Post by charleselan on Mar 26, 2021 13:03:17 GMT
Last evening I came across this truly excellent film of the 1986 European Touring Car Championship which featured the complete season of racing. This has a very special place in my heart as I covered quite a few races that year including a memorable trip to Spa for the legendary 24 Hours Endurance event in which my friend and I had access to the TWR Rover pits.
The racing that year was probably some of the very best seen in any series at any time in history with Rover; Volvo; BMW and Ford having full factory entries as well as the truly inspirational entry of the Holden Commodore's of the great Peter Brock and very talented Alan Grice. In this film there is a plethora of driving talent with some of the great touring car drivers of the period and also the amazing comeback of a 50 year old Dennis Hulme and then on the opposite end a young and ebullient Gerhard Berger.
The race at Spa was run in very hot weather conditions and was extremely hard on the cars. As the TWR Rovers were very special to me we were hoping for a victory and they dominated most of the race only to be let down by back axle failures, and the ever successful BMW Csi's won yet again. Other than this the most outstanding bit of this film is the race at the truly fearsome and legendary Brno road course, the last big international event ever held ion that venue. I have not seen much film of this before and it is astonishing and well worth watching this film for that alone. There is a brilliant little clip of the brilliant Mike Thackwell being interviewed as he made a guest appearance for the Eggenberger Ford team at this race. Typically Mike just loved this circuit and it just proved that the boy was really born out of the wrong era.
In other interviews throughout the film Tom Walkinshaw comes out with some brilliant quips that are right up there with the very best in motor racing.
For me the only negative about the film is the voice over from the ever oily Neville Hay, someone whose vocal tones echoed around race circuits throughout my time on British race circuits. Shame he didn't let the Aussie guy do the complete thing as he is very good.
The racing that year was probably some of the very best seen in any series at any time in history with Rover; Volvo; BMW and Ford having full factory entries as well as the truly inspirational entry of the Holden Commodore's of the great Peter Brock and very talented Alan Grice. In this film there is a plethora of driving talent with some of the great touring car drivers of the period and also the amazing comeback of a 50 year old Dennis Hulme and then on the opposite end a young and ebullient Gerhard Berger.
The race at Spa was run in very hot weather conditions and was extremely hard on the cars. As the TWR Rovers were very special to me we were hoping for a victory and they dominated most of the race only to be let down by back axle failures, and the ever successful BMW Csi's won yet again. Other than this the most outstanding bit of this film is the race at the truly fearsome and legendary Brno road course, the last big international event ever held ion that venue. I have not seen much film of this before and it is astonishing and well worth watching this film for that alone. There is a brilliant little clip of the brilliant Mike Thackwell being interviewed as he made a guest appearance for the Eggenberger Ford team at this race. Typically Mike just loved this circuit and it just proved that the boy was really born out of the wrong era.
In other interviews throughout the film Tom Walkinshaw comes out with some brilliant quips that are right up there with the very best in motor racing.
For me the only negative about the film is the voice over from the ever oily Neville Hay, someone whose vocal tones echoed around race circuits throughout my time on British race circuits. Shame he didn't let the Aussie guy do the complete thing as he is very good.
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