Arthur Collier

[Dan Rear]

Anyone remember this chap ? He had the ex-John Turner 5-litre Skoda Chevy Supersaloon in 1975-76. I'd never heard of him before, or since, then. I wonder what his history was and whether he ever did anything after that.

The car had gone very well in 1974 with Turner, Collier didn't seem to get out much with it after then, and when he did, didn't go very well in it.

[Jeremy Jackson]

He raced Darens in Ireland in 1971-2 (Mk. 2 in 71, Mk. 3 in 72, and also did a few WCM races in 1972 (Brands, Spa, Nürburgring). Think they were in both his own car & Raymond's (at Spa).

But the Skoda was the last thing I remember him driving.

[Chris Townsend]

He bought Ray Mallock's March 73B [originally 712M-5] for the Irish Atlantic series, but seems to have passed it on to Paddy Woods fairly quickly.

[driftwood]

those where the days collier turner marshall strawson minshaw hazelwood hill whiting sugden roberston hawker all racing super saloons prior tp Donington GT series
i was knee high to a cam cover in those days
i guess only 3 or 4 of those cars survive today ie baby bertha Daf 33 and the DFVW as duckhams special now

[Dan Rear]

DW, where are Baby B, and the Daf these days, do they get out at all ?

[driftwood]

baby bertha is used for demos by the big man himself !!owned by joe ward and often out on demos for vauxhall doesnt have the holden v8 any more though
daf 33 is being restored slowly by the creator !!

[Dan Rear]

Tony Hazlewood per chance???

[driftwood]

never leave anything to chance!!

of course

[Speedy norm]

Is the Daf being rebuilt with the original Buick engine or the more succesful BDX used by Tony Sugden?
As I remember it made its debut in 73 and had lots of reliability problems. It was later owned by Allan Minshaw.
TS was the only one who had any success with it - still a good concept, engine at front gearbox at back thus giving 50/50 weight distribution. The supersaloon rules stated that engine gearbox had to be in original position. Then someone realised that a chevron B19 had the same wheelbase as a skoda......

[Jeremy Jackson]

Sppedy, I took a pic of it at mallory in late 1972, but it looked less outrageous (very much smaller wheelarches). I think it was 73 before it got some serious development...

[driftwood]

i dont recall Suggie driving the Daf
i recall mr Demon tweeks racing it
re motor for the rebuild i think he may go for a rover based unit to take it back to the spec Mr H originally had

& do u recall the XJ6 jag?
Re B19 as a skoda the rules where plus or minus 1 inch on wheelbase !!

[RTH]

I wonder if any of Dave Brodie's "Run Baby Run" Escorts are still in existance.

The early 70's were just the best ever saloon car days

[Andrew Kitson]

OK guys, you might want to refresh the old memory banks with some of these old pictures on our old supersaloon thread. Marvellous fantastic days. Nothing beats the early 70s in motor racing.
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...be+baby+bertha

[driftwood]

Mr K
is it not time that someone wrote a book about the superloon days !!??
only a suggestion to an "impoverished" writer

there are lots of info from these threads and of course the drivers are now pensioners and a few are no longer with us to get their input

[mickj]

DW
Good suggestion. This Aussie would buy a copy.
Mick

[jeff88cirl1]

i was reading through all the posts and at the start you mentioned Arthur Collier. if the car you are talking about was a yellow skoda. then he is my dad. but he said the engine he had in the car was an 8.2lt v8, but it has had several.

[Dan Rear]

Jeff, it was your Dad's car I mentioned at the top of this thread. How is he, and could you get him to post some stories about the 'good old days' on here. Or have you any yourself of course?

[jeff88cirl1]

i'm sure he would love to talk about racing. i did do abit of racing, i won the Irish karting champion ship in 2002 in FA and then moved to cars for a year but i had to take time out for school and college. but now i'm looking to get back into racing. i was trying to learn where i could get a skoda like my dads but i'm not having much luck.

[Andrew Kitson]

I spent a good few minutes chatting with the FIA's Charlie Whiting at the British Grand Prix, despite the fact he was rushing around with places to be. We chatted about his late brother Nick, the great supersaloon days and Nick's fantastic special saloon races against Gerry at Brands.

He seemed delighted and suprised that someone remembered them as most of the F1 paddock are pretty insular and only interested in today. He said if only those days could return, pretty much how we all feel here. The past and especially 1970s club racing does not figure on their radar too much!

[driftwood]

If yr dad is arthur collier u must be 2nd generation offspring as he was racing when i was knee high to a grass hopper and im probably old enough to be yr dad now!
i recall the Collier car as a 2 litre and alec poole had a similar car or where they the same cars??
the v8 car that arthur ran i thought was the car from the west country man john ??

most the famous skods have now been lost broken up turned back into the sports car they once where
even tony dickensons 1980`s car is dismantled as i saw the chassis 3 months ago ( modified lola 290 tub ) and 1 of the early sugden skoda cars was sold off for march parts and motor went to gt ultima car

i could not even suggest a direction to seek out a skoda unless u stick a wanted advert on race car websites
be warned the cost of building up a car from a rolling cjassis willexceed its value for a race series
my fathers old race car came up for sale and the heart fluttered the nostalgic mood swung in then wham the ££ brought me down to earth !!

if u buy a roller clean it and put it in the garage and look at it as people do with F1 cars the money u willspend putting the car together to run will be better off in a car that u can race weekly like a fford or f3 car
if there where some demo run special saloon events than u get a reason to build the car
tony hazlewood will tell u the same thing after 4 years of building his old car its nearly ready to run !!

[driftwood]

Andtew- Tell me about it
£200 plus entry fees compared to the 70`s fee of a few pints of beer !
we must be mad to race today

[jeff88cirl1]

the main reason i want to race this car is that everybody goes on about new race cars and how they grip the track, and how its design is so much better than the older one. i just want to prove that the older cars can still set the pace and be the one to catch. i also like the idea of more power than grip, it really lets you see what a good driver can do with a car.

[driftwood]

Firstly rubber has come along way since the early 70`s i look at race times in AS reports that where for the big cars and today a 1 litre from the mid 80`s would beat them- Baby Bertha had the 1st 100 mph lap at thruxton in 75- Ginger marshall had it with his 1 litre Kitten in 84

secondly the early cars where "sophisticated" in their day but crude by modern standards and could be refined ie ride heights were high modify camber castor set ups now we have better tyre and dampers brake pads so im sure a 1973 superloon could be made to run 3-4 secs a lap fasterwith ouit too much effort
just look at TGP cars v the heros of the heydays or gt40 lola 290 cars then and now

however the ££ investment will be more than it can logically justify as there is no race series to run these cars at present

[Dan Rear]

dw/Jeff, Arthur's car was the John Turner 1974 built 5-litre Chevy one. Alec Poole's was a different car, 2-litre BDG, and built for Chris Meek in 74. They were the 2 pioneers of Skoda saloons. The Meek car went on to Poole, then Paul Everett, I think Nick Whiting had the odd go in it. The Turner one went on to Arthur, then a chap called Dave MacDonald IIRC.

No idea of either of them after about 1978-79.

[driftwood]

JOHN TURNER THATS THE GUY I WAS THINKING OF ( twas before my time !! )

nick whiting did not drive skodas only escorts
mk1 1970 fvc shunted BH
then he had mk2 spaceframe john robinson built car with Gaa engine
car was sold to John kirk(wood) in the north of england poss scotland

davina galicia also drove a mk2 steel special saloon car with A C E logos and the surtees ts16 f1 car from Nicks shop