Tag Archives: Group

Pole Sister – Nissan R90CK

Like the Lancia LC2 seen in Monday’s post the Nissan R90CK seen here at Colin Bennett’s CGA Engineering Workshop is scheduled to appear at the Silverstone Classic for the Group C race next weekend.

Three serious works teams gathered to contend the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1990, Jaguar with three cars were the eventual winners, Toyota with three cars did not really figure, but Nissan with 5 front line R90CK cars became the first Japanese manufacturer to sit on pole position at this endurance classic.

The Nissan R90CK’s were built around Lola T90/10 chassis

and prepared for the World Endurance Championship by Nissan Motorsports Europe.

This particular vehicle has a rear facing camera connected to the screen seen here to aid reversing. Mark Blundell’s pole winning 3m 27s Le Mans qualifying lap immortalised with cockpit cam can be seen on this mind boggling youtube clip.

It is said that Mark had over 1000 hp available during his qualification lap from his 3.5 litre / 213 cui Nissan VRH35 V8 motor,

thanks to a ceased turbo waste gate.

Mark recorded a top speed of 226.9 mph on the Mulsanne Straight speed strap between the two newly installed chicanes a record that apparently still stands.

Six months after the unlikely Mazda victory at Le Mans in 1991, a NISMO version of the Lola T90/10 the Nissan R91CP won the 1992 Daytona 24 hour race in the hands of Masahiro Hasemi, Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Toshio Suzuki.

At the end of the 1990 season Nissan withdrew from the World Prototype Sportscar Championship but continued to develop the RC90CK cars for the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship which the manufacturer won in 1990,’91 and ’92.

This particular car is now owned by Katsu Kubota.

While there is still a good supply of parts for these vehicles

the cost of running one is expensive.

In 1990 the car driven by Kenny Acheson, Olivier Grouillard and Martin Donnelly

qualified in 5th place at Le Mans but was eliminated on the opening lap with a gearbox problem.

I shall look forward to seeing this car in action, 21 years after I first saw one, at the Silverstone Classic next weekend.

That concludes a series of three Group C blogs, my thanks to Colin Bennett for his hospitality and Tony Gallagher for organising the trip to Colin’s workshop.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s ceased wastegate edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Not Quite ‘The Right One’ – Lancia LC2/85

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Today I am starting a series of three consecutive blogs on cars that competed in the Group C World Endurance Championship, during the 1980’s I had the good fortune to follow the Group C World Endurance Championship for sports cars from it’s inception through some high’s to it’s eventual death.

The series was for closed 2 seater racing vehicles weighing a minimum 800 kgs / 1760 lbs with the only restriction on the engine being fuel consumption. The cars were expected to race for 1000 kms / 621 miles on 600 litres / 131.87 of fuel. It was soon realised by participants that they needed to run vehicles with around 600 hp to go the distance with the available fuel.

This endurance fuel mileage racing series did not always produce the most riveting races though it was certainly had a few outstanding ones, but something about the endurance and fuel consumption formula appealed to me and the cars looked absolutely fabulous.

History will recall the early years 1982 – 1987 were dominated by Porsche with only token resistance from today’s car the Martini Lancia LC2 which was first raced in 1983. Lancia had tried to steal the 1982 World Endurance Championship for Drivers by building the LC1 to older group 6 regulations that only had one year of eligibility.

Not only did Lancia driver Riccardo Patrese come up short by 8 points to Porsches Jacky Ickx, but Lancia also in the process lost a whole years development on their Group C challenger to the all conquering Porsche 956 that Jacky Ickx had been driving.

The first problem the Lancia LC2 faced in 1983 was inferior Pirelli radial tyres which could not take the strain of the ground effect downforce generated by the aerodynamic venturi at the back of the car. The cars proved quick in qualifying but to add to the problems at Lancia the twin turbo Ferrari V8 motors could not back the speed up with reliability.

To cure the tyre issues the LC2’s ran with Dunlop cross ply tyres in 1984, this necessitated a change in suspension geometry. The cars were fast in qualifying as they had been in 1983 but the Speedline wheels were now not up to the job. Again the cars were fast in qualifying but rarely reliable over a race distance.

For 1985 Lancia switched back to radial construction tyres now supplied by Michelin, the Dallara built aluminium chassis were widened with a pronounced step in the side bodywork.

Again the cars were quick in qualifying but the Ferrari engines were unreliable. Though the team did score it’s one and only victory over the works Porsche team at Spa in a race that was called early out of respect foe Stefan Bellof who had been killed in the event. At the following race at Brands Hatch it looked like the Lancia team might score another victory over the works Porsche team when the two leading Lancia’s inexplicably hit it each other causing sufficient delays for the works Porsche to win again.

The Martini Lancia LC2’s only appeared in a couple of races in 1986 before they withdrew from road racing completely. With just one win against the main opposition and a couple of win’s when the works Porsche team were not present the works Martini Lancia effort was justly reflected in three 2nd place finishes from 1983 – 1985 in the World Endurance Championship behind the mighty Porsche team.

This 1985 car features a slippery nose that was only ever seen at Le Mans.

Next weekend there will be a race for Group C cars at the Silverstone Classic in which this Lancia is scheduled to take part, I hope to be there it should be a magnificent event.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Martini edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be taking a look at a Group C challenger from Germany. Don’t forget to come back now !

Rootes ‘n’ Chrysler – Hillman Avenger Tiger Replica

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The Hillman Avenger was conceived as early as 1963 to replace the Hillman Minx, however another project that became the Hillman Hunter eventually replaced the Minx and the Avenger was re conceived in 1965 as a midrange vehicle between the Hillman Imp and the Hunter going head to head in the market against the dominant Ford Cortina and much maligned Morris Marina.

Doing away with the traditional waist line and adopting a ‘flow back’ the Avenger avoided looking in anyway stunted alongside it’s larger Hunter stablemate, the Avenger body shell was one of the earliest to benefit from the use computers in the design process.

In 1970 the Avenger was launched with a conventional, for the period, front engine rear wheel drive layout which dispensed with the conventional rear leaf springs in favour of a four link rear suspension to give the vehicle superior handling characteristics.

Two sporting versions of the Avenger were built both with 107 hp uprated engines with big valves and two Webber Carbs , the Tiger 1, launched in March ’72, is externally distinguishable by square headlights, a power bulge in the bonnet, four fog lights and a set of Minilite wheels. Intended to be an edition limited to 100 the Tiger 1 ended up being limited to 200 examples, all bar 3 of the Tiger 1 models were Sundance Yellow with black stripes the exceptions all being white with Rootes Group (Chrysler) blue stripes.

The Tiger 2 featuring a matt black bonnet, four round headlights and a cheaper set of alloy wheels but retaining the rear spoiler was launched in October ’72 with a production run of 400. Tiger 2’s were available in Sundance Yellow or Red with the familiar black detailing.

Despite the badging on this vehicle an HPI check of the registration leads me to confidently believe that this particular vehicle is not one of only 20 original Tigers thought to exist today. Bernard Unett won the British Saloon Car Championship in 1974 and 1976 driving Mopar sponsored Avengers. In all over 600,000 Avengers were built over 11 years to 1981.

US readers might know this model better as the Plymouth Cricket, it was also sold as the Dodge Avenger – South Africa, Dodge 1800 & Polara – Brazil, Dodge 1500 in Uruguay and Argentina where it was also known as the Volkswagen 1500 !

With thanks to David Rootes who facilitated my visit to the Classic and Saloon Car Action day at Castle Combe recently.

Thanks for popping by the Tiger edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Too Dangerous To Race – Ferrari GTO

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The Ferrari (288) GTO was designed to meet the 4 litre Group B regulations for rallying and racing sports cars which came into effect in 1982 .

To be homologated, granted approval, to compete in the liberal loose Group B classes of rallys and races 200 identical examples of a model had to be manufactured.

From 1984 – 1986 272 examples of the Ferrari 288 GTO were manufactured with a view to competing against the similar, albeit fitted with 4 wheel drive, Porsche 959/961.

The 288 GTO was loosely based on the Ferrari 308 GTB though the rear bodywork was extended to incorporate the engine which was now longitudinally mounted rather than transversely mounted as in the 308 GTB.

Pininfarina designed body panels for the 288 GTO were manufactured from a combination of fibreglass, aluminium and F1 technology Kevlar however in the interests of safety the door panels were made of steel.

With four hundred horsepower available, in road trim, from the twin turbo charged 2855 cc / 174 cui V8 it is regrettable that the 288 GTO never saw any competitive action as a result of the Group B regulations being deemed to dangerous for competition after a number of fatalities in Group B rally events during 1986. By 1987 the Group B regulations and even more lax Group S regulations had been suspended in the interests of safety.

This 1985 model, known officially as a Ferrari GTO but often called 288 GTO to distinguish it from other Ferrari GTO models, is seen at the recent Italian Auto Moto Festival in Bristol.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s homologation edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

On the Origins of Brands – Riley & Wolseley

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Today I am looking at two storied brands Riley & Wolseley born out of industrial diversification which were woven into that DNA of the nationalised merger British Motor Corporation in 1952.

From 1961 – 1969 they marketed top end 3 box versions, featuring wood veneer dashboards, of the Mini known as the Elf and Hornet respectively.

In 1896 William Riley jr purchased the Bonnick Cycle Company of Coventry which was born out of the cycling craze that swept England in 1890 and renamed it Riley Cycle Company.

Williams son Percy secretly built his first car, featuring an engine with the the worlds first mechanically operated inlet valve, in 1898 aged just 16.

Percy who also patented the detachable wheel went into business with his brothers forming the Riley Engine Company in 1903 supplying motorcycle engines and in 1905 they built their first car.

During restructuring in 1918 Riley car manufacture was transferred to Riley Motor Manufacturing which went into receivership in 1938 and was absorbed into the Nuffield Organisation along with Morris and MG, which in 1952 would merge with Herbert Austin’s companies into the nationalised BMC.

By 1947 Riley had ceased manufacturing it’s own designs and became a top end brand for shared designs in the Nuffield and later BMC organisations.

The Riley brand is easily identified by its blue diamond badge originally designed by Harry Rush with the strap line ‘As old as the industry, as modern as the hour’, was discontinued in 1969 and currently belongs to BMW.

Between 1961 and 1969 30,912 Riley Elfs were built.

In 1896 Herbert Austin working for the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company made a copy of a Leon Bollee vehicle that he had seen in Paris. By 1899 he had built a Voiturette that went into production in 1901 with Herbert Austin in charge of the Wolseley car division that had by now been spun off as an independent concern.

In 1905 Herbert Austin left to set up his own Austin Motor Company.

After several mergers and changes of ownership the Wolseley Motor Company came into existence in 1914 in the hands of Armstrong Siddeley. At this time operations were started in Toronto and Montreal which became British and American Motors after WW1.

In 1918 Wolseley started a joint venture with Ishikawajiama Ship Building and Engineering for the production of Wolseley models under license, in 1947 this venture became Isuzu.

In 1927 William Morris (Lord Nuffield) purchased Wolseley outbidding his rival Herbert Austin and General Motors using his own money.

Woseley became another top end brand for shared designs after WW2 and would become part of the merged BMC a combination of the assets of William Morris and Herbert Austin who between them had been responsible for the rise of much of the British motor industry.

The brand disappeared in 1975 the last model being a wedge shape forerunner of the Austin Princess which was in production for just 7 months.

Today the brand is owned by Nanjing Automobile Group along with the assets of the MG Rover Group. The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company is today known as Wolseley plc.

28,455 Wolseley Hornets pictured above were built between 1961 and 1969.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s post, don’t forget to come back now !