DOWN THE PUB

WITH TONY WORSWICK

63 Blackburn Ferrari 308 driver

He has a rally-spec Ferrari 308GTB “We’ve been out in the Ferrari for 35 years. It used to belong to a Russian prince and he left it for someone to sell and they crashed it. We bought it like that and made it into a rally car. It was a road car to start with and we got Maranello Concessionaires involved in the project.”

It’s a proper Group B car “We built it to compete in Group B in Europe and we had a fabulous time doing that until Group B was banned. We did one event in England and won the Oulton Park Rally with it, but we were abroad for years. They were wildly enthusiastic about it and you didn’t get bugged over the noise, and they paid me money to take it. Occasionally you’d win something as well, so that made it even better.”

It now runs regularly “It has had large periods in the doldrums and I have thought about getting rid of it. It was in bits and pieces for about five years until Lord March invited us to Goodwood with it and that was one of the catalysts to get it running again. Since then, there has been a fairly constant stream of invitations to take it to events and demonstrate it.”

It is always driven hard “We’re out about half a dozen times a year and we took it to Shelsley Walsh for the first time last month. The atmosphere was awesome. I’ve had plenty of bumps with it over the years. It came back from Ypres one year like a shredded wheat on wheels; we’d hit everything with it. But we’ve got the moulds for the bodywork.”

“We do the engine ourselves and the Ferrari three-litre engine in it now is one we were developing for the British Formula 3000 Championship, but before we finished it they decided to keep it to DFV engines only, so we stuck it in the rally car.”

“I’ve still got the 1994 Jordan Grand Prix car. It’s not run since the demo at last year’s Silverstone Classic. The engine is in pieces at the moment and there’s not a lot you can do with it. But it is one of the best cars I’ve ever had and I love driving it.”