The Classic Sale At Silverstone Festival 25th - 27th August 2023

The Classic Sale at Silverstone Festival 2023 Cars 62 Registration: TBA Chassis No.: TBC Estimate: £34,000 - £38,000 Specialist: Joseph Watts Telephone No: 07779 082707 Lot 335 1986 Renault 5 GT Turbo Coupé Historic Touring Car During the mid-1980s, the tenacious little Renault 5 GT Turbo was utilised for racing with great effect. In the 1990s, Renault specialists Prima Racing started racing in the Harlow race series for the cars that had previously competed in the Renault Cup Series. The latter was disbanded after a couple of years and ended up as BRSCCs SuperCup race series, with a variety of marques competing together. At this time, Prima Racing rented out their own car, so this example was bought from fellow Renault experts Mark Fish Motorsport. It was originally a Radbourne Racing Cup Car, being supplied by Renault in 1986, and badged Coupé (only the actual race cars were badged as such and were not road-registered). Prima Racing’s Tony Hart then competed in the car quite successfully, with several race wins and fastest laps. The car was then rented out to another driver for its last two seasons before, in 2004, Prima sold it to be used in sprinting/hillclimbing. It then changed hands again to another sprint racer before being acquired by Luke Wos (of WOSPerformance) who turned it back into a race car and used it for Future Classics 40-minute races, which were organised by his father. In 2015, in conversation with Luke, Tony bought the R5 back. Around this time, Tony was working with INRacing who specialise in historic cars, and he was subsequently drawn to the Legends series. He entered the car for the 2015 Portimão race in the October and the rest is history - winning the ‘Group A’ class at the first attempt! Over the winter, the car was upgraded to full ‘Group A’ specification and run in the MRL Historic Touring Car series until 2020, its last race at Silverstone, having notched up a class win at Donnington. The very capable car achieved several class wins in this series, as well as an Annual Class win. Tony shared the driving duties with Will Nuthall from INRacing, proving a very capable pairing in a well-sorted car. Further developed over its time in Legends, to where it is now, this plucky R5 it is now ready to go racing again. This fabulous car was previously offered by Silverstone Auctions back in February 2023, but unforeseen circumstances meant it wasn’t quite ready at the time of sale; I quote our vendor: ‘The engine is as good as you can get for a ‘Group A’-spec unit; I have had a problem with the cylinder block, recently discovering a hairline crack in it. This showed up after we had refitted the upgraded engine. So luckily, I have a spare block which has gone off for machining. I had taken the engine out originally to ‘top & tail’ it ready for racing season. At this time, I changed the camshaft to improve the spread of power and torque and have actually retarded its setting to do this. Hence, it needs to be re-mapped; I have also made it possible now to adjust the cam timing on the rolling road, which normally is impossible on a standard engine. We will be able to optimise the engine power/torque figures. I should have the block back in about 10 days time, and then it has to be put together and back in the car.’ This work has now all been completed; the engine is now fully refreshed with revised camshaft settings and a freshly machined cylinder block. It’s mapped for fuel mix 99/102 and giving 175bhp at low boost and 210bhp at high boost with great power/torque curves; recently tested at Donnington Park and is absolutely ready to go!. Specification summary can be viewed on our website A very well-respected and highly competitive ‘Touring Car’ owned and campaigned for 30 years by one of the best in the business, Prima Racing. More Details Lot 335 Bid On Lot 335