Quick Off the Pace – Kick Into Race Retro 2023

Race Retro 2023 finally returned to our calendars this year! The weekend of February 25 and 26 saw over 20,000 people arrive at the picturesque Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire for the season-opening event for live-action rally sports. The main draw is the promise of 130 rally cars, spanning a 60-year span of Group B, Classics and Club Sport cars.

The event also featured two rooms jam-packed with stands, exhibitors, and an autojumble in addition to a celebration of motorsports legends and an auction that produced some intriguing results.

After a three-year hiatus, it allowed the Reis-sponsored event to refocus and develop on Race Retro’s distinctive positioning as the UK’s principal event to watch historic and contemporary rally vehicles pound the stages at speed.

There was also an opportunity to ask questions to a number of well-known competitors and motorsports luminaries and hear about their experiences on the Reis Live Stage in Hall 2. British Touring Car Championship legend Jason Plato and former FIA Ladies World Rally Champion Louise Aitken-Walker MBE were joined by two-time British Rally Champion Dai Llewellin and his son Tom, a former Welsh National Rally Junior Champion and British Junior Rallycross Champion.

A selection of the cars spotted on the REIS Pride of Paddock stand proved to be a popular draw, allowing visitors to vote for their favourite car on the stand. All of the finalists were worthy of commendation, but as they say, there can only be one winner and Richard Barber took the honours with his beautifully prepared Ford Anglia.

However, we were rather intrigued by Adam Kent-Smith’s Austin Minor pick-up. There’s over 10 years’ worth of effort put into this car, which included an original new old stock chassis as part of its extensive restoration. Furthermore, the 1971 Austin badged Morris, is powered by a heavily modified Road/Race BDA-styled Zetec engine. Adam put it perfectly himself, ‘The engine is the heart, but the Minor is its soul’.

Just on the other side of the Pride of Paddock stand was one of the best-known GT40’s in the UK. This 1967 Ford GT40 is a former Ford UK press car that was used on road tests. Its first owner was the current JCB chairman, Anthony Bamford and has subsequently passed through several private ownership and now appears at numerous classic racing events.

Another stand that never disappoints is the Classic Touring Car Racing Club, the Oxford-based club known as the home of Classic Saloon Car Racing in the UK. Richard Wheeler’s ex-David Leslie Nissan Primera GT, winner of the 2022 Super Tourers Series. Leslie achieved five victories and 18 podiums for Nissan in the late 90s.

Historic Formula One was represented by new attendees HP Tyres, who were loaned Hall & Hall’s ex-Ronnie Peterson and Jack Ickx 1974 Lotus 76 F1. HP Tyres are Goodyear Racing’s appointed provider of the UK’s premier national championship race tyres, servicing all rounds of the BTCC calendar, but also supplying tyres for historic racers.

Silverstone Auctions held its first auction of the year at Race Retro, and the array of cars was naturally oriented towards a selection of competition cars. Two of Colin McRae’s former cars were up for grabs at the auction, with several other 80s-themed cars that were worthy of further inspection. An ex-Mitsubishi Works Starion as campaigned by the late Colin Blower was up for grabs as was a 1986 Renault GT Turbo in full racing gear.

The big news was the record-breaking winning bid of a Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 for £596,250. Yet this was just one of six new world records set over the weekend. This 1987 car is one of the 5,545 converted by Aston Martin to compete on both the rally stages and the touring car circuit. The previous owner had spent a considerable amount of time looking for the right car to add to his collection and came across this example with a nominal mileage, which currently reads at just 5,192. Fastidiously maintained, right down to original orange oil filters and wearing its original dates stamp tyres, this car has to be considered one of the best original examples known.

One of the many impressive sights at the auction was the array of seven Piddington Collection S3 and S4 Lotus Elans, headed by this charming S3 Drophead as gifted to Diana Rigg who played Emma Peel in 51 episodes of the long-running British TV series ‘The Avengers’. Selling for an impressive £164,250, all seven examples were collected by enthusiast and former Cosworth engineer Deryck Norville. Each model had some type of historical lineage, either because of its illustrious owners or a connection to motor racing.

To wrap up our auction watch for the event, we had to mention this stunning and ultra-rare 1967 Ghia 450SS Spyder. One of 57 built, the Giorgetto Giugiaro-styled car has a typically convoluted development, with involvement from Vignale, Ghia as well as Chrysler. These cars, which are strictly Grand Tourers intended for the long, smooth highways of the United States, have escaped the attention of collectors, possibly due to the persistent and false rumour that they are nothing more than a Chrysler Barracuda with a different body.

As well as the usual motorsports-oriented traders, stalls and specialists that were present to help add to the atmosphere of the event, there is always something to cater for the young and the young at heart. It is Weevils Slot Cars’ first year as a trader at Race Retro, and as his company name suggests, is a specialist in buying and selling Scalextric slot cars. He set up a table with the track just in case anyone fancied a go.

Diecast models are big business these days, with premium models being a sure-fire way to deplete your hard-earned pennies, but there is a flip side to this as a potential investment. Your reviewer, much like Car & Classic’s Editor Chris Polllit, has an obsession with collecting model cars. Keith’s Cars of Derby’s amazing selection of MCG Fords was very tempting.

The Autojumble was moved outside for this year’s event and mercifully the weather stayed dry. There were several stands selling a variety of car parts in a modestly sized enclave to root around in. After scanning the tables, we paused and observed the owner of The Jean Shack give his obedient and loyal dog some welcome attention.

The event wasn’t just limited to spectating. There are several opportunities to make the most of what Race Retro offered if you fancied being a passenger in a rally car, then you might have wanted to head over to Stage 2 and treat yourself for a passenger ride. There was also a chance to book a HERO-ERA Arrive & Drive session for a spin around Stoneleigh Park as well as the additional opportunity of joining the Retro Classic Tour – a 100 mile scenic journey towards Oxford as part of a fleet of classics.

The offerings on the stalls and stands might have been enough to distract but the promise of live rally car action was far too great to resist, and this is where we spent most of our time over the weekend. Starting at 10 am, just after the kart racing opened the day’s proceedings, we make our way over to the specially prepared rally stages. The cars are split into 5 distinct groups.

Group 1 consisted of a mix of up-to-date rally cars, with a selection of high-performance cars that would undoubtedly feel the burden of restraint if classified into slower groups. Group 2 appears to be mostly entry-level modern-retro rally cars, consisting mainly of hot hatches. Group 3 are the famed Group B and historic rally cars. Group 4 consist of mainly 1970s and 1980’s RWD cars – basically Escorts and Sunbeams. The final Group houses a mix of classic cars, with a handful of younger and potential up-and-coming drivers in modern superminis. Each car has a run of three laps, with the group sessions being repeated after lunch.

David Paveley in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III alongside Steve Chamberlain in his Eno IV await instructions to take to the stages. Mitsubishi have a long and successful history of rally sport, and there were seven cars that were listed to compete this weekend. Rally-prepared Lancers were built by Ralliart, Mitsubishi Motors’ sports division. Set up by Andrew Cowan in 1984, it eventually evolved into Mitsubishi Ralliart Europe.

Louise Aitken Walker was in attendance at the event, with her Vauxhall Astra. Louise has competed in 22 rallies over her 12-year rally competition history and moved on to touring cars before retiring in 1993. She has sporadically raced in historic car events since then, including the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally in 2008. She completed several laps early on Saturday morning, just before she conducted an interview about her experiences as a competitive driver.

By some margin, the Subaru-engined Skodas were among the most recent cars seen at Race Retro 2023 and thanks to their phenomenal acceleration and braking power, proved to be immensely popular with the crowd. This is Arron Newby’s car, who also raced alongside his father Stuart in a similarly prepared ‘Skodaru’. Stuart Newby runs TEG Sport and has been developing the Fabia R5 bodyshell with Subaru engines and transmissions with positive results.

Bumps, scrapes and mechanical failures are all part of the Race Retro 2023 experience. Thankfully there were no serious incidents but those sharp turns and uneven surfaces proved to claim a number of casualties over the weekend. Simon Verstraeten in his 1981 Talbot Sunbeam managed to power through on Saturday after a slight altercation with a hay bale.

One very notable aspect that was absent this year was the loss of the cowsheds to house the cars. Deprived of cover for the overnight stays, the weather was mercifully calm with nothing much more than a variable wind chill. Mick Smith’s team and his Hillman Imp came fully prepared with an awning.

The Volvo 200 series has a credible record in motorsports, with the car best known for its endeavours as a circuit touring car, but Ian Houston decided to convert his daily driver into a rally car. It was the car’s first competitive appearance at Race Retro 2023 and its antics on the stages were a genuine spectacle.

Another rally car with a hidden pedigree was Pablo Raybould’s MG Maestro 2.0 EFI. A former Tony Pond car, the MG Maestro was competitive in the 80s and early 90s and this very example was contested every year during the heyday of the MG Maestro Challenge. It was laid up in storage for several years before it was recommissioned and has been actively competing for the last 5 years.

The Maestro’s little sibling, the MG Metro 6R4 was driven over the weekend by David Higgs and was one of two 6R4’s racing over the weekend. Although being a victim of the Group B ban, the MG Metro 6R4 was nevertheless able to continue its competitive history because the remaining unsold cars had less than 300 bhp. So while its WRC credentials were cut short, its appearance and success in club sports, hill climbs, circuit racing and even drag racing allowed the car to remain in the public eye.

Another BL product that is as much part of the Race Retro story is Bron Burrell and Tina Kerridge Austin Maxi, affectionately known as Puff the magic dragon. Their car was one of several late 60’s BL machinery seen over the weekend. Bron even managed a smile as she piloted the 54-year-old car around the stages. Originally developed for the London to Mexico Rally in 1970, it proved that there was genuine potential in the Maxi as a long-distance rally car.

Another car forever connected with the London to Mexico rally is the ubiquitous and entertaining Ford Escort. Throughout its 14-year production reign, the RWD Escort was simply the best option for those who wanted to get ahead in rally sport. Richard Boyall’s 1971 Mk1 was one of 17 Mk1 and Mk2 Escorts listed for the event.

A novelty at this year’s event was Steve Magson MK1 Vauxhall Astra. Originally built as a one-off prototype rally car, it has a Jaguar HU differential mated up to power the rear wheels via a 2.0-litre Vauxhall redtop engine. Steve has brought the car over from Ireland and is no stranger to the Race Retro 2023 event, having previously competed in his Mercedes Benz 190 Cosworth.

Several Group B legends were also in attendance, David Halfords Audi Quattro S1 E2 is just one of 20 built, with just four of those in the hands of private competitors. This obviously makes this car extremely valuable, but as ever it’s satisfying to watch the driver not hold back on the stages. But despite several good runs, David had to admit defeat after a setback to a broken track rod which in the end put an end to the car’s outing. Hopefully, we’ll see both David and the car back next year.

Just as iconic as a representative of what is often referred to as the last golden age of rallying is James Avis’s Ford RS200. One of the better-known RS200s currently in regular demonstration use, James has several other modern rally cars in his stable but admits the authentic electronic-free driving experience of the RS200 is always the pick of his choice.

A return to form for the Race Retro team, which under the circumstances and obstacles over the last three years is quite an achievement. The break in the annual event has allowed organisers to reset and evaluate the potential of the event resulting in improved spectator areas and driver facilities within the accommodating set-up of Stoneleigh park.

A handful of teething issues – which included the lengthy periods of time to recover broken down vehicles, as well as the need to ensure that the circuit is set up for safety without compromising the enjoyment for drivers and spectators is not an easy task to fulfil, but the positive safety record of the event over the years speaks for itself. As ever the dedication of the Marshall’s and the Event planners cannot be overestimated. There are not many UK events that host such a variety of rally car riches, and the opportunity to watch a wide variety of rally cars being driven in the wild makes it one of the most exciting historic motorsports shows in the UK.