Trailblazers brought back to life
Restorations showcase touring car creativity at the NEC’S Autosport International
Several individual restorers chose the NEC’S Autosport International show – celebrating 60 years of the British Touring Car Championship and British Rally Championship – as the theatre to reveal historic motorsport mould-breakers they’d revived. And each brought with them a wealth of fascinating tales of resourcefulness and technical innovation.
BMW 320i
Russ Cockburn was showing his recently-unearthed BMW 320i Super Tourer in the UK for the first time. ‘This was a Bigazzi-run car which contested the Spa 24 Hours in 1995 with Mark Duez, Roberto Ravaglia and Nelson Piquet,’ he said.
‘BMW ran two-car teams from both Bigazzi and Schnitzer that year under the BMW Fina Bastos and Bastos Fina banners respectively, intending to dominate the race. But one of the Schnitzer cars suffered an engine fire early on, so it became more of a survival situation.’
This Duez/ravaglia/piquet car finished second to the remaining Schnitzer of Peter Kox, Steve Soper and Joachim Winkelhock, although there were 18 laps between them.
After Spa Bigazzi returned the car to Msport in Munich, and Soper drove it in the 1995 FIA Touring Car World Cup, finishing third, before it went to Australia for Geoff Brabham to drive for Paul Morris Motorsport with Diet Coke sponsorship.
‘It soon became the spare car after the Mclaren-built 320is started arriving from late 1996 – we brought it over from Australia where it’d been unused for a long time,’ Cockburn adds. ‘With Super Touring getting very serious and Williams designing the Renault Lagunas, BMW had a reciprocal deal with Mclaren whereby the Woking firm engineered its Super Tourers in return for the BMW engines in the Mclaren F1.’
Cooper T56
This Cooper has recently been restored to its original identity as the car that launched the Tyrell team, starring on Duncan Rabagliati’s display celebrating six decades of Formula Junior. After giving up racing himself, Ken Tyrell formed Tyrell Racing in 1960, and entered Formula Junior the following year. Tyrell ran a team of then-new Cooper T56s in 1961. This car was used in testing, and the set-up Tyrell arrived at helped Tony Maggs win the championship.
It was then sold, midway through 1961, to Frenchman Robert Bouharde, who raced Db-panhard Formula Juniors in France, winning at Montlhéry in 1960 and Nogaro in 1961. He secured one win with the Cooper at the Coupe de Paris at Montlhéry in 1962, then sold it to hillclimber Tico Martini in 1963.
‘It was later passed to Roy Lane and was restored by Peter Denty,’ says Rabagliati. ‘It’s back in Ken Tyrell’s original colours, with its correct BMC engine and ERSA gearbox – Hewland ‘boxes are banned from Historic Formula Junior.’
Porsche 924
Used by Tony Dron to win the inaugural Porsche 924 Championship, this 1978 Porsche 924 was freshly restored in time for the show. It prompted former Porsche UK board member Steve Kevlin to recall its origins and the crucial role it played in Porsche’s Gt-class racing programme in the Eighties.
‘I was on the technology and regulations board for the 924 Championship,’ Kevlin says. ‘The whole thing came about to create a more sporting image for the 924, which surprisingly hadn’t been positively received by the press. ‘BMW ran a UK championship at the time, pitting dealerships against each other in apparently identical E21 3-series, and the 924 was much more sporting than those, so we decided to pattern our championship after it.’
They had different brake pads and shoes but were otherwise standard. The result was very close racing that helped to change the 924’s image.
‘It was very successful, sales increased, and Stuttgart took notice of it,’ says Kevlin. ‘In Germany, Porsche followed it up with the creation of the 924 GTP programme, racing at Le Mans and the IMSA Championship. Ordinarily Porsche’s board would have favoured the 911, but they saw what we’d done with the 924 and changed their minds.’
Cowley MKIII
Dormant for 15 years, this unusual 1968 special has been resurrected by the 750 Motor Club to celebrate its 70th anniversary next year, and shows the inventiveness at work in the low-cost championship.
‘It was the brainchild of Bill Cowley, who worked for British Steel and built a sequence of racing cars, each yet more extravagant, for his own use,’ says the 750 Motor Club’s Charlie Plain-jones. ‘It shows the limits of the Austin Seven chassis – the engine is lain on one side, the gearbox on its side next to it. Cowley devised desmodromic valves and used Weber carburettors from a Ferrari. It came very close to winning the 1968 750 Formula Championship.‘
The Cowley had completely horizontal suspension sprung by inner tubes from a Mini wrapped round the struts, and rode so low that it needed to be carried across the notoriously potholed paddock at Mallory Park.
It will be driven by Bill’s grandson William when it returns to racing.