{"id":48032,"date":"2017-05-25T13:15:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T12:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/?p=48032"},"modified":"2024-09-25T13:02:56","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:02:56","slug":"rover-sd1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/cars\/rover-sd1\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMr Rover SD1\u201d brings touring car legend back to life"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was to be a lump in Ken Clarke\u2019s throat when he positioned this car onto the grid at Brands Hatch<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because this wasn\u2019t any old race-car. And for Clarke, this wasn\u2019t any old race. We caught up with him in 2017 just before that race.<\/strong><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the emotional culmination of a 34-year motorsport odyssey for man and machine – a now 65-year-old master mechanic and the near-mythical Rover SD1 Vitesse he first built in 1983.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the lights go green in the Historic Touring Car Challenge, it will represent a lifelong dream for the man dubbed \u201cMr Rover SD1\u201d – to race the champion car piloted by Steve Soper and controversially disqualified from the \u201883 British Saloon Car championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rover<\/a><\/figure>\n

Clarke had been plucked from amateur motorsport by Tom Walkinshaw Racing and charged with building car TWR 002 in little more than six weeks ready for the touring car series\u2019 first season of Group A racing.<\/span><\/p>\n

He, the car and Soper proved their mettle, winning the title as Rovers dominated the championship, only to have the crown snatched from them months later following protests over regulation breaches from rival Frank Sytner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, after a four-year battle to buy the car from a barn in Holland, then a six-year rebuild, Clarke will finally line up in a car that means more to him than any other.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ken<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very special car to me,\u201d says Clarke, who now runs his own <\/span>motorsport business<\/span><\/a> preparing cars for historic racing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought long and hard about whether to race it. But it\u2019s racing I want to do – I always have done, and if I don\u2019t do it now I never will.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m nervous to put it mildly, because not only is it my car, and my pension, it\u2019s also my business. I can\u2019t afford it to break but I also need it to do well. But if it doesn\u2019t, it\u2019s me, not the car!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Apart from the brake pads and tyres, the Rover will line up with exactly the same specification and Hepolite livery as 1983, the year Ken Clarke\u2019s life changed forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ken<\/figure>\n

Until then, he had been working as a mechanic at Bill Postins\u2019 performance car garage, helping to build Postins\u2019 mark 2 Ford Escort for the Debenhams Escort Challenge and, later, a series of racing Sciroccos.<\/span><\/p>\n

But all that was about to change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Boxing Day and I\u2019d got a week off so I was sitting at home reading Autosport and saw they (TWR) were advertising for a mechanic,\u201d he remembers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI got an interview, got the job and started at the end of January. Suddenly I had got to the big time in touring cars from being an amateur race mechanic doing it for beer money. I\u2019d arrived at TWR which, at the time, was the top team in the country to run in touring cars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn my first day I went to Cowley and picked up the shell. Then the car went to Gartrac to have a cage fitted, we got it painted and I built the car myself. I had to teach myself ally (aluminium) welding. I had to learn very, very quickly. What I wanted to do was not look stupid – I was working with and against people who had done it for a number of years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If learning on the job wasn\u2019t pressure enough, Clarke was in a race against time to get the car ready for the first race at Silverstone on March 20.<\/span><\/p>\n

Steve Soper was to be the man at the wheel, fresh from piloting a Metro to second in class behind Richard Longman in the \u201882 championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"British
Soper in action in 1983<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI built the car from scratch in four weeks,\u201d says Clarke, who was 31 at the time. \u201cWe tested it before the first race and it went well. It was the first year of Group A, everything was new so we had no parameters, no figures – we didn\u2019t know how fast you had to be. It was a totally blank canvas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As it turned out, they were plenty fast enough – Soper powering the 3.5-litre Rover over the line in first place in race one.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was over the moon. Steve won five races that year and was declared champion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pete Lovett, with four wins, and Jeff Allam, with two, had completed a TWR Rover clean sweep of all 11 races.<\/span><\/p>\n

But major controversy was just around the corner, with rival BMW driver Frank Sytner, who had split with TWR the year before, lodging a protest about alleged regulation breaches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Walkinshaw lodged a counter-protest, ensuring the ultimate destination of the championship would not be decided for more than six months after the last race.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rover<\/figure>\n

The legal wrangling reached a conclusion when Sytner\u2019s protest was heard by veteran legal counsel Lord Hartley Shawcross, after which the RAC disqualified all the Rover SD1s, handing the title to Andy Rouse in an Alfa GTV6.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time we knew we had not won we were already well into the \u201884 season,\u201d says Clarke.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Austin Rover were having none of what they saw as inconsistent scrutineering, pulling out of the championship to concentrate on competing in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Clarke remembers it, Soper\u2019s car was not protested at all in 1983.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe team agreed that all the cars were built to the same specification. They found that one was illegal so they were all disqualified,\u201d he says, also taking aim at those in charge of inspecting the cars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe scrutineers came along and took the engine to pieces. The Rover had adjustable valve rockers,<\/span> so they were welded up. They said \u2018why have you welded up the rockers? You don\u2019t need to do that\u2019. From then on we didn\u2019t weld them up, so they were adjustable rockers, and they then said you can\u2019t have adjustable rockers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRover pulled out because of the inconsistency of scrutineering.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just Soper, Rover and TWR who lost out that year – Clarke was stripped of his Mechanic of the Year title before he\u2019d even received it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBritool, who were involved in the championship in a minor way, phoned up and wanted to speak to the mechanic. They said \u2018congratulations you\u2019ve been awarded mechanic of the year and we want to take you to our dinner in London and give you \u00a31,000\u2019 – then they phoned up three months later and said you\u2019re not having it!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a temporary setback for Clarke, however, who was made chief engineer on the Rovers, focusing on the European series.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rover<\/figure>\n

Car TWR 002, the fallen champion, was never raced again, spending 1984 on stands in the team\u2019s workshop before new Rover sponsors Bastos requested two show cars – the Hepolite car and its sister, the Marlboro-sponsored TWR 001.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCar 001 was shown at the British rounds of the European touring car series before going on display at the heritage museum at Gaydon<\/span> at the end of its life, while mine was repainted in Bastos colours and shipped off to be an Austin Rover show car attending race meetings across Europe at Spa, Nurburgring etc. I didn\u2019t see it again after that,\u201d says Clarke, whose workshop in Burbage, Leicestershire, itself resembles an SD1 museum.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was, until 2007, more than 20 years after it left England.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI got a phone call from a guy in Holland who said \u2018my friend has got a Bastos Rover and doesn\u2019t know what it is – if I put him in touch can you talk to him and tell him what it is?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rover
The car as Ken found it in Holland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m regarded as Mr Rover SD1, which is why the guy came to me. I spoke to him and said \u2018you haven\u2019t got a Bastos Rover\u2019. He said \u2018how do you know I haven\u2019t?\u2019 They only built five Bastos cars and I know where they all are. He said \u2018well, I\u2019ve got a Rover in racing colours\u2026\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe sent me some pictures. I told him \u2018it looks like a Bastos racing Rover, but it isn\u2019t\u2019. From little bits and pieces in the photographs he\u2019d sent I knew it was one of two cars – and from little niceties I put on mine that weren\u2019t on the others, I could tell it was mine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had made a plate for the dash that had TWR 002 inscribed on it – plus little bits on the front and rear of the car. But I didn\u2019t want to give too much away.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dash<\/figure>\n

\u201cI said \u2018do you want to sell it?\u2019 He said it wasn\u2019t for sale and I left it at that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Only, Clarke didn\u2019t leave it at that, speaking to the owner each year from 2008 to 2010 and receiving the same answer each time: not for sale.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, in 2011, he said \u2018it is for sale and it\u2019s not for sale – make me an offer and if I don\u2019t like your offer don\u2019t contact me again\u2019,\u201d says Clarke.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a shell. How much do you offer somebody for a shell? A complete car had just changed hands for \u00a360,000, but I worked out it would cost \u00a367,000 to totally rebuild the car with engine, suspension etc. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou could not buy a rear axle, a bottom suspension arm etc – so you\u2019d have to find or make them. I had another Rover in my workshop so I could copy bits off it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A price was agreed, and Clarke \u201crushed over and brought it home\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lump in my throat when I saw the chassis plate and TWR 002 on the dash. It had been 25 years previously when I was a mere boy I\u2019d last seen it. It\u2019s a very special car to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe only time I ever drove this car was at Oulton Park, second race of the year in 1983. The Rovers finished 1, 2, 3 and parked on the grid. The three mechanics got in the cars and drove round the circuit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The car was painted back to its original Hepolite colours in 2012, but the full rebuild had to wait while business projects took precedence and until sufficient funds became available.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Hepalite<\/figure>\n

One of those projects was the car\u2019s sister, TWR 001, bought by Richard Postins at the end of 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe two show cars were back together,\u201d says Clarke. \u201cI built Richard\u2019s in 2013 and then got round to mine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI committed to having all the bits made. I was looking after three other Rovers so I took them to pieces and had all the bits copied. Mine never got damaged, never got bent, so I knew it was all straight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I\u2019d built Richard\u2019s we went to Mallory Park for testing. I told him to drive it slowly, but within five laps he was going for times. I said \u2018I\u2019ve had all the uprights re-cast – I don\u2019t know how good they are, they might break\u2019. His attitude was \u2018well, they\u2019re either going to break now or in the race, so let\u2019s test them\u2019. He raced it at Donington and it finished second.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Engine<\/figure>\n

Clarke was rather more circumspect when testing his own car this week, but reported that it \u201cwent well\u201d ahead of its first racing weekend for 34 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a moment the man who symbolises racing Rovers more than any other has waited half a lifetime to experience – and as good a reason as any to keep working.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 65 now but I can\u2019t think of retiring. My pension is my Hepolite Rover and my collection of cars. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are my pension but to make them work for me I\u2019d need to sell them, which defeats the object. I want to enjoy them, so I need to carry on working.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI sometimes think \u2018why am I doing this?\u2019 when I\u2019m up at 2am before Goodwood and something goes wrong, but I couldn\u2019t go and service Mrs Smith\u2019s Ford Fiesta.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPetrol was in my veins when I was born and I was <\/i><\/strong>going to be a racing driver. I\u2019ve been racing Dollies (Triumph Dolomites) for 30 years, but now it\u2019s finally time for the SD1 – the first proper touring car and the best Rover ever built.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t