Let’s just hope they want plenty of inventive swearing, because if they’re anywhere near Marcus, he’s likely to let 'em have it.
I’m still trying to figure out lore for mine. I’m definitely not winning on performance though.
Alright, it’s been a while since I’ve done a challenge like this, and I need a bit of a break.
1967 Scagliati 330 Turismo
The Scagliati 330 was a two-seat luxury grand-touring coupe and convertible built by Scagliati Motori SpA of Mirano, Italy, from 1962 until 1969. 330 production was split between two basic models; the GT series (coupe) and the Turismo (convertible, both hard and soft top). Powered by the company’s famed Mirano V12 engine, appearing for the first time in the 330, the Mirano appeared in both Uno and Due versions; the single-cam Uno engines being produced from 1962 until 1966, and the twin-cam Due from 1967 not only until the end of 330 production, but also until Mirano engine production ceased in 1996. In the 330 Turismo, the 3956cc engine produces 386 horsepower at 7100 RPM, good for a 0-100 km/h sprint in 5.3 seconds and a top speed of 267 kilometres per hour, making the 330 one of the fastest cars in the world at the time.
In total, 571 330s were produced in all body styles; the overwhelming majority of these being 330GT, 330GTC and 330GTO coupes and racing cars. The Turismo, which cost $16900 when new (an outrageous price in 1967), accounted for only 48 of the total production run between 1967 and 1969, and is widely considered to be one of the rarest and most desirable Scagliatis ever made, with a 330 Turismo selling at auction for $3.5 million US in late 1994. This particular 330, serial number 471, was recently restored by the Scagliati Museum in Mirano, having been in the collection since it was donated by Amadeo Scagliati himself in 1976.
For this challenge, the 330 Turismo is essentially unchanged from its original production spec, with only modern seatbelts, brake pads and tires making up the chassis modifications, and some minor work on the engine to run on unleaded gasoline and to boost reliability.
Driver’s Name: Christoforo Giuseppe Francesco Amadeo Scagliati di Mirano
Christoforo is part of the famed Scagliati family, his grandfather Amadeo founding Scagliati Motori in 1948. While the Scagliatis no longer have a role in the day-to-day operation of the company, having sold a majority share to the CMW Group in 1988, they still maintain a large ownership stake in the company regardless, and hold positions on the supervisory board as well. Christoforo studied engineering at the famed Politecnico di Milano, and also recently completed a master’s degree in business at Columbia University in New York. He is also responsible for curating the Scagliati Museum, showcasing the family’s extensive collection of historic automobiles.
Co-driver/mechanic’s name: Pasquale Zoccarato
Pasquale is the head mechanic at the Scagliati Museum, and is an accomplished amateur rally driver in his own right. His family has had a long association with Scagliati, with four generations of Zoccaratos working in the factories and in the engineering offices alike. Participating in the GAR was in fact Zoccarato’s idea; pouring through the records of 330 n.471 during its restoration, Pasquale found that old man Amadeo, ever the showman, had participated in several such events before with this car. It is only fitting then that the GAR would be a suitable christening for the restored classic.
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Name: Catherine Erin
Age: 53
Background: The wife of then-CEO Marco Erin and fellow car enthusiast, Catherine was born in 1941, during the Second World War and grew up in Thetford, Norfolk. An aspiring journalist, she worked her way up in the British newspaper industry, before meeting Marco at the 1969 12 Hours of Sebring, and saw him on and off for the next couple of years. It took a while, but they married in 1975, before raising two kids all the while Marco was head of Erin. Come the 80s, and she turned her focus away from journalism to pursue a career in domestic living matters and cooking.
She’s bringing her longtime friend and cocktail-lover Julia Deacon to be her co-driver, who also happens to know Europe rather well.
Why are they taking part in the GAR?: It’s a good excuse for a tour of Europe and a nice grand touring holiday. And a chance to driver her beloved 1989 Scandanavian Blue Erin Scarlet S…
The Car: A Mk 1 Erin Scarlet S, with the standard 3.0l i6 and a 5 speed manual. It’s been well serviced and given an air-fuel remapping to make it a bit more efficient.
This isn’t a super fast, super tuned car. It’s a well looked after example of the 80s sports coupe. Don’t be fooled though, Cath and Julia are in it to win. But they’re also not avoiding the chance for go for a nice drive across Europe…
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After seeing all the competition I feel like:
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Driver: Francesca Carminati
Co-Driver: Kyle Carter
Age: 32 and 31
Background: Growing up Francesca was brought up tinkering with cars, fiddling with carburetors and the like.Shes a complete car lover. Never able to afford a new car she has had to drive around in a 1965 Ceder Friala since she was 23 she came to English tuning company Jackdaw with one idea to turn her parents cast off into a European road racer.
Kyle is a Jackdaw employee who is a complete car nut ,owning a modified Porsche 928 and a Renault 5 GT-Turbo, he’s also a far better map reader than Francesca so he was roped along.
The Racer: Jackdaws original idea of putting a Nissan RB25 engine into the car was impossible due to size restraint. So when a totaled Lotus Esprit V8 came along the engine was ripped out and put into the Friala. A custom cylinder head, turbos and complete engine remap have made the Lotus engine even more powerful whilst retaining some economy. The car has been converted from front wheel drive to rear wheel drive, power is delivered through a 6 speed gear box from a Jackdaw Lunatic. But don’t think she hasn’t done her bit in modifying the car. Along with the straight through exhausts and new paint, bright yellow headlight bulbs have been retrofitted for night time racing.
What does it sound like? Well like this-
Why is she taking part in the GAR?: Quite simply, she came to an agreement with Jackdaw that the modifications would be free if she won the GAR. Also it would hopefully mend a rather awkward ‘friendship’ with Kyle. Neither of them would turn down the chance to blast across Europe either.
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Am I correct in expecting a Mad Max movie with this guy as the lead?
You are still driving home from BRC 66 and suddenly find yourself in a race in 1995
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Haha, yeah, I was playing on the heritage of the XB Falcon being in Mad Max but the movie they’re making is a lot closer to Vanishing Point… Trying to keep the flame of 70’s street racer movies alive!
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Great idea… Except the Esprit V8 wasn’t introduced until '96, one year after the GAR takes place. So the only way they could have obtained the engine would have been for Lotus to lend (or give) them a prototype of it. Still an interesting machine, though.
Clearly they are using a 95 pre production version
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Clearly he just stole “borrowed” a prototype from the Lotus factory 
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It’s likely that they had a few production models lined up for quality control. Although that leaves the question of who crashed it…
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I think ‘borrowing’ an engine is what well say happened in this situation.
Bad research on my part oops.
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The Car
The People
James and Jim Goule, two brothers with a knack for driving and modifying cars, as soon as they caught wind of the event they knew they had to enter (I mean who could resist the lure of that much money!?)
James was always the tinkerer of the two, taking everything in sight apart just to find out how it worked. As soon as he got his first car, he was hooked, eventually settling into a cozy job at a local garage, mediocre pay but enjoyable work. Jim loved to drive, lawn mowers, shitboxes, you name it. Eventually he found his way into racing amateur rallycross, getting a boring day job to support his hobbies.
James was always the tinkerer of the two, taking everything in sight apart just to find out how it worked. As soon as he got his first car, he was hooked, eventually settling into a cozy job at a local garage, mediocre pay but enjoyable work. Jim loved to drive, lawn mowers, shitboxes, you name it. Eventually he found his way into racing amateur rallycross, getting a boring day job to support his hobbies.
The Madness
To be competitive, they needed a car, and no ordinary one at that. After some searching, they found a few month old BM F-219 that some inexperienced owner bottled into a wall and wrote off, it was the perfect place to start. Months was spent toiling away on the car, the front end was re-built with a more weight conscious safety setup in mind, some original steel panels were sourced whilst others were replaced with modern aluminium to further help the weight savings, whilst the whole aerodynamic setup of the car was re-worked to make it cut through the air like it wasn't there. The interior was completely stripped out to keep the car's diet going, leaving only two basic cloth front seats in place for the two occupants. The biggest piece of the puzzle was the engine, the crash virtually wrote-off the cast 10.5L lump that originally came with the car, but a plan was hatched. An aluminium 7.3L V12 was purchased from a shady backstreet dealer, with the help of some friends, James managed to find a pair of SOHC 4V heads that would mount to the block with little effort, whilst Jim's trip to the scrap yard yielded two dubiously large turbos, no questions were asked where they came from. The end result was an engine almost 200kg lighter, much smaller, whilst still producing some insane horsepower figures. To help control wheelspin, the traditional rear-wheel drive system was replaced with an almost fully custom AWD drivetrain, and the suspension replaced with sports components, stiffer springs and sway bars to improve handling. The end result was a car that broke the first dyno they put it on, had a butt stopwatch 0-60 time of somewhere in the 3 second realm, and was estimated to reach speeds of 254mph. A quick blast down the M1 saw the needle creep up past the 200mph mark with ease, and a more robust dyno gave them the numbers they wanted to hear; 1,033hp
It was simply named the "F-219+35"
It was simply named the "F-219+35"
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I’m curious how many times you expect this beast to stop for fuel?
Going 254mph is no easy feat, but average fuel consumption should be around the 12-13mpg (UK) mark. Quite a few times, however the time lost should be made up sharp-ish when the car is moving
I’ll make sure to keep my fiberglass monster out of that thing’s way.
After all, I wouldn’t want to shake a few bolts loose and have them blow through your windshield at a million miles an hour.
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I hope they don’t share the same fate as the guy in Vanishing Point.
I’ll just note that you’ll be able to do roughly 200km on a single tank. Most will be able to do 500-ish. Meaning that every 1000km an average driver will lose 6-16 minutes, while you’d be losing 15-40 minutes for fuel depending on the RNG rolls
Maybe… Maybe I went a little crazy keeping the XR-3 above 30 US MPG.
But maybe it’ll come in handy.
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