group A touring car

flappa · Post by **flappa** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 4:35 pm

Cool, I'll let you know next time we take the car out.

touring car challenge link: http://www.touringcarchallenge.com
NSW historics: http://www.hsrca.org.au
group C association: http://www.groupc.org.au

flav · Post by **flav** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 7:24 pm

ahhh... good old days. It was my work for a while, Grice, Brock, Rodgers, Crompton...then I went to Europe, where the real racing is...F1...! Funny thing was I ended up with a guy called Steve Knott who prepped a Starion for someone here in group A, but i dont remember who it was... mabey charlie obrien? Does anyone know?

flappa · Post by **flappa** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 7:55 pm

Small world huh, Steve Knott built the first lot of engines for the factory team when it was being run by Kevin Bartlett. Don't know what happened after that fell apart and George Shepherd took over.

Who were you working for over in Europe?

flav · Post by **flav** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 3:49 am

Steve and I worked for Schubell Motorsport. (Horst Schubell also owned LOTUS F1 and F3 and was the producer of the Opel lotus race cars which is how I got a start into that open wheeler avenue) I know steve left his business to come over to Europe where we built the Omega's. Irmscher and Eggenberger were also running these cars in the GTCC but we kicked their asses bad...(Steve also got Russell Ingall the drive in F3 with us) We had a guy called Peter Orbendorfer driving them for most the season but then i hooked up another guy who i had met in testing one day and we became good friends, he was Manuel Reuter. We had Instant success with him and when i finally got back to Australia i hooked him up for a drive at bathurst with some strange guy out here called Peter Brock, and during testing Manuel was quicker than Peter and this made things very difficult for the Team...Peter hates to be second when he is meant to be the lead driver.. So strangely the car snapped the driveshaft on the start line at the beginning of the race that year. I think it was 92. I could tell you a few stories about that man but he would probably sue my ass off if they got out! However the guy can drive... if you can recall the sandown race before the bathurst race that year you will remember he led the race for quite some time in the VN while everyone else was running VP's. I built that VN. It whipped all the lastest cars from HRT easy and Tom Walkingshaw had his top Benneton F1 guys here working on the VP's...After bathurst that year HRT offered me a job and nice salary. I have since left HRT and now am advisor to a certain European team. If you have ever had the chance to work in europe you will understand that Australian racing is only good for Australia. I dont intend to piss anyone off by saying that but our Holdens and Fords are nothing more than hotted up road cars.

flappa · Post by **flappa** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:21 pm

Uhhh, very very interesting!!! I understand what u mean completely! I've also heard some "interesting" stories about him, kinda explains a few things huh... I think there were a lot of dissapointed people around after group A, when it was decided to go down the V8 supercar path. It was a shame the super tourers died in Australia as I think that series was a lot more attractive than the V8's. Anyways, the two classes attract completely different crowds, so it was never really going to work with the two of them anyway.

This certain european team... they wouldn't happen to be looking for some young talent would they :D I'm probably heading to Europe at the end of the year to have a bit of a look around the place anyhow, should be interesting.

WANTSOM · Post by **WANTSOM** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:45 pm

without getting sued -

I too used to note the number of times he was said to have driven the car "faultlessly" and done a "fantastic" job. He would then get out, hand over the car, then almost immediately it falls apart under his poor co-driver.

If anything he was/is a master showman with great timing for the media and a sense of occasion, who just knew when it was time to get out hey.

Was he as good as they say, well, he wasnt bad but the equipment available to him (and not others) prob helped a bit - especially in the early years. Was he in the same league as say Colin Bond in his day - I dont think so, Bond could bloody drive anything, fast.

There you go -Ka-ching - my 2 cents worth.

flav · Post by **flav** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:22 pm

...there is always plenty of work in europe in race car teams. Just make sure you have all your papers in order so you dont get stuck behind any borders. Work visas are hard to obtain if you want to stay more than 3 months. If you can specialise in an area like I did you can apply for a permanent Visa which will let you travel pretty much anywhere. Go into a team where you can adapt to the car, like BTCC, and they speak english if you have no other language.... I hate England...bloody cold...but beautiful circuits...but ugly women...

as for colin bond he was good in his day. But shitfull at making decisions at C.A.M.S. these days.... Brock was a master with the crowds and the media. His downfall was the people who surrounded him like the doc and bev... oops..Ive said too much already...

ProZac · Post by **ProZac** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:23 pm

flappa wrote:Small world huh, Steve Knott built the first lot of engines for the factory team when it was being run by Kevin Bartlett. Don't know what happened after that fell apart and George Shepherd took over.

Who were you working for over in Europe?

Ahh, he would have built one of the original engines for this car then:

Although its seen a few changes since then i bet. Thats the sister car built for Kevin Bartlet, used mainly for research. It kicks some ass in endurance races over this side of the tasman now.

Defective · Post by **Defective** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:26 pm

GODDAMN!!!!!!!!!!!

that is one damn fine stazz! and its here in nz?

chooky · Post by **chooky** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 10:12 pm

I have got one of the other Group A starions, orignally the Brian Sampson/Gary Waldon Car. I would post some pics if I knew how too!!!
I like that Kiwi Starion!!! did it race in the ATCC here Pro Zac?

WANTSOM · Post by **WANTSOM** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 11:41 am

I didnt think Sampson/Waldon drove the Starions. Sampson was a Toyota man wasnt he and Waldon came on the scene a little after GrpA finished.

I could be wrong it just doesnt stick in my memory.

Cheers
Greg

flappa · Post by **flappa** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 1:19 pm

Excellent, welcome to the forum.

Brian Sampson drove the blue and white Preston Motors starion.

That car in NZ is a bit of a mystery.... It might have been built by Bartlett, but it wasn't a factory race car.

WANTSOM · Post by **WANTSOM** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 7:36 pm

There ya go, I was wrong - tks Flappa.

BTW - welcome aboard Chooky. Will we see your car on the track at any stage?

ProZac · Post by **ProZac** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 8:45 pm

Flappe, you sure on that? Ive seen some pretty convincing paperwork, and its LHD aswell. Of the 2 he built this was the one used to research. All hearsay however, im not picking a fight here :).

Chooky. send me your pics, zperston@paradise.net.nz , and ill host em for you, and post them if you like. I can send you some more pictures of that starion aswell, including pics of the SEXY SEXY rear suspension arms.

chooky · Post by **chooky** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 11:24 pm

Yes I have been racing the car here in Tassie, it has been here for alot of years now, I brought of a guy i knew who had it sitting in a shed for 7 years, I have been giving it a bit of a bithday, cleaning it up and hope to race it a the Group A race meeting at Sandown in November. I have raced a few cars over the years and never gave a Starion much thought, but it is a terriffic car to drive, I realily injoy it, not bad looking either!!

Austarion

group A touring car

re Brock

Who is online