Silverstone Classic
Long-lost Lotus Esprit Gp5 returns at bumper classic race meeting
An ever-expanding interest in Seventies Thundersports and the 60th anniversary of the Jaguar E-type saw bulging grids for the Silverstone Classic, which battled through the rain after a pandemicenforced hiatus to give us some of the most colourful racing seen in a long while.
Lotus Esprit Group 5
The sole example of Lotus’s Esprit-based sportsprototype racer made its first reappearance in the UK since 1980. ‘Richard Jenvey ran it in the World Sports Car Championship’s Group 5 category, before switching his attention to Modsports in the UK,’ said restorer Greg Caton. ‘It was the only example built, and despite being built by Jenvey it was with the full backing of Lotus. This car actually began life as the one of the earliest Esprits built, the Turin Show car, chassis 102, provided to Jenvey by Colin Chapman, who supplied him with everything he needed, presumably with a view to developing the concept further if it was successful.
‘Unfortunately it blew up, broke down and crashed a lot! However, it was quick in qualifying, often beating works Porsche 935s and Lancia Montecarlo Turbos on the grid only to break down during the race. Jenvey was a rather eccentric designer who insisted on building the entire engine himself, designing it to rev to 9500rpm, which was the problem really – the car was too highly strung.
‘It was known about for a while and we went to Jenvey’s house to collect it. There were parts for it all around his garage, and it came with a Garrett turbocharger that he had intended to upgrade it with but never finished it – that had come straight from Lotus too, in 1980.’ Jenvey later raced Turbo Esprits in the milder Production Sports Car class in the Eighties. ‘He asked us if we also wanted the moulds for the bodywork, then pointed to his garden – they were being used to line his fishpond!
‘The restoration was actually completed in 2019, and the car ran at Barcelona, Spa-francorchamps and Paul Ricard, but the engine blew up on the Mistral Straight, sending us back to the drawing board, then covid-19 struck. Yesterday was its first time back on track in the UK since it was new.’
Turner-ardun
‘It’s been in pieces ever since the Seventies, and the restoration took me ten years,’ said Ken Prichard-jones of his unique Turner, which turns out to be a predecessor of sorts to both the Shelby Cobra and its arch-rival Chevrolet Corvette.
‘Back in 1951 Jack Turner built eight tubular steel racing chassis, with independent rear suspension and transverse leaf springs, like John Tojeiro’s later AC Ace chassis. This was number two of the eight, and was subsequently converted to Ford Flathead 4.8-litre V8 power modified by Ardun Engineering – Ardun being short for Arkos-duntov, Zora Arkosduntov being the creator of the Corvette.
‘Back to the chassis – the design of its front and rear subframes is practically identical to that of the AC Ace. After the war when materials were scarce, Jack Turner and John Tojeiro did a deal with
each other to supply cars and parts to different UK markets – East and West – so as not to undermine each others’ businesses.
‘As Turner became more established, he decided to develop smaller sports cars, but still had this V8 car on his books, so he sold it. And there’s a school of thought that its design inspired the Ace, and thus later on, the Cobra.
‘This one was campaigned in sprints and hillclimbs when new by former World War Two pilot Roy Croydsill. It was always a privateer car, although a sister works car once ran at Goodwood. This car was regularly used in club racing until the early Seventies, when it was dismantled and bought by a racer in Germany, then later moved to France, which is where I found it ten years ago.’
Jaguar E-type
A star of the RAC TT, one of the earliest E-types built made its Silverstone debut for the model’s 60th anniversary. It’s just been restored by ADP Classic Racing for James Cottingham. ‘It was one of the first E-types to be sent to the US, as part of the car’s promotional tour,’ said Cottingham.
‘It was built as a road car, but it was bought by Huffaker Engineering, which never road-registered it, instead immediately preparing it for racing.’ Frank Morrill and Merle Brennan campaigned the car in the SCCA, beginning in 1962, culminating in wins at Laguna Seca in 1963, and victory in the RDC Four Hours. It passed between SCCA hands from the Sixties until 2019 when Cottingham was the first person to buy it on the open market.
‘Huffaker modified it with a cut-down fly screen to improve its aerodynamics,’ said Cottingham.
‘It was actually bought via Kjell Qvale, who then commissioned the lightweight E-type to replace it.’
Rover SD1
It’s the first time this Rover has run at Silverstone since 1982, when Win Percy piloted it in the RAC TT, although it should have been seen sooner. ‘It had punctures at Donington, and a wheel bearing went at Thruxton, all in practice!’ said owner Robert Oldershaw. ‘But it was originally built for Patrick Motorsport by Martin Thomas, who sadly died just three weeks ago. Martin drove it as well as an impressive roster of drivers including Percy, Brian Muir and Dave Brodie.
‘In the 1980 TT, a round of the European Touring Car Championship then, Brodie was about to take the lead from the works Jaguar XJSS, but the Patrick team had got its calculations wrong and his car ran out of fuel – it could have won the race though. It had several podiums, although it never won outright, and it’s hard to work out what did what back then because there were three cars in the Patrick team. However, Thomas – who’d had experience developing Chevrolet Camaros – made it faster then the V12 XJ-SS, causing the management at BL, which owned both Jaguar and Rover back then, to slow the Rovers down to avoid upsetting its most prestigious marque!
‘I got it from Thomas in January. It was the first of the Rovers he originally built, but the last he restored – it had been out of action in the back of his barn since 1983. This car was the final project he completed before he died, and we’re racing it this weekend in tribute to him.’
Ford Sierra RS500
This EX-BTCC Sierra made its historic debut at the Classic, also the first time it’s raced in the UK since the 1989 British Touring Car Championship. ‘It was Guy Edwards’ car – built by Andy Rouse and also the sister car to Rouse’s own Championship classwinner,’ said owner Graeme Dodd. ‘It didn’t win anything, although that may well have been down to team orders. Edwards was Rouse’s teammate and he’d raced in F1, and managed several thirdplace podium finishes in the 1988 and 1989 BTCC seasons. After that it went to Australia, competed in the Bathurst 500, then got put in the Bathurst museum as an exhibit, where it remained until an Australian collector bought it, got input from Rouse to help complete a restoration, intended to race it, then sold it instead.
‘The things I got with it are incredible. It still has the scrutineering sticker on the dashboard from the 1989 RAC TT, for example, and the fuel jug came back with it from Australia too – a fantastic bit of bespoke kit, made of aluminium.
‘I’ve only done two laps in the car so far. It’s an important piece of history and I have to bring it back in one piece!’
BMW 3.0 CSL
This BMW should have been making its historic racing debut, but sadly its driver suffered an injury prior to the race so it remained in the paddock. ‘It was originally an Alpina-built racing car in the early Seventies, which contested the Group 1 class with BMW’S UK Dealer Team at the 1974 Spa 24 Hours,’ said John Danby of restorer John Danby Racing.
‘Interestingly, straight after the race it got turned back into a road car and sold – Group 1 was the most basic level of race modification back then.
Chris Randall found it a few years back, and it’s now owned by Simon Watts.
‘To return it to the track, we decided to restore it to 1975 Group 2 specification. It reflects how it might have evolved if the team kept hold of it – it was unusual to turn racers back into road cars, and had it been retained it would have been converted for Group 2 use. We evolved its livery for 1975 too.’
Motul-rondel M1
A static exhibit on oil firm Motul’s stand, it’s the first time this ex-tom Pryce Formula Two car has been seen in 40 years. ‘It was restored over the last ten weeks!’ said Motul PR man Simon Maurice. ‘It’s a 1973 Rondel – short for Ron Dennis – with a 1.6-litre Ford-based engine. Dennis formed Rondel Team Motul in 1973 to contest Formula Two, building eight cars and retaining chassis four and six for himself while the others went to Fred Opert. Tom Pryce was signed to drive one for Rondel after impressing Dennis with his performances in Formula Atlantic.’ Pryce led much of the 1973 Norisring round, until brake failure ceded the win to his teammate Tim Schenken, although Pryce still came second.
‘The owner, Steve Worrad, bought Henri Pescarolo’s Thruxton winner, incomplete, then found this one for sale in the US,’ said Maurice. ‘Having realised this one was complete, he decided to restore it first instead. Pescarolo’s will be next.’