Fast Lap Of Oulton Park In Frank Gardners Camaro

[Steve Holmes]

I was just talking to Myles (thunder427) about this car, so thought I'd post this short but enjoyable piece of footage of Frank Gardner doing what he did best in the '70 SCA Freight big block Camaro. By the way, what happened to this car? Does it still exist? The 1974 John Player Special Motorsport Annual stated this was the fastest touring car in the world at the time. Bold call making a statement like that, but was there anything anywhere that could have beaten it?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5EgZYIB2qk

[faminz]

I had an old pic of that car I might draw one day, certainly a fav of mine..

[Steve Holmes]

The Camaro was raced by SCA Freight (owned by Adrian Chambers) in the ETCC in 1974, after Britain dropped Group 2 (outlawing the Camaro) in favour of the production based Group 1. Chambers had both Gardner and his Aussie rival Brian Muir, who had been Gardners main competition the last few seasons, to drive the Camaro, but they didn't fare at all well, retiring from every round in the '74 ETCC.

After that the Camaro was sold, and Gardner moved back to Australia. Looking through Frank de Jongs excellent website: http://www.touringcarracing.net/ there appears to be a very similar looking Camaro raced in 1975 and '76 by Stuart Graham, then following that by Reine Wisell, of Sweden, though the big block looks to have been removed when the car was sold by Chambers.

Where is it now? I'll post this on the Lost Race Cars thread also.

[beowulf]

There is a wonderful DVD of Frank giving one of his classic discourses at a dinner during a race meeting put on in Frank's honour in Sept. 1999. Luckly Marc Schagen videoed it and copies of it is now available from him. Not a professional production but quite adequate and very good. Frank had a wonderful dry Australian sense of humour and it comes through brilliantly in this video. It is available through
mschagen@bigpond.net.au around NZ$40. Well worth it. A disclaimer, I do not know Mr Schagen and I am not selling his product. On his card it states that he is a Lotus historian and a collector of Lotus memorabilia.
Frank died in August 2009, a character and a surviver of a period when a lot of the drivers did not.

[Steve Holmes]

I found out recently from the Autosport forum that this car still exists, and is due to be restored. Not sure where the engine ended up though.