10 replies to this topic

[chr1s]

This crossed my mind whilst driving back from Italy a couple of weeks ago. Did the Alfa Romeo BTCC  team have a UK base from which to prepare and run their cars through the 1994 season, or did they transport them backwards and forwards to Italy between races? 

[MCS]

Were they not run by Dave Richards (Prodrive?) at Banbury - or at least based there?

 

I don't know, but seem to remember seeing something around that time from the M40.  His operations there seemed to grow each time you passed by at one time - unless I am dreaming.

 

As ever, others will know better.

[BRG]

Yes it was run by Prodrive.  They had previously run BMWs in the BTCC and there were plans to run Mercedes but that fell through.  Later they ran Hondas and Fords in BTCC and Vovlos in the ETCC.  They have also worked with Porsche, Subaru (famously so), Ferrari, Aston Martin and MINI.

[TennisUK]

In 1994 they were run by Alfa Corse who did often run the cars back and forth from Italy. They had an agreement with Prodrive to also use their facilities when required - generally when races were close to each other time-wise.

 

Prodrive took over the whole running of the campaign in 1995 as Alfa Corse concentrated on DTM - but by then with the introduction of aero body kits the cars lost their competitive edge.

[chr1s]

Thanks for the replies so far, I was aware of the Pro Drive connection in 1995, it was the 1994 season I was interested in.

[Perruqueporte]

If I remember correctly, Alfa had a facility in Dover at the beginning of the 1990s. I bought a new Alfa 75 with the 3-litre V6 engine in May 1990, which kept oiling its plugs from the beginning along with other non-trivial problems. Alfa GB looked at the car and told me that it had the wrong valve guides fitted and that they would rebuild the engine. I demanded that they take the car back. They refused. We had an argument which they won, and they sent the car to Dover where they told me that whoever was going to do the work was a race engine person.

Christopher W.

[Ibsey]

This crossed my mind whilst driving back from Italy a couple of weeks ago. Did the Alfa Romeo BTCC  team have a UK base from which to prepare and run their cars through the 1994 season, or did they transport them backwards and forwards to Italy between races? 

 

Not sure about Alfa being in the UK in 1994. But I understand the Sweedish based Volvo 850 BTCC (Estate) car was run by TWR, possibly out of the UK. So personally would have thought Alfa also would have, but haven't researched that, I'm afraid.

[josdevries]

Alfa certainly did run their cars from Italy in 94, they were built and maintained there.

 

I would imagine the cars and trailers were possibly held somewhere like Alfa HQ wherever that might be for obvious logistical reasons, but everything else was all Alfa Corse.

Many of the team were ex Lancia as the WRC team had been disbanded in 92 and only ran a sort of famed out effort in 93 with Sainz and Aghini.

r

Nini Russo was Lancia to the core for instance.

[Jager]

I was an Alfa owner during this era, so followed the progress of the Alfa Corse team closely. This is from John Tipler's book 'Touring Cars" which covered the 1994/1995 BTCC in period:

 

They (Alfa Corse) had at their disposal a budget of over GBP 5 million just to contest the BTCC. The successful 1994 contingent was managed by ex-Fiat Abarth rallystar Nini Russo with a team of 21 personnel and race engineers. They has four cars at their disposal; two to race while the other two were refettled back in Turin. Engine-builder Abarth held a stock of 40 engines for 155s in various Super Touring Championships.

[cooper997]

This was published in THE OFFICIAL BBC SPORTS MAGAZINE 'TOURING CAR 94'

 

 

In the same magazine there's a 2 page feature on the new BTCC teams from Alfa and Volvo by Mark Fogarty. I can scan and add here if there's any interest.

 

Stephen

Edited by cooper997, 06 November 2018 - 00:59.

[chr1s]

Thank you everyone for your contributions, particularly josdevries and Jager. I did follow the BTCC back in those days but I never really thought about the logistics of the Alfa operation.