PEUGEOT HISTORIC TOURING CAR
A NOT-SO-RETIRED RACER
Paul Radisich might primarily be remembered as a Ford man but the two-time World Touring Car Cup winner spent 1998 — his final year in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC)— driving a distinctive green and gold Esso-backed Peugeot 406 for the works Peugeot Sport UK team.
That car, PR005, built by Motor Sport Developments (MSD) and used exclusively by Radisich in the 1998 BTCC now belongs to keen Archibalds Historic Touring Car Series competitor Stephen Grellet.
Near neighbours
Both the Peugeot, which had a best placing of fourth at the second round at Silverstone, and Radisich’s original Andy Rouse–built Ford Mondeo are now based within 240km of each other. The Mondeo is part of Scott O’donnell’s collection of contemporary Ford competition cars in Invercargill. The 406 is just up the road in Grellet’s home city of Dunedin.
Grellet, who got his start in classic racing here behind the wheel of a Triumph Dolomite Sprint, already owned and raced an E30 BMW M3, the former Michel Ferté French Supertouring Championship car. He was thinking about buying another while in the UK in 2017.
“We went to a barbecue at Patrick Watts’ house, and the car was there,” Grellet explains.
Watts drove a 405 for the works
Team Peugeot Total for three seasons from 1994, before moving up to the 406 with the renamed Esso Ultron Team Peugeot in 1997. He was replaced by Paul Radisich in 1998.
Down under and back, and down under again
When Peugeot pulled out of the BTCC at the end of 1998, both team cars, Tim Harvey’s PR004 and Radisich’s PR005, were bought by Australian team owner Paul Grimm and shipped down under, ostensibly for use in the 1999 Australian Super Touring Championship.
Only PR004 was ever raced there by Patrick Watts. The PR005 was parked up, effectively until 2012, when Watts bought both and shipped them back to the UK.
As Grellet thought someone else had first dibs on the PR005, he didn’t pay too much attention to it on the night of the barbecue. That changed when, in a subsequent conversation, he found out that the person he thought was going to buy it had decided not to.
Phone calls were made, an offer was tabled and, long story short, the Dunedin man got his wish of owning a second, later model, super tourer.
Racing again
Unfortunately, as so often happens in cases like this, it wasn’t all plain sailing when Grellet got the car here.
“In my first race in the car, at Ruapuna, the oil-pump drive belt came off. My first thought, obviously, was that a stone had flicked it off, but it subsequently turned out that the crankshaft had broken!”
As the car came with a spare engine plus a full inventory of spare parts as part of the deal he had struck, Grellet wasn’t too perturbed … until the spare engine started playing up as well, effectively ending his first local season in the car early.
Undeterred, he set about stripping the number-one engine over the 2018 off season and quickly became a fan.
“I’ve worked on quite a few BMW M3 engines over the years, and, for me, this engine was a step up from those”
“I’ve worked on quite a few BMW M3 engines over the years, and, for me, this engine was a step up from those,” he says.
“It’s quite sophisticated, with oil-feed pipes [directing oil] on to each cam lobe, and oil squirters to cool the pistons. And, of course, being alloy, the block is very light.”
It hasn’t been an easy ride this season, though, either. The clutch was slipping at the opening round of the Archibalds series at Hampton Downs, and a bolt came out of the steering column at the second at Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Ruapuna.
When Grellet finally had a trouble-free run with the car at the final round at Teretonga, it all came right however, with a best finish of fourth in the second race. That, if you remember, was Paul Radisich’s best placing in period. Not bad for someone still finding his way in his new car, not bad at all.