Joss Ronchetti and Mark Biggars race at Mallory

[Chris Wilson]

Good race, Joss in his little Sunbeam Lotus and Mark in his big HP Skyline GTR, plus a rapid Escort. Good clean close race. The oil from the Skyline was a bit of a pain, I was willing Joss NOT to turn the wipers on, but.....

 

[heckler]

That Sunbeam Lotus sounds awesome!

[JamieP]

Great tear up that, that little sunbeam looks like a lot of fun.

[L18msy]

Now that looks like fun, the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

[Homer]

Very tidy indeed, enjoyed watching that. That Skyline was very quick in a straight line but really seemed to struggle into out out of the corners compared to the escort and sunbeam.

 

Viewing things like this reaffirms just how far the difference is between my driving skills and someone who can really handle a car on the track. I think I can handle a car fairly well, but nothing like that!

[Chris Wilson]

That's weight for you, doesn't matter how much grunt you have, if it weighs as much as a ship it's going to be slow into the corners and under the brakes.

[Chris Wilson]

Still think one of the best on board films is Mark Blundell qualifying the Nissan R90CK Group C car at Le Mans in 1990. The thing had a genuine 1000 plus BHP, a huge amount of downforce, although you wouldn't think so the way he throws it round, and serious top speed. I have seen it countless times, but it still makes me cringe

 

[Swampy442]

My dad had a Lotus Sunbeam What Chris said, weight is everything. Great vid there, bet Joss was spitting feathers lol. Great clean driving and loving the audacious round the outside attempts What box is in that Sunbeam? Sounds like s**t on downchanges.

[Chris Wilson]

Probably a Ford dog box. I think they originally had a ZF in them? Haven't seen one for years, even with Skip Brown Cars just up the road. I think Joss's is fairly far removed from the original article though

 

Just Googled them, they did indeed originally have a 5 speed ZF box in them. You can tell I haven't been to the pub tonight,

my memory is superb http://www.sunbeamlotus.com/index.php?view=article&catid=14%3Aabout-the-sunbeam-lotus&id=30%3Aabout-the-sunbeam-lotus&option=com_content&Itemid=53

[Swampy442]

That Nissan vid is insane!! Check out the turbi installation on it

 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2007-06-15_Nissan_R_90_CK_(Bj._um_1990)_-_Motor.jpg

[Chris Wilson]

It was probably one of the most exotic and advanced turbo engines of its day. A friend of mine, Colin Bennett has run one for a customer in historic Group C racing for a while and I was lucky enough to have an hour or two having a really good look over it at Donington last year. They ran real time cylinder pressure measurements, something normally only seen during very expensive engine dyno development at a manufacturer level. The ECU (Electramotive) was easily the most advanced ever seen on a race engine in period, and a nightmare to work with nowadays, to the extent Historic Group C got a waver to allow a modern ecu in the old casing to make running these things in the noughties viable. I even sat in it and held the brakes on whilst it was put on wets Absolutely awesome car. Some stuff on Electramotive here:

 

http://alex62.typepad.com/imsablog/2006/02/electramotive.html

 

The Bennett run car sold recently, fetching, I am led to believe well over £600,000 UK.

 

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C98052/

[Swampy442]

Given the budgets of the factory Nissan team in the day, Ill bet running one of these is an eye watering prospect. There must be experts from that era floating about nowadays, ex Nissan technicians, tuners etc?

[Chris Wilson]

The guy in Japan that did the engine electronics development was offered virtually carte blanche to assist with this project, but declined. They had a huge amount od engine spares though, and it was run at conservative boost and RPM (but still went like hell....).

 

Being a Lola chassis I am a bit biased, but they were probably the ultimate Group C car along with some of the Mercedes. The prettiest has to be the Lola T92/10 though.

[Swampy442]

I always admire people who run teams like this, the old F1 cars, British Touring cars, old Bentlys etc.

I went Silverstone a few years ago as part of a work jolly to watch historic racing, you know, blower Bentlys, Napiers etc, multi million pound automotive art objects getting thrashed to within an inch of their lives. Which is what they were intended for, but the people behind the scenes who rebuild, repair, remanufacture these great machines are the true heros.

There was this funny little 3 wheeler, much like a Morgan but it had a whacking great 14 litre V twin up front, that was my fave And the one powered by a Hispano Suiza aircraft engine lol

Oh and the Napier Railton I saw at Dunsfold aka Top Gear HQ, thats something else

[Wez]

Great clips, the 2nd one is borderline insane

 

I've seen a few historic races and they are very entertaining.