Firstly let me point out that all of the following information was given to me by the previous owner and I have not checked it for accuracy.
This car was supposedly built at a cost of £42K to compete in the Wilhire endurance championship in the late 80's.
The Willhire 24 Hour was an endurance race for production cars held at Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit in Norfolk, England between 1980 and 1994.Over the years, the race included both sports cars and saloon cars. Latterly, it was contested by competitors running in the FIA Group N specification National Saloon Car Cup. The race has throughout its history has been run by the British Racing & Sports Car Club (BRSCC), which was also responsible for the aforementioned series
The race was sponsored by Willhire Vehicles Rentals (now Anglian Willhire, part of Northgate PLC), a local car rental company, after its owner Roger Williams was approached to sponsor a motor racing event at the circuit. Roger talked about sponsoring a 6- or 24-hour event, initially as a joke, but the offer was accepted and the United Kingdom's first 24-hour race was founded. The 1989 event was 25 hours long to mark the 25th anniversary of the Willhire company.
The final event was held in 1994. Its experience in hosting an 24 hour race was proven to be beneficial when subsequently, Snetterton became a host of some British Touring Car Championship night races from 1999, but full 24-hour racing did not return until 2003, with the introduction of the Snetterton 24-Hour 2CV Race.However, national 24 hour endurance racing would not return until the introduction of the Britcar 24 Hours in 2005, taking place at Silverstone Circuit. The 2005 Britcar event is sometimes referred to as the Britcar Willhire 24 Hour Race
I believe that my car is the ex bleekemolen penthouse car which was driven by Giles Butterfield (ex F3 driver),Charles Challlenger,Charles Rickett and Peter Sneller during race 4 in the 1989 Willhire 25 hr motor race at snetterton for GB Motorsport(Silverstone). GB's name is on a plate attached to the top of the engine.
It has a full roll cage, fully adjustable suspension, side exhaust and the biggest petrol tanks you will ever see complete with quick fill, see pictures.
HP was either 280 or 340 dependant on which way you flicked the switch.
I have driven this car and it is very very quick! Not sure it has 280hp but it is plenty to be excited about....
It is an early left hand drive model, without sun roof and was converted to race spec directly from the factory, it has never been road registered.
The body is pretty much rust free, there are a few dings on it as you would expect from a race car but there is no major body damage.
The floor is arrow straight as are the front rails.
The bad bits.
It has had the suspension pushed back on the passenger side. The floor is not bent and neither is the chassis rails. The car drives straight, I have just never got around to really checking it over.
The Turbo is sitting in the back seat. The orginal turbo was knackered, sent it off to get it overhauled and to cut a long story very short I never got it back. The turbo with it has very little play in it and was bought from a Turbo fan who told me it was off a very low mileage Quadra.
There is also a full spares kit available by seperate negotiation. This isncludes 2 full sets of wheels, brake pads suspension components clutch disks plugs etc etc etc.
Car stands me in at £3K without the spares kit.
Drop me a mail and I will get back to you.
P.
