1984 Trimoco RAC British Saloon Car Championship - Discussion & Results

[dave174]

Originally Posted by Terry Nightingale

Hi Dave,
I raced this car for Julian May in the 1980 Trimoco Championship, I think it started life as a 1300s, it changed to 1600 midway between the 81 season I think, by which time I had departed to run a Dolomite Sprint, what is the base colour is it Red? If it is the original 1300 car then it started life with Stuart McCrudden when he worked for Ford he now runs the Historic Formula 1 Championship.
Peter Williams worked for Julian May during the 80's I was sad to hear of his passing. I remember Gerry Marshall saying to me at Arthur Mallock's funeral that the older you get the more funerals you go to, he was so right. Anyway if you want any further information get in touch.
Cheers Terry Nightingale

hi terry, thanks for the history, checked over the car regarding the colour and the paint seems to be a redish orange the tailgate is more of an orange proberly a replacement, it says on the back, popular 1100,had the car running but have had to revert the dizzy back to points and condenser as the lucas electronic ignition was shot and no one seems to have replacement parts anymore,any spec on the engine would be helpful, the old mechanic who has helped with the car was a personal friend of peters and he remembers you and julian, he helped with a team of alfasuds, actualy building them and transportingthem in the team coach, the mechanics name is Tiny Coston of coston comercials,has many tales the things they used to get up to on the road,
many thanks Dave

[Terry Nightingale]

Hi Dave,
yes I remember Tiny Costin he had a workshop up on Hadstock Aerodrome
say hello from me the next time you see him. I also remember the Alfa team up there as well, John Dooley and Rob Kirby were the drivers. Rob now runs a garage in the middle of Newport.
The more I think about it I am sure you have the original 1300 Goup 1 Fiesta as I remember Peter telling me many years ago that he had now got it in leiu of money Julian owed him.
Can't really help on the spec of the 1600 engine as I ran it in 1300 spec when it was built by Richard Longman and then Oscar from DTW Engines in Harlow took over. He was ex Brian Hart and had a workshop just down the road from Julians Factory. He is still going I understand so you could try asking him but ask for David Wilde if you ring him.
Someone else who may be able to throw some light on the matter is Reg Taylor, Tiny may have his contact number he lives at the bottom of Highfield Road just above the common in S/Walden. Reg was a very good mate of Peter's and might have just built the 1600 engine up from the vast amount of bits that Julian accumulated over the years.
He still competes in Classic Trials now with a VW Beetle but he used to have a Dellow with a Ford engine and used to build all his own cars.
Have you managed to contact Julian? The last I heard of him he was living in a barn in Clavering after his marraige broke up and his business went pop. A sad ending to a good friend who helped me a lot in my earlier years of racing.
If you need any x/flow parts I have still got a lot of 1600 bits left from when we used to run the Westfield Centre. Let me have your e-mail address and I will get a list off to you. I also found some set-up sheets for the car that you are welcome to have.
Regards Terry

[dave174]

Originally Posted by Terry Nightingale

Hi Dave,
yes I remember Tiny Costin he had a workshop up on Hadstock Aerodrome
say hello from me the next time you see him. I also remember the Alfa team up there as well, John Dooley and Rob Kirby were the drivers. Rob now runs a garage in the middle of Newport.
The more I think about it I am sure you have the original 1300 Goup 1 Fiesta as I remember Peter telling me many years ago that he had now got it in leiu of money Julian owed him.
Can't really help on the spec of the 1600 engine as I ran it in 1300 spec when it was built by Richard Longman and then Oscar from DTW Engines in Harlow took over. He was ex Brian Hart and had a workshop just down the road from Julians Factory. He is still going I understand so you could try asking him but ask for David Wilde if you ring him.
Someone else who may be able to throw some light on the matter is Reg Taylor, Tiny may have his contact number he lives at the bottom of Highfield Road just above the common in S/Walden. Reg was a very good mate of Peter's and might have just built the 1600 engine up from the vast amount of bits that Julian accumulated over the years.
He still competes in Classic Trials now with a VW Beetle but he used to have a Dellow with a Ford engine and used to build all his own cars.
Have you managed to contact Julian? The last I heard of him he was living in a barn in Clavering after his marraige broke up and his business went pop. A sad ending to a good friend who helped me a lot in my earlier years of racing.
If you need any x/flow parts I have still got a lot of 1600 bits left from when we used to run the Westfield Centre. Let me have your e-mail address and I will get a list off to you. I also found some set-up sheets for the car that you are welcome to have.
Regards Terry

Hi Terry
thanks for all the imfomation Tiny still has a workshop on the airfield but not in the brick building he used to have,but a series of nissan huts on the other side of the road,my email address is [Deleted, please reply by PM].
any help would be great as im starting to get annoyed with it as it wont run properly on the points set up and the carbs are playing up, any way enough for now got to go to tinys to pick up a dizzzy and return it to a friend at kings lynn
thanks dave

[chunterer]

Cheers Grant, hadn't noticed that!

When i've got time i'll move the Fiesta posts into the 1983 thread I think as that was the year relevant to the owners questions about the car if that's ok with everyone?

[Racing RSi]

Yet another great read.. the North Essex Motorsport RS1600i pictures were originally taken by me, I can confirm it is very original, The curent keeper and me have just had a modern exhaust fitted, as it was a bit loud ;-) still side exit, Scott (current keeper) has got to grips with the engine, (as it was over fueling) and now runs a treat, next year (2012) it is 30 years of the RS1600i, so I am sure this car will be about on the track again, maybe with the Brooklyn 16i and the Longman 16i.

[chunterer]

It would be nice to see one of them out there running let alone 3!!

I should get onto the people who run the JD Classics series for next season - they need entries and would be ideal to showcase these lovely little cars.

[Racing RSi]

Keep me posted Chunterer ;-)

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Racing RSi

Keep me posted Chunterer ;-)

Hahah, when I said I should, I meant you should (could!)

[Racing RSi]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Hahah, when I said I should, I meant you should (could!)

Wouldnt know how to, not even a clue.. as my cars are only driven by original drivers, (Chris Hodgetts, Alan Curnow and Richard Longman) the latest car I doubt will be on track next year, (Datapost RS Turbo No 44) as 6 years of poor storage has taken its toll

[chunterer]

Best to contact the Masters series organisers as a starting point? There is a website but i'm not entriely sure who the contact would be.

Plenty of tenths users will know as they are competitors in various Masters classes like Mike Bell, (who is also an Escort fan racing a lovely MK1 Zakspeed replica), albeit earlier models!

[James280]

Hello everyone!

I am the new owner of the EX BTCC Barry Lee RS1600i.

Just to correct - the guy that previously posted claiming to own the car, he left a deposit with the previous owner but never came to collect the car so it was re-advertised.

I have bought the car with the intention to restore it.

It has a lot of original features including the alloy cage!

It was raced in 1984 and 1985 by Barry Lee in BTCC and then sold on to a fellow Hot Rod racer (either Mark Homer or Tony Marren) and raced up until 1989 in the modified saloon series with an all steel Burton CVH on carbs.

Since then it sat in storage for years only seeing one or two track days hence why the alloy cage is still fitted. The engine met it's end on the last track day kindly preserving the underside of the car in a thin coat of oil!

I have received the car in hand painted Burton Power livery (complete with old telephone number!) with Tony Marren's name on the sides.

The car is still largely Group A specification including all the suspension setup.
With the exception of some internal panels removed for weight saving the shell is in fantastic condition! These will be returned as I believe Group A wouldn't allow.

I hope this makes for interesting reading!

One thing I am after is original Group A regulations from 84/85. As I want to make sure the car complies with these throughout the re-build.

Can anybody help with these?

Barry is hopefully going to help me with some images, but if anybody has photos other than the ones already posted I would be very grateful! Even if its from its mod saloon days.

cheers

James.

[chunterer]

Warm welcome James!

Look forward to you keeping us updated with restoration progress and seeing the car out there some time in future.

[KA]

Great to hear of another survivor going to be restored to original condition!
As I've said before, it's one of the cars that seems to have eluded a lot of photographers at the time- possibly because it may only have run a pretty limited race schedule.
Apart from the pic earlier in this thread, one of the few pics I can think of on the internet is one in this set of pics from Oulton in '84
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...on%20Park.html

[James280]

Thankyou Chunterer and KA.

I have seen the Oulton photo already but thanks for digging it out.

I have a photo of it from the 1984 Hot Rod World Championships which shows Barry's MK2 Escort Hot rod in the background with the same livery!

Are there any archived photos of modified saloons anywhere?

Also who do you think I could talk to about Group A regs?

James

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by James280

Thankyou Chunterer and KA.

I have seen the Oulton photo already but thanks for digging it out.

I have a photo of it from the 1984 Hot Rod World Championships which shows Barry's MK2 Escort Hot rod in the background with the same livery!

Are there any archived photos of modified saloons anywhere?

Also who do you think I could talk to about Group A regs?

James

Off the top of my head I would try contacting fellow Ten-Tenths members Ken Clarke and Terence Bower (perhaps by our privtae messaging system?) Both have been involved in rebuilding/restoring Group A cars in recent years and they could point you in the right direction.

[T-Man]

Hello Everyone,

I stumbled across this picture from the British GP support race (round 8) which somewhat clearly shows the red RX-7 of Hamish Irvine behind Rouse's Rover. When taking a closer look at it, I would say that the car ran using no. 37.


hmm, looks like Sutton-Images doesn't like linking their stuff, so you have to go there and search for "Rouse AND 1984" which will show you 6 shots including the one with the RX-7 plus a nice grid shot from said race weekend

[North Essex Motorsport]

Originally Posted by dave174

Hi KA, The car is still a 1600cc crossflow with split twin 48s only using 1 side of the carb this is as was run in the eightys,the car came from pete williams estate who passed away last year,his name is on the car as mechanic, he took over the car after its circuit career and used it for sprints with borough19 and hanger11 sprints it was due to be used at brighton speed trials in 2008 but not sure if he managed to get there, the car has been fitted with some hand controls and a pneumatic clutch as peter was disabled at this time

That is sad news that Pete has passed. I spent several afternoons a few years ago discussing the racing through the 80's and looked forward to all our chats. He had some fantastic stories of pit lane high jinks and late night drinking/partying. One of my favourites was the story of Patrick Watts and his V tight short shorts!!

I remember looking at the fiesta in his lock up and seeing the hand controls he used, his Supra was also quite tasty. He did compete in several races in the early 1300 and in the 1600 fiesta, not sure which ones though sorry.

I still own the Escort RS1600i, not done a great deal other than get to know the car. Re-built some areas mostly fueling including the metering head, however the car still requires alot more work to make it as good as the restored Brooklyn or Datapost cars. Even then i do not think i could achieve quite the same detailed standard as Graham.

It will be out again (maybe this year) as it is still drivable on track but not very pretty.

[Racing RSi]

good to have you on board NEM

July looks good for bringing the racers out on track!

[KA]

Yes, it's great to hear of another one being restored- I'll look forward to seeing them out in public!

[Racing RSi]

Originally Posted by KA

Yes, it's great to hear of another one being restored- I'll look forward to seeing them out in public!

the Datapost 44 is well and truly under way, done all the front (engine bay, front suspension and paint work.. planning to take the car back to Richard in September where he will set it up and put back all the instrumentation it one had.. the 16i DP is soon to meet with his younger sister!!!!!!!!!

still would like you to come over and see the cars KA!!!!!!!!!

[lifeline-fire]

Originally Posted by Frank de Jong

Glad you all enjoyed (and studied) it! One thing I don't understand is that Morris had to get an 1.8 engine for his Scirocco II, since "the 1.6 wasn't homologated anymore". Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, a 1.6 Scirocco II happily got its championship. As far as I know, the Scirocco II 1.6 GLI was homologated as a variant of the original Scirocco GTI. Was Morris badly informed?

Frank, 12 months late i know, but I have seen your quote above. I have just spoken to my father (John Morris) about this and he had no idea that this was the case. He says VW UK informed him the car was out of Homologation and therefore in there eyes no longer current to warrant support as it would be un-competative in class B
On another note I have just tracked down his Mk1 Golf GTI which was sold to Alan Minshaw for the 83 season who in turn sold it in to Spain. The car has been in store since 1989. I have negotiated the purchase and it is on its way back home after nearly 30 years!

[North Essex Motorsport]

Originally Posted by Racing RSi

good to have you on board NEM

July looks good for bringing the racers out on track!

cheers graham,

not sure if it will be ready for July, have been concentrating on my turbo which is nearly complete (will take you round brands next time i am running there)

Will swap cars around next month and start the restoration proper on the RS16i. It is overdue and the car deserves/requires alot of TLC.
Biggest issue i have is amount of available time i can spend on it, so may take me a while to complete!!

[chunterer]

Well there's quite a few outlets for you to run either car NEM!

[bronze]

I actually worked on this Fiesta and double drove it a couple of times in sprints, I met pete when working for the Alfa Romeo dealer team also running touring cars at that time. I also know some stories about the car, particularly the gearbox! Mike.

[Racing RSi]

Datapost 44 is going back to Richard Longman this week. exatly a year I took dilivery. everything has been replaced. over hauled, mended etc.... Hope Richard has a good memory to make it running again.. and competitive again