Tag Archives: Audi

Ashes To Ashes – Audi Quattro

I have to confess I have not watched a whole episode the British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC) science fiction police drama ‘Ashes to Ashes’ which ran from 2008 to 2010, I never seemed to be at the right place at the right time, but I have enjoyed some of the trailers which feature a bright red early version of the Audi Quattro.

According to official records the registration JLY751V as seen on the Ashes to Ashes Quattro actually belongs to a 1979 Nissan New Sunny quite the opposite of the 200 hp performance beast seen here at Sherborne Castle last year which is a slightly later version of the car seen in the TV series.

The Audi Quattro was launched in 1980 featuring a great rumbling 200 hp five cylinder turbo charged motor and permanent all wheel drive which at the time was a novelty reserved almost exclusively for off road vehicles, however with the strap line “Vorsprung Durch Technick” “Forward Through Technology” Audi almost single handedly, with the aid of a healthy competition program, convinced the public of the benefits of permanent all wheel drive to traction, handling and safety. As DCI Gene Hunt says in this linked trailer for the third and final Ashes to Ashes series “You’ve either got it my friend, or you haven’t.”

I was surprised to learn that only 11,452 Quattro’s were built between 1980 and 1991, but this was the niché model aimed at the performance market that opened up the permanent all wheel drive concept up to a much wider public. I’ll leave you with a link to a funny clip that shows the Ashes to Ashes Quattro in action with a sound track taken from a 1980 edition of Top Gear soon after the car was launched which starts at 30 seconds in.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ashes to Ashes” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Silent Running – Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

Leave a Reply

Last Sunday I popped up to Silverstone for the 6 Hour race, the 4th round of the 8 race World Endurance Championship.

When I first visited Silverstone in 1978 the layout was still essentially an airfield perimeter track consisting of six straights joined by six fast corners with the main runway still in use on raceday’s. Since then the track configuration has changed several times, the runway is now long gone and there is a completely new infield section between the Club and Woodcote corners which was introduced last year.

When I arrived at the track I was heartend to find that endurance racing appeals to a younger audience who travelled from far and wide, though just as in 1978 in disappointingly small numbers.

Making it’s first appearance in the UK was the new for 2012 Toyota TS030 Hybrid which proved fast at the previous Le Mans 24 hours if ultimately unreliable, the car driven by Austrian Alexander Wurz, Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre and Japanese Kazuki Nakajima qualified 3rd behind the two Audi Sport Joest R18’s but after a dozen laps went into the lead, unfortunately it could not maintain it’s lead during the pit stops and so was always, entertainingly playing catch up to the Audi’s with their smaller, diesel filled, fuel tanks which proved ultimately more economical.

Further Japanese interest in the race was provided by Keiko Ihara who was sharing her second tier LMP2 #29 Gulf Racing Middle East entered Lola Nissan B12/80 Coupé with Fenchman Fabien Giroix and Swiss Jean-Denis Delatraz, they qualified a distant 22nd and finished an equally distant 18th overall and 11th in class.

Also running in the LMP2 class was former Grand Prix Driver, 1990 Le Mans winner and Sky Sports Formula One presenter Martin Brundle who joined his son Alex and Spaniard Lucas Ordonez in the #42 Zytek Nissan Z11SN. The #42 qualified a respectable 8th overall 1st in class but could only finish 12th overall 5th in class.

As well as the two LMP1 and LMP2 prototype classes additional classes catered for GT2 cars which are split into LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am divisions. Amateurs Christian Ried from Germany with Italians Gianluca Roda and Parato Ruberti from Italy qualified the #88 Porsche 911 RSR (997) 27th overall and 2nd in class and finished 25th overall 2nd in class, seeing the slower GT drivers getting swamped by the faster prototypes on the corners is always interesting but only rarely leads to the kind of damage seen above.

The #50 Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1, seen above, shared by Brazilian Fernando Rees and Frenchmen Patrick Bornhauser and Julien Canal actually crossed the line 25th and 2nd in the LMGTE Am class but was disqualified after a “non-conforming safety device, namely the validity date of the car’s fire extinguisher” was discovered in post race scrutineering. Labre Competition Team manager Jack Leconte was suitably contrite after the discovery.

From 35 starters there were only four retirements the second of which was the #23 Signatech Oreca Nissan O3 of French trio Jordan Tresson, Franck Mailleux and Olivier Lombard. Approaching 3/4 distance. Tesson is seen here after a rear tyre exploded at Becketts coming out of the next corner Chapel his car turned sharp left and hit the wall. The ensuing safety car period played into the hands of the overall victor of the race.

The #61 AF Course Waltrip, as in Micheal Waltrip Racing apparently, Ferrari 458 Italia of Italians Piergiuseppe Perazzzin, Marco Cioci and Irishman Matt Griffin qualified 30th overall / 3rd in LMGTE Am and came home winners in the class beating the #98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 of German Roald Goethe and Briy Stuart Hall, seen above, that finished 4th in class by 3 whole laps. Griffin said of his win “I’m not British but it’s still my home race so I’m really happy.”

LMGTE Pro honours fell to the #51 AF Course Ferrari 458 Italia of Grand Prix Winner Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni who beat another 458 Italia by two clear laps.

The #25 ADR-Delta team Oreca Nissan O3 of John Martin, Jan Charouz and Tor Garves edged the second Signatech team Oreca Nissan by just six seconds at the finish line but this was not the closest class victory of the day.

By securing the win in their Rebellion Racing Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé 6th place starters and 4th place overall finishers Italian Andrea Belicchi and Swiss Harold Primat stretched the Rebellion Racing Teams lead in the Privateer LMP1 Championship. They finished 6 laps behind the third place #2 Audi and less than 1 second ahead of the 2nd place privateer LMP1 Honda powered HDP ARX 03a to take the closest class victory of the day.

With the best fuel economy and aided in a small way by several short safety car periods the Audi e-tron quattro Hybrid with a flywheel accumulator system developed by Williams Hybrid Power, to drive the front wheels only at mandated speeds in excess of 75 mph, silently, and I mean really quietly, out ran the Toyota TS030 Hybrid by less than a minute thanks to one less stop for diesel than it’s petrol powered competitor. By crossing the line first Audi secured this years World Endurance Constructors Championship at the half way point because it’s Le Mans win is the one race in the series that counts for double points.

Thanks for joining me on this “Silent Running” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting Dunsfold Aerodrome. Don’t forget to come back now !

Theme Lotus – Goodwood Festival Of Speed

1 Reply

On Friday I headed off under grey skies with friends, Tim, Pete and Dave to Goodwood House just outside Chichester for the Festival Of Speed.

The featured manufacturer this year was Lotus which was founded 60 years ago by Colin Chapman who’s cars not entirely uncoincidentally are currently also featured every Saturday here at GALPOT. Welcoming us on the way into Goodwood House was this 1967 AEC Swift based transporter used by Gold Leaf Team Lotus from 1967 to 1970 during which period team won two world drivers championships with Graham Hill(’68) and Jochen Rindt (’70) and two world constructors in the same years.

Gerry Judah’s art work on the lawn in front of Goodwood House featured no less than six cars five of them winners and a contemporary F1 car built in Enstone which I find as difficult to call a Lotus in the same way as I had trouble calling the Lotus 76 a John Player Special back in 1974.

In the paddock there were several cars I had heard of but never seen in the flesh including the six wheel, 4WD, 1982 Williams FW08B which was never raced thanks to a late call to ban more than four wheels from Formula Once cars with only two to be driven from the start of the 1983 season.

Of all the many stories of British grit in Grand Prix Racing perhaps none exemplifies how not to organise a team better than BRM which managed to organise the support in cash, kind and facilities from the British Motor Industry to make two of the most complex racing motors ever built. The first was a 1.5 litre / 91 cui supercharged V16 which comprised to 750 cc / 45.5 cui V8’s mounted back to back. The 500 hp motor, which could be taken up to 12,000 rpm, was more powerful than any of it’s contemporaries but the combination of organisational and design complexity did not result in a particularly reliable motor car. It did not win any championship Grand Prix, it was only entered in two but it did score championship points, and won a non championship 12 lap race at Goodwood. The most memorable thing about this vehicle is the sound it makes, utterly unmusical in comparison to a V8, and as harsh as granite, note two people in this photo are wearing ear defenders ! The smell of oil coming off it’s engine after the warming up session seen here was quite unforgetable too !

Amongst the sports cars this Maserati Tipo 151/3 is a 1980’s replica of one of three 151’s that were prepared for Le Mans in 1962 and then continually modified. The 151/3 seen here made of from orginal parts and fitted with the low Pierre Drogo body made from the same buck as the body made specially for the 1964 24 Hours at Le Mans where 151/3 was timed at 196 mph on the Mulsanne Straight, like the BRM P15 it suffered poor reliability and retired as it has had in ’62 and ’63.

Racing successfully against the original 151/3 were the Shelby American Cobra Coupé’s also known as the ‘Daytona’ Coupé. So far as I can tell this #12 car is chassis CSX2300 which scored a best 6th place finish at Daytona in 1965 with Ed Leslie and Allen Grant at the wheel, the cars next appearance was at Sebring where it carried the #12 with Leslie and Grant again driving finishing 13th.

Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt won the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours driving this Ford Mk IV, beating two Ferrari P4’s in the process thus avenging Enzo Ferrari’s last minuet refusal to sell out to Ford earlier in the decade.

The Matra 670 B with a long tail, by Matra standards, won Le Mans in 1973 with Henri Pescarolo and Gerrard Larrousse at the wheel, also beating a Ferrari this time a 312PB driven by Art Mezario and Carlos Pacé.

Above regular GALPOT contributor, through The Nostalgia Forum, Tony ‘Giraffe’ Gallagher happily accepts an invitation to sign 1980 IMSA Champion John Fitzpatrick’s programe.

Continuing the Diamond Jubilee celebrations this years Concours d’Elegance centered on numerous vehicles the Queen and other state dignitary’s have used, this De Haviland of Canada DHG – 1 Chipmunk was used by both HRH Prince Phillip and HRH Prince Charles for training purposes in the 1950’s and 60’s. Back in the day when I was a schoolboy and an RAF Cadet I went up in one of these on a couple of occasions, being handed the controls mid flight on one of them !

The De Macross GT1 appears to be constructed from a mix of Korean Finance, Canadian Manufacturing and US Roush Yates power and any number of styling queues taken from an equally diverse range of vehicles. The drivers name on the side of the car was none other than that of motorsports TV presenter Justin Bell.

Keeping folks entertained on two wheels were a number of youngsters who were doing things on motor bikes that I have only been able to aspire to dreaming of.

Sir Stirling Moss shares a little joke with former Jaguar works test driver and team mate Norman Dewis as they prepare for a quick blast up Goodwood’s hill climb.

Jackie Oliver drove a Gold Leaf Team Lotus 49B in 1968 here he is seen driving the 1967 Lotus 49 chassis R2, later renamed R11, that Jim Clark used to win the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix the first of 155 Grand Prix victories for the Ford Corworth DFV engine that powered it and the first of 12 for the Lotus 49 type.

Delivered nearly five years late and horrendously over budget the Eurofighter Typhoon made up for it with a simply stunning display of power, speed and maneuverability. With 40,000 lbs of thrust this plane can be flown like one of the better short nosed paper aeroplanes I used to make when I was a kid with the added bonus it does not crash when landing.

Paul Knapfield’s Ferrari 712 chassis #1010 haa a long story to tell suffice to say here that in period it has underwent two body upgrades from it’s original 512S spec and an engine upgrade to make it the Ferrari with the largest Ferrari motor ever raced. This car will be the subject of a blog in the fulness of time.

Le Mans 24 hours will be remembered this year as the first ever to be won by a hybrid diesel, the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässer and Benoit Tréluyer beat the the sister car of Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen, with a regular diesel coming in third. McNish is seen driving the e-tron quattro above which despite the stickers is not necessarily the car that crossed the line first at Le Mans.

The ‘Droop Snoot’ Vauxhall Firenza “Old Nail” belonging to Paul Chase-Gardener scored over 60 victories with Gerry Marshall at the wheel back in the 1970’s Gerry’s son Gregor, another contributor to GALPOT through The Nostalgia Forum, was scheduled to drive this car later in the weekend.

There were several Citroen DS3’s entered on the Goodwood Rally stage I believe this may have been the DS3 WRC example of Thierry Neuville, but I’ll happily take a second better informed opinion if you have one to add below.

One of the pleasant rewards for taking the time to walk to the top of the hill was finding this Skoda Octavia vRS, a car that might not ordinarily bring the phrase ‘psycho on tyres’ to mind however this one had it’s turbo 2 litre / 122cui engine uprated from 200 hp to 500 hp and along with a few other safety mods achieved 227.080 mph at Bonneville to claim the 2 litre production car class record with Richard Meaden at the wheel last year.

Four time World Drivers Champion Alain Prost was the honoured driver at Goodwood this year, though there were probably more vehicles present that were associated with Dan Gurney including the McLaren M6B, driven on this occasion by owner Andy Boone, which Dan modified so much it gained the ‘McLeagle’ sobriquet. Dan’s efforts were not enough to beat the Bruce and Denny show, Denny won the championship. Gurney’s best result with the car was a 4th place in the 1968 Can Am race at Riverside.

It’s always great to see and hear a little NASCAR action, Goodwood marked the first occasion on which I have seen a Camping World Truck Series (CWTS) truck in action, the #3 Chevrolet Silverado was driven by Austin Dillon to the Championship last season his brother Ty was scheduled to drive over weekend.

Largest vehicle on the track was the Race 2 Recovery MAN 8×8 Dakar support truck driven by Ben Gott. Race 2 Recovery plans to enter a team of Land Rovers in next years Dakar Rally all driven by injured soldiers. If you would like to help their cause you can find details on this Race2Recovery link.

All too soon after a pleasurably exhausting day wondering around the grounds of Goodwood House without having seen everything it was time to say a quick hello to a couple of friends and then rejoin my passengers for the two hour back to the future drive home, my nomination for top car in the car park award went to the DeLorean DMC-12 which was substantially re-engineered by Lotus founder Colin Chapman, prior to the commencement of production in 1981.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Theme Lotus’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Jubilee Race Day – Castle Combe

Leave a Reply

The weather took a turn for the better on the third day of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations as I headed for the Jubilee Race Day at Castle Combe.

The Super Mighty Mini’s were waiting in the holding area for the days first practice session to commence so I took the opportunity to have a wonder round the paddock.

Lloyd Allards Golf TDi was already queuing up for the practice seesion before the first got underway, unfortunately Lloyd did not complete the entire 2nd practice session and ended up scratching his entry from the Castle Combe Saloon Car Championship.

Novice entrant Penelope Jones had a highly entertaining side ways moment in the pre 1990 Mighty Mini practice session out at the Esses, she caught this slide beautifully and carried on at unabated pace to qualify 24th out of a 31. despite the rear of her car running so low that her tyres were catching on the body work.

Castle Combe VADABAR Sports & GT Championship series sponsor Douglas Watson is seen heading for scrutineering above in his V10 powered BMW E63 M6, prior to qualifying 18th, 2nd in class.

Ben Norton, driving the #111 Spectrum 10b, won pole by half a second for the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 Championship supported by Start Line from Roger Orgee. Before the race Orgee father reckoned that his son had not got the best from the #3 Van Diemen.

Designed in Wiltshire with the aid of a home made wind tunnel, the Loaded Gunn TS11 of Craig Mitchell managed to qualify 10th for the Open Sports and GT’s challenge before it was withdrawn from the race.

The opening race of the day was won by Adam Prebble in his Rover 220 Turbo seen taking the chequered flag ahead of Tony Hutchins in his Audi TT, William Di Claudio took class B honours in his Peugeot 106 and Charles Hyde Andrew Bird won Class C in his Ford Fiesta.

The opening lap of the first Super Mighty Mini race, seen above saw Pat Ford spin at Camp Corner in his pursuit of the leaders. The 25 minuet race was won by a contrite and apologetic Gary Patterson, ahead of Bob Bennetts and Neven Kirkpatric after leader Chris Morgan was accidentally taped into the barrier at Tower.

Tony Sinclair, driving the #1 Jade 3 in the special invitation class like wise took a flag to flag victory from pole in the Castle Combe VADABAR Sports & GT Championship. Last years champion Simon Tilling made a typically poor start but recovered some of his lost ground to finish 3rd behind the #86 Radical Prosport of Andrew Shanley. Gary Prebble took class C honours in his Mitsubishi Evo and heads the championship overall.

Jonathon Lewis, seen above, won both 25 minuet rounds of the Mighty Mini series. In the first race be came through from 4th on the grid to beat Chris Slade and Kevin Fletcher to claim top spot on the podium.

Roger Ogree in the #3 Van Diemen made good on his Dad’s assessment and snatched the lead at the start of the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 race while pole sitter Ben Norton dropped all the way down to 9th as seen in the photo above. However it was Steven Jensen driving the #22 Spectrum 011b who won the race after taking the lead on lap 3 while Ben Norton recovered to bag second place from Roger Ogree with two laps just to go !

Gary Paterson again had the measure of his competitors in the second, post 1990, Super Mighty Mini encounter and is seen above pedaling the #50 ahead of the #1 of Elliot Stafford, who finished second. Chris Morgan who recorded fastest lap finished third in his repaired Mini, resplendent with tank taped n/s wing / fender, that started at the back of the 18 car field.

With the #122 Loaded Gun being among several non starters in the Open Sports and GT Challenge race it was left to Tony Sinclair to win his second race of the day in his Jade 3. Bob Berridge in his Chevrolet V8 powered Aquila GR1 came second ahead of Craig Flemming in the race which was interrupted by a Red Flag to clear up the mess from George Mitchells accident. Above Martin Baker is seen exercising his recently completed Hillman Imp in anticipation of a forth coming Super Saloon race, Martin finished third in class behind Stuart Dixon and Dylan Popovic.

David Marcussen in the led going into Quarry Corner on the opening lap of the final Mighty Mini race of the day but it was Jonathon Lewis seen hidden behind David’s #42 that came home the winner ahead of David. There scrap for third was eventually settled in favour of the #17 driven Kevin Fletcher taking a break from his day job playing Andy Sugden in the agricultural television soap “Emmerdale”.

Steven Jensen won the “Driver of the Day” award for converting his third place start to a convincing victory in the Formula Ford race.

Thanks for joining me on this Jubilee Race Day edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Futuristic French Le Mans Index of Performance challenger. Don’t forget to come back now !

Di Claudio’s Day – Motors TV Live Race Day

Leave a Reply

The weather gods decided to give the billed Mini Invasion at Castle Combe an unrelentingly endless variation of track conditions on for the 12 races held on Bank Holiday Monday. Regrettably I missed the opening GadgetHelpline.com Castle Combe Classic race which appears to have been comfortably won by Nick Stagg from pole.

Having parked in a waterlogged field and donned my trusty green wellies I made my way to Quarry Corner in time to catch the 1st of two entertaining Mini Se7en / Miglia races. Kane Astin in the #11 who dropped several places off the line battled through the slippery conditions from 3rd on the grid to take the win in the the larger 1300cc / 79 cui Mini Miglia Class while a 15th place for Gareth Hunt secured a win in the 1000 cc / 61 cui Mini Se7en class. Above Robert Pavey was by no means the first to get caught out by the treacherous conditions at Quarry in the #94 Se7en as he was being lapped by Miglias of Astin #11, Dave Drew #2 and Peter Baldwin #33.

As ever the 1st of the two Ford Kent powered Formula Ford races proved unpredictable on a drying track Steven Jensen in the #22 Spectrum 011b made the best of a forth place start to take the lead from pole starter Roger Ogree in the #3 Van Diemien RF00 while fellow front row starter Natham Ward in the #23 Spectrum 011c was swamped on the line and came through in 6th on the opening lap. As the race progressed Ogree, with an eye on a good points finish, was content to hold station behind Jensen while Ward made amends for his poor start and ended up out fumbling first Ogree and then Jensen to take a well earned victory by just over a second.

As the Mini Challenge cars went to the assembly area the track conditions were still damp and all of the cars were on intermediate tyres however sensing a dry spell Shane Stoney’s crew elected to pull their driver from a scheduled 8th place start in his John Cooper Works Class #89 Mini Cooper S R56 in order to fit slicks and start from the pits. Inspired or wise the choice was the correct one as it soon became apparent that Shanes car was the class of the field lapping around 2 seconds a lap faster than anybody else it was only a matter of time before he picked off the entire field and took the flag nearly 10 seconds to the good from Sam Osborne, back in 14th place Jonathon Brown won the Club class.

Having recently become the owner of a VW Golf IV it was an easy pick to root for Lloyd Allard a member of the well known motoring Allard family who was driving an Allard Motor Sport Golf IV TDi in the National Mobile Windscreens Saloon Car race. Unfortunately despite qualifying well in seventh the conditions got the better of him and his race was effectively ended when he got caught out on an oil slick at the Bobbies chicane which sent him into a tank slapper that ended in the infield wheat crop. To his credit Lloyd regained the track to make an unclassified finish. The race run on a sodden and later oily track was won by pole sitter Tony Hutchings in an Audi TT from Mark Wyatt driving a Vauxhall Astra and Mark Funnel’s Mini Cooper S, Will Claudio in a Peugeot 106 GTi took class B honours with a 4th place overall and Russel Ackers driving a Vauxhall Astra in 6th overall won class C.

With the track still very wet rain tyres were the only option for the start of the of the VADABAR Sports & GT Championship. Starting from pole in his all wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo Gary Prebble must have fancied his chances for taking a second win in the series and he made the most of it with a good get away to take a comfortable early lead, but as I saw several times last year this Championship is Simon Tilling’s to loose and after a poor start from third the drying track played to the strengths of his #23 Radical SR3long enough for Simon to take the lead. While he was searching for the few remaining wet patches on the drying racing surface Simon was nearly caught by Martin Baker in another Radical who finished just one tenth of a second behind Tilling. Above George Micheal did his best to save his #27 Toyota MR2 from a lurid spin at Bobbies, but ran out of talent and clobbered Douglas Watson series sponsors VADABAR BMW E36 M6.

George Robinson made the best of a pole position start to lead the early going from fellow front row starter Ben Rowe driving the #21 MR2, in the non championship Toyota MR2 race, a series that was on a day trip from its usual venue at Brands Hatch. However starting from forth Matthew Palmer was soon within striking distance of the pair of them in his #87 MR2. Several laps in Robinson tripped up and Matthew seized the lead and held it to the end with Rowe finishing second and a crest fallen Robinson coming home third. Jim Davies brought his MR2 Mk3 in forth to claim the class win for the newer cars with smaller motors.

Nathan Ward in the #22 Specrum 011c made no mistakes from pole position on his second start of the day, but it was Ben Norton in the #111 Spectrum, seen in third place behind Roger Ogree above, who came through from a fifth place start to take the win in a race where seven vehicles left the track in separate incidents that necessitated the use of the safety car to clear up some of the mess.

With the first six starting in reverse order that they finished in the first Mini Challenge race and a dry track there was no luxury of a tyre gamble for Shane Storey who started sixth this time round. With just over three tenths of a second covering the top three finishers 3rd place starter Lee Allen got the better of 2nd place starter Lee Patterson leaving pole sitter Martin Depper to claim the last place on the podium unchallenged after the #22 of Chris Smiley, above, completed a whole 1.86 mile lap with a cut tyre in forth place before it finally blew out and sent him into the barriers without any substantial further damage. Henry Gilbert claimed 12th overall and the Club Class win.

The second National Mobile Windscreen Saloon Car Race proved to be the race of the day as William Di Claudio in his little green Peugeot 106 GTi sensationally hounded the more powerful Audi TT ‘saloon/sedan’ (?) of Tony Hutchings over the first 8 laps of the race forcing Hutching’s to go lawn mowing of the outside of Camp on the last but one lap which gave William just enough momentum to seize an unassailable lead as they crossed the line going into the last lap. Mark Wyatt finished a further 4 seconds down the road in third, my man Lloyd Allard managed to keep his Golf TDi on the black stuff second time round starting 34th he came in a well deserved 7th !

The Mini Miglia and Mini Se7en combined race was another close fought affair with rain and the safety car interrupting the entertainment, above Peter Baldwin who started 3rd took the win taking the lead on the last lap from the #22 of pole sitter Richard Casey and early leader David Drew in the #2.

The twelfth and final event of the day held on drying track proved highly entertaining before the start when coming off pit road pole sitter Gary Prebble when straight into the corn field as his slick shod 4 wheel drive failed to find any grip. Prebble fell so far behind the field that he was still weaving through the field to his pole position on the warm up lap ! Craig Flemming starting second in the white and blue #5 Juno TR250 got the jump on Prebble and held the lead for 8 of the 9 laps. An incident requiring the safety car on lap 5 nearly destroyed the race having incorrectly picked up a hard charging Simon Tilling, in the distinctive orange #23 Radical, as the leader when he was still actually only in second place. Fortunately the incident was spotted and Simon was waved through with 3 laps to go and recovered his lost lap to set up a one lap shoot out. As the safety car came in Simon was marooned behind the lapped #41 Spar Jertona 85/09 of Jeremy Irwin while Flemming made the most of his opportunity to get away from the patient Tilling who waited until he crossed the finish line going into the last lap before blasting past the lapped Irwin as though he was standing still. Tilling then set about catching Flemming in what remained of the last lap. Incredibly Simon turned a 1,7 second lap to go disadvantage into a 0.7 second advantage as he crossed the line in a thrilling finish to the days action packed racing. Simon Tilling was the only driver to win both of his events at Castle Combe on Bank Holiday Monday.

William Di Claudio’s giant killing effort in the second saloon car race earned him the Driver of the Day award. As I headed back to the waterlogged car park the sun came out for what turned out to be a mild evening.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Di Claudio’s day edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Parts Bin Special – Aston Martin Virage

Leave a Reply

The Aston Martin Virage was introduced in 1988 as a top of the range model. The car featured today seen at Castle Combe Classic and Sportscar Action day was built in 1990.

Powered by a 330hp 5.3 litre / 323 cui V8 with 32 valve Callaway designed cylinder heads, the 1790 kg / 3946 lb Virage is capable of reaching 60 mph from rest in 6.5 seconds with a top speed of 158 mph.

Despite being a hand made bespoke machine the Virage dipped into a variety of manufacturers parts bins to keep the costs down, the head lights are sourced from the Audi 200/5000 the tail lights from the 2nd generation Volkswagen Scirocco, the steering column came from General Motors the Climate Control from Jaguar and the steering column from Ford.

Most of these cars are fitted with Chryslers Torqueflite automatic transmission with only fifty being thought to have the 5 speed ZF manual option, all 1050 Virages were built after Aston Martin was acquired by Ford.

Thanks for joining me on this curved edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea’s? Visit Automobiliart Now !

Wessex Sprint – Castle Combe

4 Replies

This week I will be catching up with a couple of days activity at Castle Combe, a morning at Mallory Park and a visit to the Bugatti Trust at Prescott.

A couple of weeks ago I took some advice from our Prime Minister, David Cameron, and had great fun doing my bit for the motor racing community by marshaling at the Wessex Sprint, organised by the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club, of which I am a new member and the MG Car Club (SW).

A sprint is an event in which competitors race against the clock on this occasion around a single lap of the Castle Combe Circuit. Here are a few snaps taken during the lunch break and suspension of the competition.

Jeremy Hawk told me his MG J2 above has been in his family since 1953 when it was acquired for the princely sum of £85 some years later it made STD at a sprint at Castle Combe just like it did last week.

This #73 Peugeot 309 GTi was shared by Tom Siebert and Henry Siebert Saunders was completely stripped out and running with plastic side window’s to reduce weight.

Car of the day IMHO, if only because of the sound of it’s 5 cylinder turbocharged motor, was the #75 Audi Quattro shared by Tim Clark and Andy Tanner, wondering if anyone knows if this a genuine works car ? It certainly looked and sounded the part. Andy just beat Tim to win the Modified Limited Production Class.

The Rover V8 powered MGB Kayne Special shared by John and Jonathan Biggs ran in the Sports Libre Class.

Tim Moreton and Dean Robertson shared the ‘Dick’ Terrapin a Kawasaki powered vehicle with a Wharholian paint job.

I do not remember the last time I saw a Royale RP 30 in action, but the first time was around 31 short years ago ! This example driven by Bob and Anne Adams is powered by a Vauxhall 16v motor in place of the Ford Pinto with which it was originally supplied to race in Formula Ford 2000 events. Bob took the Racing Cars over 1600 cc class honours.

Proudly displaying it’s V8 kills from a couple of years ago was the similarly Vauxhall, 4 cylinder, powered but methanol fuelled Pilbeam MP62 chassis #14, built in the late 1980’s, of Kevin Lealan who won the Fastest Time of the Day award.

Running cars one at a time in batches of four meant my fellow start line marshals and I only got a break from the action for lunch, very nice sweet and sour chicken with rice & chips, then again later when the weather turned sunny, the sunlight interfered with the timing beam until the beam receiver was fitted with a shroud and on a couple of occasions when the Castle Combe farmer wanted to cross the track in order to bring in his hay bales.

I would recommend volunteering to be marshal to anyone who is interested in getting involved in motor sport, you will probably have a fun day and get to make a few good friends in the local motor sport community.

Thanks for joining me on this Wessex Sprint edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at this weekends racing at Castle Combe. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Audi

Ashes To Ashes – Audi Quattro

Silent Running – Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

Theme Lotus – Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Jubilee Race Day – Castle Combe

Di Claudio’s Day – Motors TV Live Race Day

Parts Bin Special – Aston Martin Virage

Wessex Sprint – Castle Combe