HONDA DISACCORD
WSR swapped BTCC manufacturers with Prodrive for 1999, so was now representing Honda. With the Accords, James Thompson and Peter Kox finished fourth and seventh respectively in the standings. For 2000, Kox was replaced by Tom Kristensen, while a third car was run for Gabriele Tarquini by Honda Motor Europe’s Italian team, JAS Motorsport.
“We were asked to do a wish list from the 1999 car for the 2000,” says Bennetts. “Top of our list was more [suspension] caster – the 1999 car we could only get about seven degrees caster out of it. The 2000 car arrived with five degrees caster. So I rang up [Honda Motor Europe]: ‘My guys downstairs have just told me it’s got five degrees, we’re looking for 12/14.’ And they said, ‘It’s got no power steering on it, that’s why it’s only got five degrees’ – that’s the max you could have without power assistance. They said they did some research, and the team in Italy told them that power steering could be unreliable. I said, ‘That’s very true, it can be, but why have the other manufacturers down the grid all got power steering?’
“That started the disagreement, and I then contacted Ron Tauranac [whose Ralt company WSR had won five titles for in British F3, and whose cars had dominated F2 with Honda engines]. Ron rang Japan, and Honda got some money for us. We were told it was a six-month project, but we had the bit between the teeth and we made one set of power steering in two weeks.
And we put it on Tom’s car, went out and wow – much better. ‘We’ve got
12 to 14 degrees caster, we’re on the right track now.’ Then we get a call: ‘Why have you fitted power steering?’ ‘Because that’s what we need.’ ‘We told you you’re not supposed to.’ ‘Well, sorry. We’ve got master drivers here like Tom Kristensen, James Thompson – we’ve got to give them the best.’ So then, a week later, they rang up: ‘Can we have power steering for Tarquini’s car?’
“Wanting to win, we gave it our best, but probably upset our relationship with Honda Europe. We were more interested in winning – fixing things up and getting out there.”