It was hard to tell how close to ‘production’ 1960s saloon racers really were. Works cars were easily tweaked, private entrants tricked the regulations, the FIA drew up Appendix J Group 2, but it still looked suspicious. Manufacturers had to list options for homologation but that still led to recriminations over what was truly ‘standard’.
Richard B Bensted-Smith had a bright idea. The Motor, of which he was editor, would sponsor a six-hours’ saloon car race at Brands Hatch and then road-test the winners. Earnest, an early champion of consumerism, RBB-S wrote entertainingly about international rallies he’d done with John Sprinzel in Austin-Healey Sprites. He wanted to reassure readers over the probity of ‘same-as-you-can-buy’ saloon racers and expose cheats.
Production car races as curtain-raisers for the BRDC May Silverstone meeting or a Grand Prix were popular, and racing Minis and Jaguars always looked much the same as those you saw in the office car park. But rascally ‘silhouette’ formulae in America strapped replica bodywork on to outright racing cars and we didn’t want any of that here… A six-hour race, RBB-S thought, would weed out freaks. Nick Syrett of the BRSCC, charged with running it, wasn’t convinced. reported that he cast a doleful eye over empty spectator car parks, and told a drivers’
