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Good save on the GTE ,years ago I used to service for a mate of mine with a GTE and that had no sunroof but was on a E reg,I remember the cage where it goes through the bulkhead was triangulated to the bottom of the front leg of the cage,car hadn’t been reshelled as far as we knew,and the rear beam had some bracing on it to stop toe changes,if I remember we only done a year with it before it was replaced with an ex Tony Pond Cossie,this brings back a few memories.Excellent work enabling it to fight another day. Thanks for the comments. Tony Pond. A legend. These Astra’s really need the bracing to the front strut Without the cage with the car on the sill stands you can push down on the front panel and see the doors move. The front screen pillars flex and even the sill structure just ahead of the front cage foot. This is without a screen in though so that may add some strength. |
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Aug 17, 2020 11:48:42 GMT
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Nice save, that's a lot of welding!
I had a chat with a man I know that was involved in the supply of these to Jim Russell and by all accounts they had a lot of them in batches of 15, most were returned to road spec when returned to Vauxhall apart from the last batch which were sold off with all the racey stuff left in
Did you get the original reg number? if so PM it over and we might be able to find out a bit more
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Aug 17, 2020 12:20:13 GMT
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Nice save, that's a lot of welding! I had a chat with a man I know that was involved in the supply of these to Jim Russell and by all accounts they had a lot of them in batches of 15, most were returned to road spec when returned to Vauxhall apart from the last batch which were sold off with all the racey stuff left in Did you get the original reg number? if so PM it over and we might be able to find out a bit more Thanks Mr Viva. Yep, a lot of welding. It’s back on its original registration for the first time in 18 years. It’s F39 NRO. If you can find any information on the car, or how it was all organised, or anything really, it’d be brilliant. |
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Aug 17, 2020 13:46:16 GMT
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Then a while later someone else put some photos of some Astras on the same FB page. that someone would be me  not just a conversion to a rally car, but an excellent resto on F39 too |
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Last Edit: Aug 17, 2020 13:47:11 GMT by darrenh
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Aug 17, 2020 16:34:08 GMT
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Then a while later someone else put some photos of some Astras on the same FB page. that someone would be me not just a conversion to a rally car, but an excellent resto on F39 too Thanks Darren. A small world World indeed. |
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Aug 27, 2020 10:46:51 GMT
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And on a Facebook group I'm in, the guy who built them  I linked him this thread in case he is interested, hope that's ok. |
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Last Edit: Aug 27, 2020 10:48:01 GMT by VW
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,125
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Aug 27, 2020 11:06:27 GMT
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And on a Facebook group I'm in, the guy who built them I linked him this thread in case he is interested, hope that's ok. Is he the ex-DTV Gerry? |
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Last Edit: Aug 27, 2020 11:06:55 GMT by teaboy
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Aug 27, 2020 11:14:23 GMT
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And on a Facebook group I'm in, the guy who built them I linked him this thread in case he is interested, hope that's ok. Is he the ex-DTV Gerry? I wouldn't know, but probably. It was on the droop snoot group and he was talking about tuning slants etc. |
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Aug 27, 2020 11:28:31 GMT
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I wouldn't know, but probably. It was on the droop snoot group and he was talking about tuning slants etc. Wow brilliant info. Thanks Mr VW. I’ll pass the info on to Sean. His Father is in the droop snoot group as he has a genuine HS Chevette historic rally car. He probably built this one as it’s a March ‘89 build. |
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Aug 27, 2020 11:36:17 GMT
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I wouldn't know, but probably. It was on the droop snoot group and he was talking about tuning slants etc. Wow brilliant info. Thanks Mr VW. I’ll pass the info on to Sean. His Father is in the droop snoot group as he has a genuine HS Chevette historic rally car. He probably built this one as it’s a March ‘89 build. Funny what info/people crop up isn't it. I don't own a droop shoot, or an Astra, and yet this sentence surfaced. P.s. not got any spare flat top 2.3 pistons has he 😉 |
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Aug 27, 2020 11:45:00 GMT
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Wow brilliant info. Thanks Mr VW. I’ll pass the info on to Sean. His Father is in the droop snoot group as he has a genuine HS Chevette historic rally car. He probably built this one as it’s a March ‘89 build. Funny what info/people crop up isn't it. I don't own a droop shoot, or an Astra, and yet this sentence surfaced. P.s. not got any spare flat top 2.3 pistons has he 😉 I’ll ask. I know he’s gone through a fair few engines as it kept cracking cylinder blocks. Are they standard pistons? |
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Aug 27, 2020 11:58:19 GMT
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Funny what info/people crop up isn't it. I don't own a droop shoot, or an Astra, and yet this sentence surfaced. P.s. not got any spare flat top 2.3 pistons has he 😉 I’ll ask. I know he’s gone through a fair few engines as it kept cracking cylinder blocks. Are they standard pistons? Yes, for the cf. Always toying with the idea of trying to get some car spec flat top pistons in it. I found a complete engine recently, but logistics make it a pain. I believe the pistons are hard to get of the rods though so normally stay in sets. It's one of those things, if I ever found some I'd keep them waiting for a time when it may be viable for me to swap them in, but it's been in the back of my mind for 5 years now and no serious attempt by me has been made 😂 |
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Aug 27, 2020 12:00:25 GMT
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Gerry was talking about Jim Russel in that post, although I guess that's pretty obvious, but that's how the rally school cars got mentioned.
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Aug 27, 2020 17:29:00 GMT
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John Kirkpatrick on the left who was chief instructor at Jim Russell race school since 1972, then owner from 1987 onwards. On the right is Vauxhalls Director of Marketing Gio Canterella doing a "hand over" ceremony for the 15 cars |
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Last Edit: Aug 27, 2020 17:33:12 GMT by darrenh
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Aug 27, 2020 18:32:50 GMT
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John Kirkpatrick on the left who was chief instructor at Jim Russell race school since 1972, then owner from 1987 onwards. On the right is Vauxhalls Director of Marketing Gio Canterella doing a "hand over" ceremony for the 15 cars Good info Darren. Do you know any other info regarding the cars? I think the cars had a plumbed in fire extinguisher as there are rivets for pipework running along the exhaust tunnel in the car. There was obviously the cage. Any ideas if the engines and suspension were modified? I notice that the red cars had silver wheels and the white cars had white wheels, but the wheels were white when I picked it up. They may have been swapped about between cars over the years. I wonder if one of these cars is F39? |
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Aug 27, 2020 18:47:37 GMT
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I notice that the red cars had silver wheels and the white cars had white wheels, but the wheels were white when I picked it up. They may have been swapped about between cars over the years. all GTE road cars had silver wheels, except white GTE's which had white wheels i cant help with the spec of the cars but they would have been standard other than safety equipment. (because they were specifically standard saloon cars in the driving school and experience days) i know that John Kirkpatrick is still around so might be worth tracking down and contacting. i don't know the number plates, but from pictures i have seen its clear they were a run of consecutive luton registered vehicles. |
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Aug 27, 2020 21:20:25 GMT
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Aug 30, 2020 20:17:09 GMT
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Look on YouTube for a BBC series called the power and the glory, episode called the right stuff and the Jim Russel astra gte cars feature in it
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Aug 30, 2020 23:26:53 GMT
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Look on YouTube for a BBC series called the power and the glory, episode called the right stuff and the Jim Russel astra gte cars feature in it Good shout Mr Hairdoo. Looks like some of the later Astras on a G plate. Enjoyed the program. I’m sure I’ve seen it years ago as I remember Jackie Stewart talking about the tall fit tree. |
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Amazing series. If anyone is bored this bank holiday I can personally recommend it. Yeah, Jackie Stewart throwing the car into the bowl of the karrusel and graunching out the suspension
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