Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesper OH
Then again, ARG and Porsche were never really in competition for the average consumer car market like ARG and Ford. But it also begs the question, what was Istel dealing in? They had sponsored the high profile Tourist Trophy from mid-1980s to the comma in 1988.
Jesper
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Istel were in the IT & telecommunications business- and were originally a part of BL/Austin Rover- formed in 1979 as British Leyland Systems from BL's various in-house IT departments (so the ARG v Ford thing does make sense!), later taking on work for external customers as well
They were sold off in a management buyout in 1987, and bought by AT&T a couple of years later
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-History.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISTEL
With that history, then yes,your theory about them being mainly a BL/Austin Rover sponsor makes perfect sense.
Just to add a bit of confusion to the issue though, Lawrence Bristow had Istel sponsorship on his prodsaloon Cosworth in '87- (Was this a continuation of the Istel backed team that had run Istel Rovers for Harvey in Prodsaloons in '86- I think Tim did some prodsaloons alongside his BTCC Rover campaign in '87?)
http://i495.photobucket.com/albums/r...wCC25-5-87.jpg
(Castle Combe, May '87- originally posted by 'La Sarthe' in the Autosport RS500 thread a couple of months back)