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Love the fact that the Magnum has an Aston V8 and is also road-registered...
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Love the fact that the Magnum has an Aston V8 and is also road-registered... It was recommissioned a couple of years back as well *n
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Top grammar tips! Bought = purchased. Brought = relocated Lose = misplace/opposite of win. Loose = your mum
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Oh how I wish I had been born 20-odd years earlier so I could have seen these amazing beauties raced in period! These machines are, to me, the greatest club racing cars ever, and I have been honoured to commentate on the Classic Sports Car Club's Modsports/Special Saloons Revival series a couple of times. Happily, some of the cars pictured above still exist and occasionally show their paces on the circuits - including the utterly bonkers DAF V8. The legendary Gerry Marshall Ventora "Big Bertha" was sadly written off at Silverstone thanks to brake failure, but Dealer Team Vauxhall used some of its remains to build "Baby Bertha" based on a Firenza, which in the hands of Marshall (and tuned by Bill Blydenstein) became arguably Britain's most famous club racing car of all time and is still competing today. (edit) You can read more on the revival series here: www.specialsaloons.co.uk/
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Was this the series that later became Thunder Saloons?
I use to watch them at Oulton Park in the eighties if so.
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Big Bangers are back!DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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Oh how I wish I had been born 20-odd years earlier so I could have seen these amazing beauties raced in period! These machines are, to me, the greatest club racing cars ever, and I have been honoured to commentate on the Classic Sports Car Club's Modsports/Special Saloons Revival series a couple of times. Happily, some of the cars pictured above still exist and occasionally show their paces on the circuits - including the utterly bonkers DAF V8. The legendary Gerry Marshall Ventora "Big Bertha" was sadly written off at Silverstone thanks to brake failure, but Dealer Team Vauxhall used some of its remains to build "Baby Bertha" based on a Firenza, which in the hands of Marshall (and tuned by Bill Blydenstein) became arguably Britain's most famous club racing car of all time and is still competing today. (edit) You can read more on the revival series here: www.specialsaloons.co.uk/Thanks for that, great link! Was this the series that later became Thunder Saloons? I use to watch them at Oulton Park in the eighties if so. I used to watch them too, I'll have to go digging through my boxes of 35mm photos to see what I can find...
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Marc
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,037
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Fantastic thread, thanks to all the contributors, especially DarrenW for kicking off.
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I used to watch them too, I'll have to go digging through my boxes of 35mm photos to see what I can find... Ooh, yes please, if you find some time. That was one of the highlights of the racing calendar for me. That, spending the weekend at Donington for the historics and Le Mans.
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Last Edit: Feb 9, 2017 9:57:42 GMT by georgeb
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Big Bangers are back!DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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I used to watch them too, I'll have to go digging through my boxes of 35mm photos to see what I can find... Ooh, yes please, if you find some time. That was one of the highlights of the racing calendar for me. That, spending the weekend at Donington for the historics and Le Mans. I used to go to Oulton most weekends during the late 80s/early 90s. Most of my photos are hopeless but when I've got a few hours I'll dig through and scan some in, been meaning to do it for aaaages.
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JoshO
Part of things
Posts: 337
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Those are some awesome cars! And there are the poor deluded youngsters in the "scene" thinking that the craze of huge overfenders on cars is new and exciting
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I just love the diversity in that line-up, I mean where else would you see a Corvair, DAF, Sunbeam rapier and Skoda racing against the more obvious rear wheel drive Fords? I seem to recall a feature on some of these in an issue of Retro Cars a few years back but I can't lay my hands on the copy now. Secondly, as it only gets a small pic in the feature I think the white Viva deserves a bit of extra exposure.
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PhoenixCapri
West Midlands
Posts: 2,684
Club RR Member Number: 91
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Big Bangers are back!PhoenixCapri
@phoenixescort
Club Retro Rides Member 91
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Great share! Thanks, know what I'm spending my evening reading Have a photo of a couple of the club racers I used to watch as a kid - one of my mates uncles was the chief mechanic/builder for Tony Sugden and his crazy Skoda - to the right of the photo, got a photo of me behind the wheel somewhere, really nice bloke was Tony.
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Big Bangers are back!DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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I just love the diversity in that line-up, I mean where else would you see a Corvair, DAF, Sunbeam rapier and Skoda racing against the more obvious rear wheel drive Fords? I seem to recall a feature on some of these in an issue of Retro Cars a few years back but I can't lay my hands on the copy now. Secondly, as it only gets a small pic in the feature I think the white Viva deserves a bit of extra exposure. Oooh that looks even better than in the original article. I reckon there's some potential crossover from these with the Cafe Racer thread, perhaps. That tread pattern (what tyres are they?) is outstanding, somehow it really adds to the look. Great share! Thanks, know what I'm spending my evening reading Have a photo of a couple of the club racers I used to watch as a kid - one of my mates uncles was the chief mechanic/builder for Tony Sugden and his crazy Skoda - to the right of the photo, got a photo of me behind the wheel somewhere, really nice bloke was Tony. Cracking photo, be great to see the one of you behind the wheel!
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Last Edit: Feb 9, 2017 20:53:47 GMT by DarrenW
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Big Bangers are back!BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Great thread! Back in the 90s I had my first car, a Skoda Rapid. I used to go to the local Skoda dealership for various parts (most of it available off the shelf!). On the walls were photos of the S110R Group 2 cars in action, as well as the rally Estelles and Favorits.
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Tony Sugden is still involved in the sport today - as a safety/pace car driver!
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quadra
Part of things
Posts: 162
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Feb 11, 2017 16:43:22 GMT
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Brilliant thread, I'm assuming that there is no equivalent formula today? Can you imagine nowadays taking a medium sized family coupe and inserting a current Formula 1 engine into it, in your own garage and then racing it.
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quadra
Part of things
Posts: 162
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Feb 11, 2017 16:54:22 GMT
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After doing some googling it appears that Mr Colin Hawker went one step further and created this. There is also another thread on here which follows a similar line of cars. retrorides.proboards.com/thread/159607
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Last Edit: Feb 11, 2017 16:59:10 GMT by quadra
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