Special Saloon/Super Saloon Register

[The Shrew]

No matter how much these cars stand out to me as being the worst class for actual good racing i just love these cars i could sit watch, hear and learn about them all day every day and never be bored.

So come on guys lets not beat about the bush

What in your opinion is/was the best and worse car ? ( Doesnt matter if its dead, lost or alive ) + bang a pic on even better

For me only being young ish + only watching at Oulton i have to say

Best = 2 Stand out - Tony Sugden's Skoda = goose pimples + a car that was painted like a Zebra ( Big Andy did tell me what its was but that long ago i cant remeber and i must of been about 5 years old watching it )

Worst = A Red Capri racing at Oulton probably 1995 ish loud as feck and no go + Any Chaterham 7 type car thats been on a grid in my opinion has destroyed this type of racing.

I will find my old programs one day and maybe give some help to this thread

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

Hi Gregor, the distinction I was making is that I'm sure that John Pope's car is a saloon (not coupe), so should either be a Magnum, or indeed a Viva! The Firenza was only ever a two door coupe, either before, or as, a Droop Snoot.
(Sorry to be SO pedantic, but I was surprised to be disagreeing with you on something Vauxhall related! )

Have a look at this !

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Have a look at this !

WoW! As soon as I get home tonight I'll be chacking down the back of my sofa to see if there's enough for me to buy this piece of history!

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

WoW! As soon as I get home tonight I'll be chacking down the back of my sofa to see if there's enough for me to buy this piece of history!

From the blurb, it appears not to have been restored, yet still looks remarkably fresh. £50K is a lot but it would cost an awful lot more to build something like that from scratch today.

[morninggents]

It must have been restored. I raced against it several times in early to mid '70s and it never looked as good as that!

[DanMinton]

http://youtu.be/ESF37WwlEEg

R59, Dont quite get that video coz at 1.49 when Stevens is recovering at Clearways you see the Honda legend and our Escort go through which means it was most probably the last race that we did in Thundersaloons which was 1991 not 1992 like the caption says . Although the clip from Donnington is 1992.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by nabs

thanks for your reply Gerry. Yes i should be speaking to him this week, i will mention you asked after him. in fact you were one of the drivers he mentioned when i was out in cyprus with his family in september and october last year. many of the others he asked about was tony lanfranchie who had died only months after going to cyprus to see him. and he did not know he had died of cancer.....was totaly devestated when i told him. micky chittenden who lives up the road from me. Ginger Payne...Rod Birley..ken dawes...ken costello (was zaks niebour in sidcup)..gerry amatto...George whitehead..John homewood...Martin Birrane..Rob Mason he bought our BDG engine for his imp...Mike Crabtree he bought our ex broadspeed 1594 twin cam to race in south america...and finally his bigest friend Roger Taylor who he is desperate to know if he is still alive..Sorry about getting carried away with the nostalgia. by the way if you go on the internet zaks track is shown on there. zet international cyprus....

I have very, very fond memories of Zak. How I came to meet up with him, I can't now remember, but I was an aspiring racer in 1965 but hadn't a clue how to proceed. I had gathered a couple local mechanics to join my cause, and we travelled down North London to chat with Zak one evening. To say that he was generous with his time is a massive understatement. He gave us many ideas and suggestions, and showed us around his workshop, and sent us away with many things to think about.

We ended up purchasing quite a lot of the bits and pieces we needed from him to build the Anglia I raced for 4 years. On it's initial shakedown at Brands on a Saturday afternoon, he joined us and, even though I was going to be competing against him, he helped set the car up. If anyone does speak to him, please pass on my warmest regards.

I also have good memories of Roger Taylor. Although I competed in the Redex Championship for Special Saloons, I raced at Snetterton a lot as that track (and Alton Park) suited my cars handling (or my lack of driving skills) best, and we often raced against Roger there. As I remember it, I had mechanics whilst Roger had engineers who worked in pristine white overalls and coats, and his service van was like a pandoras box. What they didn't have in it, nobody could possibly need or want.

But, yet again, his crew were just as generous as Zak even to a competitor; my first race at Snett, during practice/quali I had a constant misfire. Roger's guys came over and suggested that I ran with some special Autolite Racing spark plugs, that they just so happened to have, instead of the Champion "tractor plugs" that I was using, and gave us a big box of them; enough that I never needed to buy sparking plugs again.

In another post, somebody was commenting on the first Escorts being used for competition, and said that they thought that they came from Germany. My memory, from a club racing point of view of racing Special Saloons, is that the first Escort was the plain white one raced by Roger Taylor. It may have been built in Germany, but it was certainly prepared in Boreham; whether that was official or not, I can't say, but I seem to recall that Roger's father was on the board of directors of Ford UK, hence the connection to Boreham.

However, it was Roger's car that precipitated the end of my racing career, and I would guess that of a few others. Up until then, the racing was on a fairly level playing field; the reasonably ordinary cars such as the Anglias could hold their own against the more exotic machinery such as the Janglia, etc because they handled better and were on the whole more reliable. Then Roger's Escort came on the scene, and it had the attributes of being a) fast, b) a good handler, and c) reliable.

I would guess that my 4 years of racing cost me a total of about £2000, but in '69/'70 I was being quoted telephone numbers to replace my tired old engine, and as I was about to get married and buy a new house (a replacement engine would have cost almost double that of the new house), racing was no longer a priority. But there were some really good times, like when Gerry Marshall, Tony Lanfranci and I had a competition in the bar in the paddock at Brands about who could consume the most alcohol and still remain standing; the next day, I became tee-total and have remained so since.

Oh, the good old days.

[davyboy]

Not quite a Special Saloon... but something I'm sure is of interest here. One of John Maguire's Lotus Esprits.

[essexman]

Hi Allen, had to pass comment. I've read over and over your list of Special Saloon/Special GT cast list 1964-1993..Love it. Just writing to say that being of ' a certain age' I remember seeing many of the cars you list. Back then anything and everything had a V8 in it. I knew Reg Gubbins when he had his Anglia Buick. I posted a thread today asking for information on the Hillman Twincamifornian, for the uninitiated it is/was an Imp Californian with a Lotus twin cam where the back seat should be. A member has advised that it belonged to Dennis King but I can't find anything about him or the car. Any ideas?

[Alan Brown]

Originally Posted by essexman

Hi Allen, had to pass comment. I've read over and over your list of Special Saloon/Special GT cast list 1964-1993..Love it. Just writing to say that being of ' a certain age' I remember seeing many of the cars you list. Back then anything and everything had a V8 in it. I knew Reg Gubbins when he had his Anglia Buick. I posted a thread today asking for information on the Hillman Twincamifornian, for the uninitiated it is/was an Imp Californian with a Lotus twin cam where the back seat should be. A member has advised that it belonged to Dennis King but I can't find anything about him or the car. Any ideas?

See my post 117 in this thread.
Alan

[R59]

Originally Posted by winkle

I am trying to fill in some missing info on my Toyota Starlet. There have been a couple mentioned in previous posts. Dell/Boarer and Morton/ Mortlock cars.

The car was built by SHP in 1991 and I bought it from Richard Williamson in 1996 but as far as I know he only had it for a year or so. Does anyone know its history from 1991-1994?

It might have been an oval racer in that time. When Richard raced, it was TVR/Rover V8 powered and white with a red and blue stripe.

Any info would be much appreciated

Steve

Time for a bit of a thread revival! The Morton cars were built by Empress. I'm not sure about Mudlocks. There were quite a few of them back then too, built by a number of people, with Empress, SHP, George Polley.

The Dell/Boarer car was built by Mark Arnold - who engineered cars for Barry Lee among others, later working for Team Brask.

The CSCC Special Saloons series kicks off at Brands Hatch this coming weekend (4/5th May) as two races in the MGCC meeting. Race 1 is the last on Saturday, and Race 2 is the first on Sunday (morning). There are currently 21 entries, including a few Thundersaloons (GM Carlton, Danny Morris in his Peugeot, me the Belmont), Baby Bertha, and others.

[winkle]

R59
Thanks for your reply and reviving the thread

I had kind of given up on that one!

I couldn't make Brands last weekend, but I saw the CSCC Special Saloons at Mallory last year and really enjoyed them.

I am sure when its finally finished having a re-fit I will come and join in with you all.

[R59]

Well, we're at Cadwell at the end of June - you'll be welcome there - with or without your car.

Rob.
#59

[HoTWire]

Originally Posted by R59

Wilson/Birley "Armour All" Mazda RX7 - used to be beat even the Sertec Carlton - unknown.

Bump!

This thread piqued my interest in this car, as the unknowns are pretty intriguing. Turns out this car is with Bailey Motorsport and was out at the Festival Of Speed last year :


1989 Mazda Cosworth RX7 Thundersaloon. Goodwood Festival of Speed 2012 by Antsphoto, on Flickr



I've already inquired if they will bring it to my Retro Rides Gathering .. but who knows.

What other unknowns are there still, obviously a fair amount of time has passed since the last list was made.

Also whilst looking for videos from Shelsley Walsh (where the Gathering has moved to this year) I found a video from 1990, which seemed to have a number of ex-special saloons in : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhoJ7Vmiqng

I wonder if any of those still survive.

[carljames02]

Originally Posted by petestenning

13th October 1963 Mallory Park /BRSCC



Saloon Car Race 20 Laps
Class A Upto 850 cc
74 Laurie Goodwin N.S.U.Prinz 660
75 David Bucket or G.Arnold Morris Mini 848 RES 5
76 Wickford Racing Team M.R.Amiss Austin Mini 848
77 Ken Costello or R Mason Austin Mini 848
78 J.G.Jessop Austin Mini 848
79 Radbourne Racing Ltd P.Gunther Abarth 850 TC 849
80 Radbourne Racing Ltd John Anstead Abarth 850 TC 849 RES 4
81 A.P.Belcher T.C.Millington Hillman Imp 875 RES 3
Class B 851 cc to 1200 cc
82 R.M.Henderson Austin Minnow 950
83 B.Pearson Austin Cooper 997
84 John Fitzpatrick Austin Mini 997
85 Alexander Engineering Co.Ltd Mick Clare Morris Cooper S 1107
86 Super Speed Conversions Ltd Mike Young Ford Anglia 1198
Class C Over 1200 cc
87 Super Speed Conversions Ltd John Young Ford Anglia 1650
89 R.J.Rayner LMB Ford Popular 1172 s/c
91 G.D.Allen Rod Embley Morris Mini 1498
93 John Willment Autos Ltd Doc Merfield Ford Lotus Cortina 1588
94 Far East Racing Team A.D.Stewart Ford Lotus Cortina 1558
95 Chris Craft Ford Cortina 1650 RES 1
96 Chris Craft H.Fawcett Ford Anglia 1650 RES 2
97 Team Tourist Trophy J.G.Adams Jaguar 3781


I have a database i am doing with programme entry lists from the 1960 s if anyone can fill in any first names that would help greatly in my quest .


Pete

Dear pete my name is carl im from cornwall I have some old racing programmes and photo's of my granddad r j rayner and I am interested in finding out more information about his racing day's sadly my granddad is no longer with us and im asking could you help me in any way thank you very much for reading this letter and I await your reply carl banfield aged 19 yrs e mail carljames02@outlook.com

[Racing RSi]

Hopefully not too far off topic, where would the RS1600i fit in to this topic? too new, not, important/ not much interest... or not enough historic value..

[morninggents]

Too new and not enough historic value. Special Saloons/Super Saloons were 1960s and 1970s - maybe just in to the early 1980s.

[Racing RSi]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Too new and not enough historic value. Special Saloons/Super Saloons were 1960s and 1970s - maybe just in to the early 1980s.

seem to think that was said with the Mk1 and Mk2 Escorts once.. bit different now.. Mk3 will get there..

[allenbrown]

Quite possibly, but this thread is specifically about the Special Saloons and Super Saloons categories of the mid/late 1970s and early 1980s. After the silhouette Skodas had dominated the Special Saloon categories from 1978-1982, and then the Donington GT series took the drivers' attention, there was a move to restart Special Saloons as a much more restricted category around production bodyshells. That is a completely different subject. Maybe it needs a separate thread.

[Racing RSi]

there is this on this forum;-
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...112132&page=11

[John D Wood]

Originally Posted by John D Wood

Don't know if anybody is interested but here are 2 photos of the escort one without the body and cage on. The chassis photo is as it was raced by Derrick with the Hewland box, I cut this bit off even though Derick said "it was the best bit" as I already had the ex DFV Capri Jack Knight box and didn't want the extra complications.


Body on





Body off

I would be interested in buying back my old car, if it still exists, anyone seen it?
John

[morninggents]

What years did this car race? Is it the Derrick Walker car that used to be yellow?

[John D Wood]

duplicate post

[John D Wood]

I sold it in 1983, it started off as Derricks chassis and body but we cut the back off the chassis, which carried the Hewland box and lowered the body by 4". We ran it in the 1300cc class.

[morninggents]

Is the pic in post 446 with body off the Walker spec? Was the gearbox we can see just a 'straight through' gear leading to a Hewland transaxle at the back as per Norman Abbott pink Escort of the early 70s?