The Camaro Club (UK)

Hi all - I am new to this forum, and have recently purchased a 1970 2nd Gen Camaro race car.

It was built from new by Stuart Graham as a race car, and was raced by him in his famous Brut 33 colours in the 1974/5 British Saloon (now Touring Car) Championship. It was subsequently sold to the Moritz Brothers in Holland in 1977, who raced it extensively in 4 Spa 24 Hour races and numerous Dutch Touring Car Championship races, as well as occasional European Touring Car and DTM Championship races. Ultimately the car ended up being modified to the late 2nd Gen body style in order to take advantage of the extended Camaro homologation under the Group A regulations in the early 1980s. Latterly it raced in Classic Thunder events in the UK with a fibreglass front end, 600hp NASCAR engine and some very wide rims!

I am now intending to restore the car to the Graham/ early Moritz spec, and will be recreating the early 2nd Gen front and rear. The car will be completed to the correct period Group 1 (ie. relatively standard) regulations.

If anyone has any period photos of any (preferably early) 2nd Generation cars racing, then I would be interested to hear from you. As with most things, the devil is in the detail so if anyone could assist in helping me to get my car as "right" as possible, it would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Simon

Great to hear of an old racer been restored!
There's not too many good shots of this car that i'm aware of. I collected all i could find on various forums as i wanted to paint the car for the GT Legends computer game. They span the years from '73 to '75 as far as i know. I should say that these aren't my photo's so i hope it's ok to post them;

















And this is my effort! Ignore the L88 scoop and double exhaust...



There's a couple of pictures in the book 'British Touring Car Racing' by Peter Collins. It's part of the 'Those were the days...' series. Easy to find online if you don't have it already!
Hope this helps

Seeing these pics reminded me that I saw a saw a race at Silverstone in the 70's and I think it was a Camaro that won the class that day. It was a Touring Car race was several classes mixing it together. I wonder if it was this car?

Well done for keeping and old circuit racer alive.. Would love some pics of the resto progress if possible..

I have a few pics on the computer, mostly similar to what's above from old Touring Car websites...
I can send you details of some guys I know that used to race Camaros back then. Not sure if that'll be any help.

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

hi great to hear your restoreing an old racer theres a guy in leicster the use to race a 1970 z28 camaro mabe he can help with what you need no know let me know if you want his num thanks shaun.

Thanks all for your encouragement. There are some photos which I have seen before, but some which I have not. Any contact details for any former drivers or mechanics would be certainly much appreciated.

I have spoken to Stuart Graham, and his brother Chris (who was Stuart's crew chief at the time) and they said they were running three cars around this time - two Group 1 (substantially standard spec) and one Group 2 (anything but standard!). The Group 1 cars were used in the BSCC, whereas the Group 2 car was more specialised, being used in races such as the Tourist Trophy where it was up against the "Batmobile" BMWs, Ford Cologne Capris etc. Unfortunately, we do not know which one of the two Group 1 cars mine is, so tying down my particular car to any of Stuart's numerous race victories around this time is almost impossible. A shame, but perhaps inevitable as - crazy though it seems now - these cars were at one time merely expendable items built with the sole purpose of winning races. Unfortunately teams which kept detailed logs of chassis numbers, specifications and race results are definitely in the minority!

I will certainly keep you all posted on progress of the car with photos - as soon as there is any progress to report! I have a number of body panels on back order at the moment, so as soon as those arrive the rebuild can begin in earnest. My aim is to have the bodywork of the car finished by the end of the year. Given the amount of work which needs to be done, this is ambitious - but if you don't set yourself deadlines, nothing ever gets done!

Thanks again for your help, and I will post some photos soon.

Simon

Dear Simon
Best of luck with this car restoration

I think I saw it advertised and wished it would go back to period- brilliant and the way to go if you are intertested in preserving value etc!

I was going to say that I know Stuart Graham and have his phone no somewhere

but you have already contacted him. He was always telling me that his old Camaros were destroyed or cut up- as you say these cars were never road legal never having a Licence plate half the time!

Bob Ridgard my racing partner also used to race Camaros at that time, having started with Roy Pierrepoint- his tel no is 01440 788 141
his Camaro pictures can be found at:
http://www.ridgardseats.co.uk/Web_pages ... ASSIC.html

best of luck! keep us informed of progress please?

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Kind Regards
TopCat
Secretary
Classic Camaro Club
Member of The Association of American Car Clubs UK
Email :tboles@strathnoon.co.uk Websites: http://www.classiccamaroclubuk.com and:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdhLJtR_ZY4

Hi Simon, what a good find, I wish you luck with tracing the history of the car. Have you tried placing a thread here asking for history/information

http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/

There's lot of good guys on there & some good threads about historic race cars. It might also be worth contacting Robin Gray at Autopontiac, here's alink.

http://www.autopontiac.co.uk/

He used to race 2nd gen Camaros around the time your car was out, so he might be able to shed some light on things for you.

Do you have any pics of how the car is at the moment?? Please post up pics as often as you wish as we like pics & info here


cheers...Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!

I spoke to Robin last week about the Stuart Graham Camaros, and does remember them, didn't know Stuart but did know his partner.
Said the cars were built near where he is now in Hounslow..

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”