So what was / is your favourite clubbie hero?

[onemorelap]

Inspired by the mod sport thread what clubbie type car did / do you hanker after?

For me the one that really grabbed my attention in my youth was the Bell and Colvill cobra that mainly appeared in the intermarque races in the 80's IIRC. Well driven and evil looking in pure black, not a spot of cobra chrome to speak of. Wonder what became of it?

Also worthy of note was the black brick caterham, ugly as sin but went like the clappers.

The one i'd really like to get my hands on nowadays would be a DB4 lightweight similar to that you see in the AMOC series.

Cheers.

[chevronb37]

Anything which entered Intermarque/Thundersaloons/Special sports/Saloons in the late 1980s/early 1990s!

- David Ellis' AMV8
- Ex-Pete Stevens/John Cleland Carlton
- Rod Birley's Cosworth Prelude
- Michael Millard's unreliable 512BB
- Marsh Plant AMV8
- Baby Bertha (albeit before my time, I did see it at Goodwood FoS)
- Tony Sugden's Skoda 130RS
- Malcolm Hamilton's E-Type

These days I love historic stuff so Simon Hadfield's unique Chevron B37 is probably my favourite car from a domestic championship.

[chevronb37]

Also - special mention to the British GT Championship in the late-1990s. Seeing McLaren F1 GTRs, Lister Storms and 911 GT1s around Oulton Park was truly special.

[onemorelap]

Definitely with you on the thundersaloons. Really good variety of cars, wasn't it that series that effectivley launched John Clelands career?

From the same era the Thundersports was always good entertainment value imo .

John Foulston up against Mike Wilds in the Can Ams always made for good racing whilst the gaggle of Chevron B8's gave chase.

Ah the B8 theres another personal favourite, can't believe i omitted it from my 1st post, absolutely brilliant car.

[chevronb37]

Little bit before my time, but I understand John Foulston and Ian Flux both campaigned Lola T530s in Thundersports. That was the only purpose-built single-seat Can-Am car. I seem to recall Nick Whale driving one at the Goodwood FoS in 1994 or 1995, but I'm not 100%. I've not seen one since. They were monsters with full ground effect and massive power, but without the romance and freedom of the old Group 7 cars.

I remember seeing Mike Wilds in the RJB Mining series (also billed as Thundersports I think) racing a blue Chevron B21 and generally cleaning up. We're lukcy to have the Masters Series and Supersports Cup to follow these great machines still. The B8 is stunning and domestically plenty are still raced in the HSCC's Guards Trophy against contemporaries like the Lenham, Elva Mk8 and Ginetta G16.

[Trackside]

Two spring immediately to mind from the late '80s when I was an impressionable late-teenager at Silverstone:

The stars-and-stripes-liveried Opel Manta with, I think, some sort of V8 lump up front. Loved that car! The second one was a white Capri III with X-pack arches and a 3.4 litre Cosworth GA engine. I remember it looking fantastic and sounding amazing!

[onemorelap]

Some good thundersaloon photo's on page 21 of the attached showing the Manta, Capri and various others.

http://forums.autosport.com/showthread.php?s=&...

[onomatopoeia]

Phil Lomas' spaceframe Imp in the Combe special GTs, when it was still Imp powered.

[Graham]

90's stuff for me


Tuscans and Gt1's i still hanker after a lister storm

[Trackside]

onemorelap said:

Some good thundersaloon photo's on page 21 of the attached showing the Manta, Capri and various others.

http://forums.autosport.com/showthread.php?s=&...

Thanks for that. Very interesting thread too! It's not the Capri I was referring too ('mine' was a mk3 as opposed to the mk1 on that thread) but it's good to see that ex-Cologne car again.

[mat205125]

chevronb37 said:

Anything which entered Intermarque/Thundersaloons/Special sports/Saloons in the late 1980s/early 1990s!

- David Ellis' AMV8
- Ex-Pete Stevens/John Cleland Carlton
- Rod Birley's Cosworth Prelude
- Michael Millard's unreliable 512BB
- Marsh Plant AMV8
- Baby Bertha (albeit before my time, I did see it at Goodwood FoS)
- Tony Sugden's Skoda 130RS
- Malcolm Hamilton's E-Type

These days I love historic stuff so Simon Hadfield's unique Chevron B37 is probably my favourite car from a domestic championship.

.... and his Escort Cos

[GBRM]

onemorelap said:

Definitely with you on the thundersaloons. Really good variety of cars, wasn't it that series that effectivley launched John Clelands career?

I'd say Production Saloons in the early 1980s (when it was fantastic), mainly in an Opel Monza in the same team as Tony Lanfranchi and Gerry Marshall really launched John's career, oh, and having a Dad who ran a Vauxhall dealership didn't hurt his Vauxhall aspirations either!!

[GBRM]

Trackside said:

The stars-and-stripes-liveried Opel Manta with, I think, some sort of V8 lump up front. Loved that car!

7.1 litre V8 Pontiac engine, awesome car and I still have a piston from it at home!!
It was for sale last year but got pulled for some reason:- http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/pu...

[thunderbelmont]

It had been up for sale at somewhere around £30K+ but I have a feeling it was pulled when they didn't think it would make anywhere near that at auction.

With nowhere to race cars like it, they are devalued to be not much more than toys.

Perhaps the SuperGT's might have let it in, being a GM car with a GM engine.

It was one of my "hero" cars.
Others include

John Jordan's (Tony Trimmer driven) T332 Lola
The March 707/717 Can-Am car
The "Titman Lola M1"
both Big and Baby Bertha
"The" Carlton
Terry Griffiths' Vauxhall Belmont Thundersaloon.... oh.... I seem to own it!

[Trackside]

GBRM said:

7.1 litre V8 Pontiac engine, awesome car and I still have a piston from it at home!!
It was for sale last year but got pulled for some reason:- http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/pu...

Jeez, I thought it might have been a 5 or 6 litre, but 7.1...

Unsurprisingly, I also have some photos of Thundersaloons from the era of the Carlton and Commodore/Senator, Manta, Rod Birley's Sierra etc.

Found a photo from a Special Saloons race (sponsored by Wendy Wools?) of Ginger Marshall's indecently quick Reliant Kitten. That was a good fun car to watch, as was Peter Baldwin's orange Mini, made famous of course by the 'Driving Ambition' TV drama.

I'll get them scanned and posted up this week sometime.

[chevronb37]

thunderbelmont said:

The March 707/717 Can-Am car

That is a brutal machine. I understand 3 were made. Richard Dodkins owns one, which is now in updated 717 form, with the shovel nose. This is the car which Chris Chiles ran in Orwell Supersports Cup for several years. The other active car is the STP ex-Chris Amon version. I forget who owns it now, but it is still active and used to be raced by Charlie Agg. I'm sure someone with a better memory than me will be able to fill in the gaps. I believe the final car is in the Rosso Bianco museum, still in 707 spec. Along with the McLaren M20, this is one of my favourite Group 7 cars.

[Trackside]

Here's some Thundersaloons photos taken by me at Silverstone in July 1987.

John Cleland / Vince Woodman - Vauxhall Carlton


Pete Stevens / Neil Facey - Vauxhall Senator (Holden Commodore wearing V/X badges!)


Andy Dawson - Audi quattro


Nick Oatway / Holman Blackburn - Opel Manta


Tony Strawson / Gerry Marshall (!) - Ford Sierra Cosworth


Rod Birley - Ford Sierra


John Edwards / Trevor Shaw - Ford Escort V8


Rob McIntyre - McIntyre Metro


Brian Chatfield / Mike Smith - Vauxhall Chevette


Tony Davies - Transpeed Firenza


Jim Mensley / Jeff Farmer - Rover Vitesse


Brian Lytherland / Rhoddy Harvey-Bailey - Nissan 240RS

[GBRM]

Great photos Trackside!!
The Commodore was apparently Peter Brock's Bathurst winning car from '84 but there has been some debate to that.
Great to seet he black Cosworth Dad raced, that was Tony Strawson's wifes (Linda) road car and they developed it for racing whilst she still used on the road!!
Also good to see the Mike Smith Chevette and the Tony Davies Firenza, both cars Dad raced and Tony still has and races the Firenza to this day!!

[williamp]

Lovely photos. I tend to prefer extremre looking cars- genetic mutants which probably should only belong in the twisted imagination of the desginer. So yes, all of the above, plus Intermarque. Also loved the BPR Global Gt series from the mid 90s with the mclaren f1, Merc CLK-GTR etc.

[Trackside]

GBRM said:

Great to seet he black Cosworth Dad raced, that was Tony Strawson's wifes (Linda) road car and they developed it for racing whilst she still used on the road!!

I must admit I was quite surprised to see your Dad's name on the photo as I'd no idea he'd driven that Cossie! Good story about it being Mrs S's road car too; it would have been no more than a year old in '87.

GBRM said:

Also good to see the Mike Smith Chevette and the Tony Davies Firenza, both cars Dad raced and Tony still has and races the Firenza to this day!!

I used to love the Transpeed Firenza as it went like stink and was a good looking car imo. Nice to hear Tony still has it. Didn't he used to race it with his brother?