I watched this whole race, including the qualifying, as a 15 year old, one of the few motor races I have ever watched, fell in love, now own a BRG V12 XJS with 5 speed manual as a result, not quite TWR or Tom behind the wheel, but this video is a great memory thanks for posting.
My manager at work used to work for Tom @ TWR in the 90's up until they closed. Lots of fascinating stories about Tom - such an interesting character he was. His outfit really was state of the art, a lot of it ahead of its time in fact.
I attended this race with a number of friends and we had a spot right on the fence between McPhillamy Park & Skyline. The race settled into a pattern early with the two lead Jags simply strolling away with the lead and doing it easily. They were a good 3-4 seconds a lap faster than anything else out there. It actually became pretty quiet after lunch, if not boring -- No 8 was about a lap and a half ahead until *that moment* when No 8 with Walkinshaw at the helm came around into McPhillamy slower than usual and with a massive cloud of oil smoke billowing from its tail. The crowd erupted with jeering and then about 20 seconds later P Brock rounded McPhillamy on two wheels giving it 100% and the crowd went absolutely nuts! It wasn't to be for Brocky but he gave those last 40-odd laps absolutely everything (no front or rear windscreen) and did everything he could to catch John Goss in the No 10 Jag until the timing chain on his Commodore gave out a couple of laps from the end.
I’ve been around that track and I can tell you this video does not convey a fraction of what it feels like to crest skyline and descend the mountain. And to do it in a V12 Jaaag, well, legendary stuff !
The ‘80s was a glorious time to have an operation like TWR just starting to peak. The radio playing in the car was hilarious. At first I thought I had another app open playing something.
He was a gentleman, also Win, for an appreciation wave to other drivers when they let them through in the spirit of the sport. Jag drivers are not snobs, well most anyway LOL
It was such an excellent racing culture down under in the 80s. In Europe we were just getting into the 'give someone a nudge to get past' culture which was the complete opposite. Made it extremely expensive for privateers to enter races as they were constantly paying for panelwork after races. Not very gentlemanly at all!
In qualifying, Walkinshaw was clocked at 272 km/h (169 mph) on Conrod Straight. During the race, the fastest Jag on the straight was John Goss at 263.8 km/h (163.9 mph). And that was still considerably faster than any one else except Walkinshaw and Percy. Even during qualifying, the Volvo 240T was hitting just under 260, the Mustang's, Commodore's and BMW's were topping out at around 250-255, the local Rovers at around 245 and the best of the Mitsubishi Starion turbos and Alfa GTV6's were hitting around 240. Not surprising really given that the Jags had around 450 bhp with the next best being the Volvo turbo at about 340.
I don't think TW was universally liked, but he knew how to build race cars and run a team! Those Jags were definitely fast, but what's amazing is how quick they were in the corners. IIRC they were always hampered in the ETC by suspension failures?
1985 was Neil Crompton's Bathurst debut for 7 Sport as both a race commentator & a pit reporter, replacing Evan Green, who left Channel 7 in Sydney after 20 years as their Bathurst 1000 motor racing compere & commentator & pit reporter two years earlier, in 1983.
Quite a character super scot Tom W, seems like a pretty decent sort of guy. Tom is getting a bit impatient ( 42min ). typical racing driver. Armin Hahne very good racing driver fast reliable.
Great footage. Thank you. There was rumoured to be footage of the rear wheels airborne down Conrod when the camera was mounted behind the rear wheel. But haven’t been able to find it…..are u aware of it or have it? Cheers. Thanks
Man Ozzy touring car racing was fantastic in the 80s (and before!). You don't happen to have any footage of the Rover Vitesses during 1984 do you? They won the Group A class comfortably (a little too comfortably to get any coverage it seems!).
Also an expert whinger and quite dopey at times. My favorite moment of his was when he protested all the Australian Sierras after qualifying and a big song and dance from him. Those protests were thrown out but after inspection his own cars were deemed illegal.
I've always wondered. Tom Walkinshaw Racing was based in Kiddlington, as seen here. But the Arrows Formula One Team that Tom Walkinshaw would buy in 1997 was based (according to Wikipedia) in Leafield which is only 29 minutes from Kiddlington so I wonder if Kiddlington also includes the neighbouring villages? In that case maybe the base you see here is the same base that would in future house the Arrows Grand Prix Team. Later the Caterham F1 and Super Aguri team. Both of which went bust and then left the headquarters to rot into the ground. So is there any connection?
Hi Zane, sorry for the somewhat late reply but I've only just noticed this. I actually live in Leafield, ( even though I sign off as Oxford UK). The Arrows Formula 1 team was based in a now abandoned set of buildings about 1 kilometer outside of Leafield itself. Kidlington on the other hand is a suburb of Oxford, though geographically separate, and is about 10 miles in the other direction from Leafield. It's at least a 30-40 minute drive between the two places. Hope this helps, if you even remember writing your comment 2 years ago. Kind regards Paul
