Castle Combe Special GTs
"Skoda" - Rover V8
The Cars
Alistair Fenwick
Possibly the most successful and familiar car in the series.
The Skoda look-alike shell covered a Tiga Sports 2000 chassis, with a 4.5 litre Rover V8 in the back. It was a real weapon in the hands of several drivers over the years. It apparently srated life n 1986 as a successful hillclimb car for Mike Kerr before Fenwick aquired it in 1989 and was always on the pace.
Tower Corner, May 1989
Quarry Corner, March 1989
George Douglas
The boss of sometime-series sponsors MOBILE WINDSCREENS moved up from his regular, antiquated Ginetta, to the Skoda in 1990 and was, if anything even more competitive than the car's previous owner, battling the massed ranks of MG 6R4s and Nigel Mustill's implausibly fast Escort Mk1-RS500 to take the series title that year.
Right - Camp Corner, May 1990
Phil Lomas
Taking over the car from Douglas, MOBILE WINDSCREENS' MD , and former Maguire Imp ace, Phil Lomas, won the series in 1992 breaking Nigel James lap record in the process. He continued to be the driver to beat in 1993, winning 6 races in the Skoda before it was sold to Erling Jensen (who had previously run his old Imp with great success)
Farm Straight May 30 1993, leading Nigel James Ultima and John Pugsley's Tiga
May 1992
Erling Jensen
Erling Jensen traded up from the ex Lomas Imp late in 1993 and looked set to continue the car's run of success with 3rd first time out in October and 2nd in the opening round in 1994. But ,after a retirement in the next race, he suffered a huge testing 170mph accident which caused extensive damage to both car and driver - and moved the stout marshall's post on the inside of Camp by a foot!
The car was rebuilt and re-bodied as a Lotus Esprit, but was entered as "Tiga-Xonit" sadly a wheel failed on the first lap of it's comeback race in March 1996 and a hefty rearward impact into the bank at Camp left the driver with a damaged neck and the car a write-off.
Jensen's debut in the Skoda, September 1993
XONIT-TIGA
Erling lines up in the assembly area prior to the car's one and only race lap in this form. The wreck is said to have been restored back into a C2 Tiga in the early 2000s. Which makes one wonder if the original Sport 2000 chassis was replaced by a C2 tub in the wake of the first big accident?
March 1996. Erling stands far left in red and white race suit