FOUR DECADES OF TOURING CARS AT THE SILVERSTONE CLASSIC

The Silverstone Classic’s David Leslie Trophy now celebrates touring cars from the ‘70s and ‘80s as well as the ‘90s.

Cars including RS Capris and BMW’s red, violet and blue striped ‘Batmobiles’, originally driven by legends such as Niki Lauda and Henri Pescarolo on tracks across Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, will join touring cars of the ‘90s. Spectators will see them racing side by side with Vauxhall Vectras, Ford Mondeos, Honda Accords and the famous Leslie-Aiello duo’s Nissan Primeras at Silverstone next month.

The under two-litre touring car race (U2TC) features cars from the 1960s. Director of Racing at Silverstone Ken Prichard Jones says: “We are delighted to add such variety to the touring car grid; due to demand, we now welcome contenders from four decades of touring cars, all running in their respective classes: forty years of touring car racing and technological development are faithfully represented in two thrilling races.”

The Silverstone Classic takes place from 24 to 26 July 2009, featuring the world’s iconic racing cars and marques. Grids celebrating over ninety years of racing include pre-war sports cars, Grand Prix race cars, Group C Le Mans racers, pre-’63 GT and sports cars, alongside other crowd favourites such as Mini racing, touring cars and Formula Junior. Both young and seasoned racers, as well as celebrities and racing heroes will take to the track for three days of atmospheric and thrilling on-track action. Silverstone Classic will host over 20 races, more than 80 car clubs, 4000 cars on display, 700 cars and 900 drivers, automobilia sales and Bonhams’ classic car auction, with further entertainment provided by Harley-Davidson® stunt bikes and drag racing. Alongside the racing, free live entertainment throughout the day and into the evening will add an additional soundtrack to that of historic engines. History also features in the aerobatic display and Victorian fun fair, making the Silverstone Classic both an extraordinary event for classic car and racing enthusiasts, and a unique outing for the family.

Racing at Silverstone Ltd is the licence holder until 2017 of the Silverstone Classic.

Source: www.silverstoneclassic.com

Coming soon! British Touring Car Racing – The crowd’s favourite – late 1960s to 1990 By Peter Collins.



An affectionate, mainly pictorial panorama of twenty-odd years of the British Touring Car Championship, from the anarchical 1960s and early 1970s of flared wheelarches, lifting wheels and smoking tyres, through the Group 1 years when the rule-makers tried to make the cars look standard and, as a result, slowed them down. This had the predictable effect of galvanising race car builders into trying to get round the restrictions, eventually resulting in cars that were faster, and evolved into the tarmac-melting fire-breathing, turbo-powered frontrunners of the late 1980s. The story takes us up to the point where the rule-makers attempted another clampdown as the final decade of the 20th century dawned ...
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