Group A - International Touring Car Formula

[Steve Holmes]

I see Mark Petch has just purchased this car. This is not the Belgian GTM car he owned in 1985 that won the Wellington Street Race, but rather the second car that came on board in 1986 as part of the Volvo Dealer Team, and driven by John Bowe.

His Facebook posting reads:

"After a lot of investigation and negotiation I am very pleased to have been able to purchase John Bowe's GpA, Australian Touring Car Championship Volvo 240T that has been the subject matter on my timeline below.


"The car has an incredible history and is not the only surviving RAS Factory Volvo team car, but also the very last Volvo Factory "Works" GpA 240T car built. The car was assembled in Australia by the Australian Volvo Dealer Team, by key team mechanic Geoff Grech [who went on to become the Team manager at HRT] and a young fabricator, name unknown, who fabricated the first Chrome Moly roll cage ever run in a Volvo Works car in place of the Factory cars previously used Aluminium tube bolted together roll-cage.


"The car was finished only the day before the 1986 Sandown 500 Endurance race, were it DNF'd as it also did a month later at Bathurst when John was running in second place. All three AVDT cars including my own car that helped Robbie Francevic to the ATC Championship win in 1986 were returned to Sweden, when Volvo pulled out of GpA racing, In privateers hand's the car was immediately successful and dominate the 1987 Swedish Touring Car Championship driven by Peggen Andersson.


"The car went on to compete in many other races by various other drivers, including Sweden's famed Ulf Granberg. The car was purchased by Knud Knud E. Sørensen a Danish driver, who had just started to race, and against the later crop of cars such as the Ford Cosworth RS 500's it proved less than competitive. It was sold to another Danish aspiring racing driver who lived in Spain were it disappeared for 14 years, before being advertised for sale in 2009 when, Thor Rustad's a Norwegian, purchased the car and stripped it down to bare metal and commenced at 6 year long, 2,476 Hour, complete rebuild of the car to as new condition, 100% period correct to when the car was last raced by John Bowe and Alfi Costanzo at Bathurst in 1986".