New cars attract attention at Classic Touring Car Racing Club opener

Among a paddock full of modern and historic tin-top machinery at Donington Park last weekend, three newly-built cars in particular turned heads.

The Classic Touring Car Racing Club’s suite of eight championships were in action alongside TCR UK, which uses the successful global formula launched a decade ago.

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The CTCRC’s categories range from series for Pre-’66 Touring Cars through to Pre-’03 machinery, Super Tourers of the 1990s and the BTC-T cars that followed them in the early years of the 21st century.

Jon Gill’s Peugeot 205

Among the most popular on spectator banks is Classic Thunder, which caters for outrageously powerful and heavily modified saloons from the likes of Australian V8 Supercars to bewinged five-litre Ford Capris. There is also a class for spaceframe specials, and it was in this division that Jon Gill fielded his stunning Peugeot 205.

Isle of Wight-based Gill in fact debuted the Vauxhall ‘Red Top’-powered 205 at Mallory Park last year, only for it to suffer an engine blow up. This was its first outing since being rebuilt.

The chassis, similar to those used in Intermarque Silhouettes, has its roots in National Hot Rod development and was constructed by Sonny Howard’s SHP concern. All the mechanicals, including 325bhp engine, are by twice TCR UK champion Carl Boardley, himself a four-time NHR world title winner. The result is a 750kg pocket rocket boasting around 430bhp per tonne.

“I had a Peugeot 206 Intermarque car, which had a similar set-up,” explained novice racer Gill, whose previous experience, beyond karting as a youngster, only extended to trackdays. “Unfortunately we were at Brands Hatch and the engine blew.

“So I spoke to Carl Boardley about building a new engine because he is the man for a Vauxhall Red Top. He was going to put the new engine into the 206, but looked at the 206 and wasn’t massively happy with it. It was like a skunkworks sort of garage-build. He said, ‘Look, we could do something different.’ We had a talk about budget – which spiralled out of control! – and then two years later we ended up with this absolutely beautiful car.”

To be eligible for Classic Thunder, spaceframe chassis must retain some elements of the original car but, beyond its steel roof, there’s not much that came out of Peugeot’s Coventry factory.

“We spoke really closely with Colin Gibbons at the club, found out what the regulations were with it, and we had to integrate an original Peugeot 205,” said Gill. “So we’ve got a D-plate Peugeot 205, which we very sadly cut in half. We cut off the A, B, C pillars, kept the scuttle and roof. We managed to fabricate the roof onto the car and then the rest of the panels are actually fibreglass.”

From 19th on a 26-car grid, Gill climbed to 13th in wet conditions on Saturday. He then handed the car to more experienced Jaguar racer Mike Seabourne for Sunday’s contest. Seabourne charged from the back of the field to seventh overall, setting times on a par with the race winner.

“The car is really well balanced,” said Gill. “I had the race of my life, to be honest.”

Michael Cullen’s BMW M3 E30

Cullen also has an M3 that he takes rallying

Photo by: Steve Jones

Also starring on its first time out, was Michael Cullen’s BMW M3 E30. The full Group A-spec car competed on slick tyres as an invitational entry in Pre-’93 Touring Cars.

Irishman Cullen, who topped Autosport’s national driving rankings in 2023, took it to second overall in the opening race, ruing a missed gear early on as he acquainted himself with the narrow gates on the car’s six-speed gearbox.

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The 2.5-litre M3 is the handiwork of E30 specialist Mats van den Brand, who had already built Cullen a matching rally version – which he campaigned on the opening round of the European historic championship in Spain earlier this month.

“Mats is up to chassis 70-odd now and he built a race one for Paddy Shovlin and myself last year,” explained Cullen. “I did Silverstone Festival, Paddy did the October Silverstone and then we decided really we don’t want to share!”

Last weekend’s event was effectively a glorified shakedown for the car and Cullen, who intends to race it next at Brands Hatch’s Super Touring Power 3 event in June.

“I just prefer doing a race meeting than a test session,” said Cullen, who also raced his Lotus Cortina in the Pre-’66 set. “The club have been really nice and really accommodating because, strictly speaking, the cars in the class run on cut road tyres. I ran on slicks yesterday and wets today, but it’s only just to give it a run.

“The car is beautiful around Donington. It’s a slightly weird feeling going down through the Craners having stepped out of the Cortina. On our Dunlop CR65s the car is floating all over the place whereas this thing is rather pointy but it’s great. I just love M3s, it’s my era and it’s very special.”

Neil Philpotts’ Mitsubishi Lancer EX2000

Philpotts is a Mitsubishi specialist having also raced a Starion

Photo by: Steve Jones

Completing a trio of eye-catching new cars was the very unusual Mitsubishi Lancer EX2000 Turbo of Neil Philpotts, which contested the Pre-’83 Group 1 Touring Car races.

Marketed as a Colt Lancer in the UK in period, the two-litre turbo cars were regular frontrunners in Modified Production Saloons and Super Road Saloons 30-plus years ago. In the right hands, they were capable of beating the more commonplace Ford Capri and Rover SD1.

Mitsubishi specialist Philpotts has a similar Lancer that he rallies but tends to be seen on the circuits aboard a Starion Turbo.

“When I grew up, everybody my age was into Fords,” said Philpotts. “We all had Mk1 Escorts, Mk2 Escorts. You [then focus on] family and come out of motorsports. When you want to get back in it, the prices of all them went to the roof.

“So I was looking for something that was more affordable and it had to be rear-wheel drive. And at the time, they still weren’t worth a lot of money, these things. So I ended up getting a Starion and a Lancer. The addiction started from there.”

This example was imported from Japan and has been a decade – on and off – in the making as a race car. Having never had it on track before the weekend, Philpotts qualified 11th in Pre-’83 on its first time out. He then finished eighth and seventh in the two races, second in class on each occasion.

“I’m used to the Starion, which is on racing slicks and is pretty planted,” he smiled. “That thing... the tyres, that’s the bit I’m struggling with at the moment.”