18 replies to this topic

[simonlewisbooks]

For about 10 season the Rover V8 engined 'Skoda' was the car to beat in the Castle Combe Special GTs and in that time it had at least 4 different, race winning drivers.
I can recall Alastair Fenwick, George Douglas, Phil Lomas and Danish rallycrosser Erling Jenson all achieving success and lap records in the car.


This is Mr Mobile Windscreens, George Douglas at the wheel in May 1990

Around early 1995 Erling Jenson appeared in a 'new' car which had a Lotus Esprit lookalike body and which he called something strange(or so it seemed..) . But this crashed heavily at Camp Corner on it's first and only appearance due, I believe to a wheel failure. I think the driver suffered a neck injury and retired from racing as a result (?)

Was this in fact a re-bodied version of the 'Skoda' ?

If not where did the Skoda go?

I always thought it was based on a sports 2000 chassis but I saw a reference somewhere recently (that I have since misplaced) that it had a Group C2 or maybe Group 6 chassis under all that GRP.

Can anyone confirm?

here's a YouTube clip of the car in action in 1990

There are more photos on my Castle Combe Special GT website which has just been uploaded - but needs a lot of work to id many of the cars (I have misplaced relevent programmes)
Any contributions welcome.

[Mallory Dan]

Didn't Fenwick also hace a C2 Tiga at some point around 1989-90, ex Roy Baker. If so could the Skoda have used some parts from this?

[Kevan]

Yes, he definitely had a C2 Tiga, which appeared in British C2 rounds and at Le Mans (1990)

http://www.racingspo...Fenwick-GB.html

[jackal]

Hello

Erling is a nice chap and I am sure he wouldn't mind helping out with your jigsaw.

Google his name along with 'ards instructors' and you will find a mobile number for him. That or send an email to jensenracing.

C

[jackal]

Hello

Not sure what the etiquette is about posting links to other websites.

Type 'is your favourite clubbie hero' into google and you will find a page with pics of the car, if you haven't seen them yet.

/C

[Thundersports]

I always thought the Skoda was a Tiga underneath and converted back to Group C2 spec...............

[simonlewisbooks]

Thanks chaps.
Jacal ; many thanks for that hint. I Google'd as described and Phil Lomas has indeed posted some wonderful photos on a Pistonheads thread and also answered quite a few of my questions into the bargain.

Allen; Seems this is a different Skoda to the BDA powered Lola T492 you mention. I remember the Cobb/Meredith car on the hills. Lomas mentions a Tiga chassis , which backs up Thundersport's recollection, and a further dig with Google reveals the same chassis was indeed beneath Jensen's Esprit lookalike body. It was entered as a "Tiga Xonit" (I knew it was something very strange!) and it only appeared in March 1996. I was up at Quarry and remember watching it go backwards into the bank at Camp in the far distance.
Lomas says "I think it was retired to a barn after this".

So, does anyone recall seeing photos of it as the Tiga-Xonit ?

[RS2000]

I well recall turning up at my first hillclimb in my road-legal rally Escort, to find I was in the same class as the Merredith plastic Skoda bodied sports racing car. The rules were changed for 1991 but what is still totally mind-boggling is however such vehicles came to be the norm as "saloon cars" in speed events.

...and they still complain about the regs/class structure today - they don't know what bizarre regs they once had...

[Darren Galpin]

Jensen crashed his car during testing on a Thursday, crashing at high speed, I think on the run from Tower to Camp. He hit a marshals post and shifted it back by a foot, and was hospitalised - the accident made the local Bath Evening Chronicle newspaper at the time. I remember the car well, and its competition with Brian Chatfield's white Jaguar - I was marshalling there at the time.

[simonlewisbooks]

Jensen crashed his car during testing on a Thursday, crashing at high speed, I think on the run from Tower to Camp. He hit a marshals post and shifted it back by a foot, and was hospitalised - the accident made the local Bath Evening Chronicle newspaper at the time. I remember the car well, and its competition with Brian Chatfield's white Jaguar - I was marshalling there at the time.

Looking again at Phil Lomas's comments, he says the car was crashed twice, the first time because of unsuccessful aerodynamic 'improvements' ..... I think there was also a "get well soon Erling" message in a 1995 programme so perhaps this was accident no.1 , at the marshalls post ? I seem to recall it was why the marshall's post got moved(further than a foot) soon after.
It would explain why the car reappeared with a different body sometime later and met with accident number 2, which I'm sure was on a race day.

[Darren Galpin]

Simon - 1995 would be about right for the first accident. Phil Lomas used to have a converted bus to bring the car to the circuit which he would park just by the gate which led from the pits to the paddock. The roof of the bus could be converted into a viewing area by raising some safety rails around the edge. The bus was red if I remember correctly!

[Tim Wilkinson]

The Skoda crash was in testing in '94 and left Jensen with "severe arm injuries". He raced a Nissan Micra in '95 (where?). March 23rd 1996 - qualified 7th, the centre of a rear wheel broke under braking for Camp and he went backwards into the banking (apparently 150yds from the scene of the Skoda accident). The Esprit body used the same base as the Skoda.

On the day he was thought to have escaped injury, but was later found to have 3 cracked vertebrae and torn neck ligaments.

(All info Autosport - Simon, I've sent you a scan with a pic of the crashed Esprit and accompanying article).

The Esprit crash was the same day as Graham Pressley's Alfa hit a marshals' post after Old Paddock and burst into flames. (off-topic - was it around then that there was a big accident at the front of a Combe Saloons field that left a couple of people very badly hurt? i seem to remember it was an Astra or Cavalier that was involved).

[simonlewisbooks]

The Skoda crash was in testing in '94 and left Jensen with "severe arm injuries". He raced a Nissan Micra in '95 (where?). March 23rd 1996 - qualified 7th, the centre of a rear wheel broke under braking for Camp and he went backwards into the banking (apparently 150yds from the scene of the Skoda accident). The Esprit body used the same base as the Skoda.

On the day he was thought to have escaped injury, but was later found to have 3 cracked vertebrae and torn neck ligaments.

(All info Autosport - Simon, I've sent you a scan with a pic of the crashed Esprit and accompanying article).

The Esprit crash was the same day as Graham Pressley's Alfa hit a marshals' post after Old Paddock and burst into flames. (off-topic - was it around then that there was a big accident at the front of a Combe Saloons field that left a couple of people very badly hurt? i seem to remember it was an Astra or Cavalier that was involved).

Thanks for that Tim. I remember the Alfa going up in flames but it was August when the big accident happened in the saloons - or to be accurate two accidents, I was in the middle of at least one, if not both, and got through without a scratch somehow. The race was stopped twice and then abandoned.I remember ducking through the spinning cars at Old Paddock as Kieth McCaskel spun back off the infield and his Astra was t-boned by his team mate's matching pink Nova . Kieth needed Lord-knows how many pints of blood before he reached hospital and it was months before he was back on his feet.
The second shunt was on the first or second lap of the restarted race and I remember seeing Roger Lott , flopped out of the open door of his AX, on his back with feet still in the footwell as if he'd been flung out. It turned out he was also T-Boned and the impact gave him a "dead-leg" which went from under him as he tried to get out! Otherwise he was actually alright. It looked a lot worse from where I was sitting.
This was the only time my Mum ever came along and watched me compete and it rather put her off!
I think the Special GT race was canceled that day as the curfew was getting too close by that point in proceedings.


SKODA-ROVER

Some more digging has located a thread on another forum where the chassis was described as a C2 Tiga , built up with Skoda body by Maguire for Phil Kerr to hillclimb in 1988 (in Mobil 1 colours) in about 2003 it was said the chassis had been restored back to C2 spec.

This is the car being prep'd for Jensen's debut race with it in September 1993

[simonlewisbooks]

I contacted Phil Lomas who confirms the Skoda had a SPORTS 2000 chassis and it wasn't the Maguire built ex Phil Kerr chassis.
The Maguire Skoda was raced by John Pugsley and Brian Fisher

Apparently it was written off against a tree on Pugsley's driveway!

As the Autosport story of Erling Jensen's Xonit accident mentiones a Group C2 chassis, as does at least one thread on another forum, one wonders if the original chassis was written off in the previous shunt and replaced by a C2 tub?

[Tim Wilkinson]

The Autosport article on the Esprit crash: "....ended up 150yds from the scene of the enromous testing accident in the rover V8-powered group C2-based car (then under a Skoda coupe shell)".

[simonlewisbooks]

The Autosport article on the Esprit crash: "....ended up 150yds from the scene of the enromous testing accident in the rover V8-powered group C2-based car (then under a Skoda coupe shell)".

Assuming that part of the report was actually accurate of course.....

[Tim Wilkinson]

Assuming that part of the report was actually accurate of course.....

Very true.

From race reports and club news at the end of '93, Lomas raced it (and won) one weekend, Jensen bought it from George Douglas, and raced it two weekends later. There's no comment on the origin of the chassis.

I reckon post #4 is the best bet for a definitive answer.

[simonlewisbooks]

Bingo! I had a photo of the Xonit in my own negatives!

[Tim Wilkinson]

Browsing through an August '87 Autosport, I've come across mention of Mike Kerr in a Group C based Skoda Rover 3.9, hillclimbing at Shelsley (August 8th). A picture with the report shows some Mobil 1 decals on it. Is this likely to fit into the picture somewhere?

Alistair Fenwick was sharing a Skoda Cosworth BDH with Phil Gleed (up to 1300cc special saloon class) at that event.