FIA 'Group 1' Ex-Gerry Marshall/Graham Scarborough Autoplan Car - A WINNER OVER FOUR DECADES - £70,000 WITH ICONIC AUCTIONEERS FEBRUARY 23rd.

Raced by two giants of British saloon car racing, Gerry Marshall and Graham Scarborough, initially in Production Saloons and now 'Group 1', this well-known Autoplan Warranties 3.0 S Capri has amassed a trophy cabinet full of wins over the last four decades and is now up for auction with a new set of FIA papers for an estimate of £60,000 - £70,000 - with Iconic Auctioneer at the Race Retro Sale on Friday 23rd February.

A suggestion by Roger Williamson, proprietor of Willhire Vehicle Rentals in Norfolk, resulted in the arrival on the club motor racing scene of the Willhire 24 Hours, an endurance race for production cars and Britain’s first 24-hour motor race.

The event was staged every year between 1980 and 1994 at Snetterton Circuit, becoming known simply as 'The Willhire', and there can’t be many drivers at club and national level during those years that didn’t get involved at least once. Many Willhire winners went on to enjoy success in other forms of motor sport and including Iconic Auctioneers, specialist Lionel Abbott who won the race twice, firstly in 1986 with Mike Smith (the first two-driver team to win the race) and in 1988 with Graham Scarborough.

It was initially assumed that a production car being hammered around Snetterton for 24 hours would self-destruct and so, for the first two years, it was a team event with up to four cars used, however, the survival rate was surprisingly good and, from 1983 onwards, it became an individual event with cars shared by between two and six drivers.

Speaking about his Capri that he has owned for 27 years after his driving partner the late Gerry Marshall passed, Scarborough says: “I’ve spent my life racing Capris so they all feel like this one, comfortable as an old slipper. Easy to maintain because they are traditionally built, relatively basic, leaf springs, drum brakes, 250 HP through the rear wheels. But it remains very competitive in its class and age. It would give the competition in an Historics event a run for their money. We’ve looked after it well for the 27 years I’ve owned it. I’m only selling it as I have another one and I really don’t need two.”

As a schoolboy he grew up admiring Graham Hill “the quintessential English gentleman racer,” but later as he began to race with Gerry, he says a great friendship and respect evolved. His favourite race tracks he says are Thruxton and Goodwood. “Both are fast racks with lovely long corners you can really drive through hard.”

Speaking about his racing career over 45 years he says that winning has many components. “You have of course got to be quicker than the competition, know how to set up a car for its race, have a good feel for the balance of the car, be consistent, know the competition and drive hard, push it but be easy on the gearbox and engine. You have to drive with mechanical sympathy.”

Strangely enough he says that “winning is not always as much fun if it’s an easy race than coming second in a hard fought battle.” The race win that stands out in his mind was at Donnington driving a Ford Mustang. “I came from almost the back through the pack and took the race. It took me a few days to come down from the buzz.”

Now it is the turn of someone new to own his beloved Capri, a 1981 3.0 'S' that was originally built from a Ford-supplied trimmed body shell for the 1981 production saloon car championships. With funding from Autoplan Warranties, it was put together by Roger Dowson of Gerry Marshal Racing (prior to Roger forming Roger Dowson Engineering) and was finished just in time for the Willhire where the ebullient Gerald Marshall and the equally quick but considerably better-behaved Graham Scarborough co-drove the car to second place in that race. Gerry continued to race the car for the rest of the season winning every race entered and both Production Saloon Car Championships (BARC and BRSCC). At the end of the year, Gerry sold the car to Harold Hagan in Ireland, where it continued to race with much success.

Some 15 years later, in late 1996, Graham Scarborough bought the car, still in its original Autoplan livery, and set about fully stripping it and rebuilding the Capri to 'Group 1' specification in order to compete in the Classic Saloon Car Club Pre-83 'Group 1' Championships. Graham’s well-known standards of preparation and his undoubted ability behind the wheel resulted in years of success including many wins, dozens of class wins plus the Championships outright in 1998 and 1999 and the Class in 2000 and 2001. The car was well known at Spa, enjoying many successful visits up to its last outing there at the end of 2016.

The Graham Scarborough-built 'Group 1' engine was refreshed in 2018 and was set up on Neil Brown’s dyno late in 2021 having done just three races and not used since. A new clutch has been fitted which transmits through to an original Hewland 'Group 1' close-ratio gearbox and an Atlas 3.44 ratio rear axle. More recently, the car has benefitted from a thorough refresh with the paintwork and period livery being restored to a very high standard. The car is well set up and well balanced with Bilstein dampers all round.

The Capri is complete with recently issued FIA/HTP papers valid for ten years, making it eligible for Legends, Goodwood Members' Gordon Spice Trophy, Classic Touring Car Club (CTCRC) and the Historic Racing Drivers Club (HRDC) Gerry Marshall Trophy.

Well known, much admired and superbly prepared, the 'Autoplan Capri' has always proven to be a very fast and very reliable front-running car and, in the right hands, should continue to be a winner.

This racing legend comes to auction on Friday 23^rd February at the Race Retro Sale at Stoneleigh Park Warwickshire and is just one of the many competition cars being auctioned on that day, with further road and collectors’ cars on Saturday 24^th February. More information about the auction and this car along with how to register to bid can be found on their website www.iconincauctioneers.com

More information on this car

https://www.iconicauctioneers.com/1981-ford-capri-rec13141-1-stoneleigh-0224?pn=1&el=22196&pp=100

360 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kq8KGXOvoQ 

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