZl155k3iaM

This link though which is a highlight clip of the first WTCC round from Monza, seems to link Hay Fisher footage (their stuff was usually ground mounted camera's positioned right next to the guardrails) with what looks like local Italian TV coverage (when the M3s are going through the first chicane, you can hear foreign language commentary mixed in there, from what looks like 'Live-TV' footage)

For English speaking countries the only rounds as far as i know that received trackside coverage were Bathurst, Calder (In Australia at least all it got was 60mins highlights, though was taped live) & Wellington....

[Jesper OH]

Besides a 60 minutes highlights of James Hardie 1000, I have only ever seen the 1987 WTCC covered by a 20 or 30 minute Ford Texaco music video - "Winning Star" was the title if I remember.

Jesper

[racer69]

In Australia at least, we got short highlights of the first 7 rounds, presumebly through Hay-Fisher (who had a footage deal with Channel 7).

The James Hardie 1000 was shown live, and we got 1hr highlights (though taped live & then edited) of the Calder 500 & Wellington 500, i've never seen any footage of the Mt Fuji finale though. New Zealand got live coverage of the Wellington 500 also.

[chunterer]

It's only these last couple of years that I realise what I missed out on coverage wise. 20 odd years ago satellite tv was hardly heard of in UK, and as a youngster I had modest income so couldn't really afford to buy season reviews and videos unless I pressed parents to get one for me as a xmas pressie!!

Now of course whilst some stuff ocassionally pops up on ebay or on a specialist website somewhere, as with everything in life, older stuff gets more difficult to find!

Pardon me if i'm absent minded but was there an official WTCC season review on VHS?

[Slartibartfast]

I have some decent footage of the 1987 Silverstone TT courtesy of the BBC. It's about 30 minutes long. The weather was terrible..... Luckily, when I attended the TT in 1988, the sun was shining.

[DAVID PATERSON]

What a great thread! The '87 WTCC was really something and it showed so much potential. I was so angry when Bernie ruined it.

If you were on the board of Pepsico, would you hire the MD and major shareholder of Coca-cola to be your CEO?

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

I have some decent footage of the 1987 Silverstone TT courtesy of the BBC. It's about 30 minutes long. The weather was terrible..... Luckily, when I attended the TT in 1988, the sun was shining.

As I recall it snowed! Remember that photography stand on the exit of Copse? Stood there for an hour then could hardly get down the steps because my legs had gone numb!

[chunterer]

Yup, blinking horrid weather all race it was. I was in the stands by the s/fline but the rain was coming in horizontal or something mad!!

'84 was also very bad but only for about an hour, not all 4!!

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Yup, blinking horrid weather all race it was. I was in the stands by the s/fline but the rain was coming in horizontal or something mad!!

'84 was also very bad but only for about an hour, not all 4!!

I don't think I've ever got rained on as much sitting in a stand at Silverstone....

[chunterer]

I think my top 3 'drenched on' race meetings were:

'87 TT
'97 FIA GT
'93 Donington GP

Oh and a special mention for the inaugural Superprix in 1986.

[Peter Mallett]

Oops,

I was there for the 88 GP and was in Copse No 1 which got the full horizontal rain treatment. First Birmingham? Yep. 83 TT at Donington .............. Yep. you name it I've been rained on. Totally off topic but you started it!

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

I think my top 3 'drenched on' race meetings were:

'87 TT
'97 FIA GT
'93 Donington GP

Oh and a special mention for the inaugural Superprix in 1986.

I missed out on the Donington GP, but I'll vote for two out of those- the 87 TT and 97 FIA GT, plus honourable mentions for a couple of Lydden rallycross meetings, an RAC rally or two, and a club rally down here in Kent two or three years ago. Silverstone does seem to have its' very own kind of rain though...

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Yep. you name it I've been rained on.

Ever wonder why we do it.....?

[chunterer]

Ha ha, yes guilty as charged!!

Bringing this back on to topic, I'm trying to remember how many WTCC rounds were in the wet.

I can only think of the TT and some of the Bathurst 1000, when half the field exited at the top of the Mountain?

[glyn parham]

Bringing this back on to topic, I'm trying to remember how many WTCC rounds were in the wet.

It rained at Spa as well (some of my photos on racingsportscar and the ETCC websites will prove this) for several hours and I think Dijon might have been wet at some point as well.

Glyn

[racer69]

Was very wet at the start of the Calder round (on the banking) as well

[Jesper OH]

Dijon was stopped prematurely because of heavy rain, but don't have the details right now.

Jesper

[racer69]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

Dijon was stopped prematurely because of heavy rain, but don't have the details right now.

Jesper

Dijon was definatly stopped early due to rain in 1988, did it happen 2 years running?

[glyn parham]

Dijon was definatly stopped early due to rain in 1988, did it happen 2 years running?

Sorry racer69, but it was 1987 as I attended the 1988 race and the only time I got wet was from the inside in our hotel.

glyn

[KA]

'Redflagged after 112 laps due to heavy rain'
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...7%20Dijon.html

[racer69]

Originally Posted by glyn parham

Sorry racer69, but it was 1987 as I attended the 1988 race and the only time I got wet was from the inside in our hotel.

glyn

Your right, it was Jarama '88 where it bucketed at the end

[racer69]

Originally Posted by DRG

Here in Australia there was huge interest with Channel 7 vowing they would show each race live. When the Brock/Holden split climaxed just before the start of the championship we were left with 10 minute highlights on "Sportsworld", a weekly Sunday morning sports show however this petered out the virtually nil coverage until the championship hit our shores in October.

In follow up to this;

From the August 7, 1986 edition of Autosport

...As we understand it FISA will announce that they have reached agreement with the promotion company West Nally. Every round of the championship will be televised with each host country supplying coverage which will be edited and packaged by an as yet unnamed company (rumoured to be Channel 7 Australia)

[chavez]

There was a video of a film made by Ford available from Sports Seen that had the '87 WTCC highlights.

I believe the whole video was set to music - no commentary.

It appears that is is still available from Duke.

https://www.dukevideo.com/Cars/VHS/C...-Star-VHS.aspx

[piglos]

Originally Posted by racer69

Was very wet at the start of the Calder round (on the banking) as well

IIRC it was wet at the start, but no rain fell during the race. I attended the Calder round, and it was fantastic in that you could view the race-course side, then drive around and through a tunnel into the middle of the oval section. The sound from those M3s going around the banking nearly fried my brain.