THE END OF AN ERA .....................

Well after 4 years of fun and games the Fezza has flown the nest and joined up with its new owner. All in all its a period of time I will look on with fondness ultimately she was a very reliable car with only 2 x dnf to her name. Even when there has been problems she always made it to the Chequered. I won my first race in her after swatting a Hornet and learnt a lot about Chassis dynamics. So long little fiesta its been a blast I think your new owner will take you to the next level where you need to be.

Ian

Hi Ian

Your new car has Hornet swotting capabilities as well, here it is passing the Mk3 at Shaws hairpin at Mallory.

...................the engine had let go exiting the Esses, which turned out to be a valve head embedded in the cylinder head plus a big hole in a piston

Once past the hairpin the smoke went, so I was then contemplating carrying on, but on turning through Devils Elbow, the smoke came back and I retired

Lol nice one Billy. The only thing I could think when looking at the picture was the bloody thing still sits high at the front.

Is that a big scoop on the bonnet of the mk3 ! Ive not seen that car before

The way the regs were at that time, you were basically stuck with either a Crossflow on twin 40's but limited choke size (fairly expensive), a CVH on the same twin 40's(slightly more power than a Crossflow if you were prepared to spend the money), or a Rover V8, but it had to retain the stock inlet manifold and twin SU's - hence the big bulge, which had a sticker on it saying "Goody 2 SU's"

The V8 was by far the cheapest option, so that's the way I went.

Billy, what year was this photo taken and that of my car?

Hi John

The edition of the mag was August/September 1997.

I probably have results sheets for the car as well from various years, if you would like copies.

I have scanned the rest of the article and will e-mail it to you.

I also have a photo at Lydden WITHOUT your car in it!!!!!!!!!!!! It was my first ever pole position, but I mistakenly changed from 2nd to fifth (instead of third) off the line and Mike (next to me on the front row) took the lead before I cut across and blocked the rest of the pack into Chessons.

Consequently, I have a photo of me leading the pack into Devils Elbow but Mike is in the lead and out of shot.

Yes please Billy, what ever info you have would be great.

Hi John

Next time I'm up in the loft I will dig out the results sheets out, scan them then e-mail them to you.

I also want to get hold of the "Men Only" magazine with the kit car racing article in it. That should have some gen on your car in it as well, as it concentrated on the types of car used in kit car racing, rather than it being a race report.

I imagine it would have been published around the same time IE May to August 1997. I only have access to the internet at work at the moment, so searching for back issues of Men Only might raise a few eye-brows! Would you be able to search for it? There are places that sell back-issues but they may find it a bit strange if you say your only after the edition with kit car racing in rather than for the female content!