Simon Garrad winning at Silverstone in his Skyline
Sean Brown ’ s RS500 is among the rivals
the next one . The DNA of the Skyline is as an RS500 beater . it was always the best group A car and in period they just tried to slow them down .
“ But now I ’ ve done it , I understand how hard it was to do and why someone hadn ’ t done it before ; make one from scratch . It ’ s a lot of engineering and a lot of learning . The shell is an original car . It ’ s not like a super tourer where you basically take the roof off and build a racing car around it . There ’ s plenty of man hours but it ’ s all the bits you bolt on that are very special . We make them all from scratch because you can ’ t buy anything new .”
The Skylines are real crowd pleasers as they split flames out of the exhaust on gear changes and Ric admits to a degree of showmanship . “ We spend ages making sure they spit flames . It is part of the mapping process , you know ; if you can ’ t make a good flame you ’ re not doing your job right !” Both Ric and Simon Garrad , who bought the first customer car , have now won races in their Skylines .
As well as running a business and racing , Ric also puts something back into the sport and has sponsored the BARC ( NW ) Sports / Saloon Championship for about 12 years now . “ I try my best , and I still get out and race in it when I can . I have a few different race cars . Sometimes people say you can only race one car at a time . But if you could , most people would have as many toys as they could !”
The RS500 opposition Ranged against the Nissan Skylines in the DSCC are several very quick Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworths and when the season opened at Silverstone in May it was Paul Mensley who came closest to toppling the Skylines with a fighting second place in race two in his lockdown-built RS500 , which runs the livery of Murray Carter ’ s 1988 Bathurst 1000 car .
“ It ’ s coming and it ’ s getting faster and faster ,” said Mensley of the car built up from a rare motor sport
On home ground at the Oulton Park Gold Cup
The Wood / Morgan 3-litre Capri
bodyshell by Premier Motorsport in Bury St Edmonds . Silverstone was only the second race weekend for the immaculate car .
Sean Brown and Dave Coyne / Mark Wright both bagged two top six finishes , but completely out of luck was father and son Graeme and James Dodd . Their Kaliber-liveried car is the original Guy Edwards car from the 1989 BTCC and has spent the last 30 years in Australia and New Zealand . Sadly , it was put away after a single lap at Silverstone with oil issues .
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