South Downs Stages TR7 V8's

[merlind100]

The lure of a bunch of TR7 rally cars took me down to Goodwood at the weekend for my first ever rally. Theer was an interesting mix of cars from this

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to this

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with the usual field of Mk2 Escorts and the like, a few front drivers and only one 4wd turbo car. The real draw for me were seven TR7 V8's, three of them genuine ex works cars, competing and another works car in the paddock. They all sounded absolutey fantastic with tuned V8s howling away. It was however easy to see why they rarely beat the Escorts back in the seventies as they were much more unweildy on the slow twisty bits before haring along the straighter faster bits engines bellowing. In fact the only car that sounded better was even more unweidy in the twisty bits. One of only four Prodrive built Aston Martin Rally GTs it was a real handful and finished well down the order

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It's enterd this shot from the left!

[merlind100]

The Ex works cars were OOM514R an ex Tony Pond car, originally rallied as a sprint and given a V8 later

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It unfortunatly retired with a problem
SJW533S, another car that was originally a Sprint before getting a V8 and driven by Tony Pond. This was not competing, just parked in the paddock

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[merlind100]

SJW548S, originally driven by Per Eklund and Simo Lampinen was the car of the day for me. It was being driven in a very determind style

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After it's works career this car went to Ken Wood who used it to win the Scottish Rally Championship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSBXr7z8-Ec

[merlind100]

HRW251V originally driven by Per Eklund, Timo Makkinen and John Buffam

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The car in action in 1980
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQSELkJhi80

[merlind100]

The other TRs wre this one which was the highest placed TR in fourth

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this one

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this one

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[merlind100]

And finally this one

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Also there but not competing was an Ex works Marina driven by Brian Culcheth

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[JPB]

Interesting, but perhaps not surprising, that the Marina chosen for the rôle of works rally weapon was the smaller engined 1300 version.

[VYO 372M]

Blimey, how unique is the ex works Marina survivor?

Steve

[trackerjack]

Apparently Brian Culcheth was there, he had come down to see his old Marina. The bloke who told us this was the owner of Paddy Hopkirks 2.5 PI which is being restored but may not be completed according to his wife!
You always meet nice people at car events.

[Rob from Brum]

For Gods sake don't show Top Gear the Marina cos there'd by a piano on it's roof

[trackerjack]

II would love to see what one of those Escorts would do round Top Gears track, be right at the top somewhere.
The last time the TG team played with an Escort they used forest tyres on a tarmac track so it was clear they did not want a good result.
Just think you could tune the eyeballs out of a Marina and make it nearly as fast as a Sprint............until the front suspension collapsed.