Vauxhall Nova 1.0 litre Junior Hot (Trainer)
If you know what a “Hot Rod Racer” is the most striking feature of ours it that it has two sets of controls. It is a training car and the idea is that we can give some instruction is short circuit (FWD) driving. The car differs from a single seat Hot Rod in that it has stronger springs on the passenger side to compensate for the extra weight of an instructor. A Hot Rod in general is a car available (or was available) to buy and use on the roads. Hot Rods are modified by removing all the interior and glass, adding a roll cage and other special race parts and then modifying the suspension and steering so that the car can corner one way at much higher speeds than the car originally could. Look us up on FaceBook to see this cars full story and to follow its track career.
Goblin Sports Racing Car Prototype
The ‘Goblin’ was the car that launched Class Racing the idea was to construct the entire car from scratch. The project progresses with the skills of our students. The Goblin was designed as a national circuit racer. It was designed to utilise a motorcycle engine and it could use a variety of bike power plants. The full story is on the social networks so have a look and see it progress
Fiesta XR2 Stock Hatch
The Stock Hatch series is organised by the 750 Motor Club as a formula for nearly standard road going “Hot Hatch” cars (standard is a confusing term because the more standard a car is legislated to be, more engineering is required to make the car competitive). Our car was a lucky find it was in one of our client school’s car parks for many years. Although the car had not been used for some time it was in very good condition structurally and mechanically. The XR2 is the non injected version and it has the 8 valve, single cam CVH engine producing around 100bhp in its standard form. Our XR2 has a low mileage and the engine is in good working order so has not yet had a major rebuild. Stock Hatches race in the UK on national circuits such as Brands Hatch and Silverstone.
Gee Bee Vee Formula Vee
Formula Vee is again organised in the UK by the 750 Motor Club. It has its roots back in the 1950s and the cars have to use air cooled Volkswagen Beetle engines, transmissions and suspension systems. The Gee Bee Vee is an historic racing car and its main chassis component, the “tub”, is made from aluminium honey comb while the rear section housing the engine and transmission is a tubular steel construction. The car will probably not race again and we use it for awards assemblies and ceremonial occasions where the cars awesome presence adds atmosphere.
Ray Vee Formula Vee
The ‘Ray’ is a thoroughbred single seater race car. It has a zero roll rear suspension, which means it has one damper and spring for both rear wheels. This overcomes a serious design fault with the old Beetle that produced some dangerous handling characteristics. The Volkswagen Beetle was designed by the German engineer Ferdinand Porsche (yes he was the founder of the Porsche car company!). Porsche had some design traits that appear in nearly all of his designs, rear engines and four trailing link front suspension. The Beetle and hence Formula Vees have these traits because they use VW components. Our Ray Vee has GAC engine and you can follow its progress on the social networks.
Renault Five GT Turbo
The ‘Five’ was acquired from a friend of Class Racing who was looking to rehome it. Having been well cared for it is generally in very good condition. We will be giving the engine a major overhaul in the near future. It is not our intention to race the ‘Five’ instead we want to keep it on the road so we can drive it to circuits and offer some of our young people the experience of hot laps around some of the UKs most famous circuits. The Five is 1300cc and it has a Garret turbo charger boosting its power to around 115bhp in a very light car. The Five was probably the fastest ‘hot hatch’ of its day more due to its weight advantage over VWs Golf GTI, than its blown engine.
Nissan Sunny 1.4 Euro Rod Test Car
This one was purchased as a vehicle to practice motor vehicle maintenance on. It served that purpose very well especially with all its electrical equipment! The Sunny had some rust in the lower body structures and it became a danger to jack it up or lift it on a ramp. So we had the idea of making the car a Euro Rod. However due to some technical difficulties with the Euro Rod regulations (fuel injection and a 16 valve engine where the regulations specify 8 valves and a carburettor) we decided to make it a test car. We expect a short circuit formula to use a 16 valve injected engine the future. This car has four doors, a sunroof and electronic engine management which have to be made race compatible. To see how it is done check out the social network links. It is a test car because it will be driven by our young people to gain experience of 1.4 litre Euro Rod although it will not be eligible to race under current rules.
Mighty Morris Minor/Trophy Racer
They were once the same car! We had a 1965 Morris Minor that was intended as a restoration project but it had a bit too much rust. So we decided to turn it into a 2.0 litre Hot Rod because this formula uses only the exterior skin of the original car which then covers a purpose built tubular space frame chassis and a 2.0 litre Ford Pinto engine. When we had stripped the minor down to the body shell we realised that we had enough parts to make another car. The challenge was to find a racing formula that could use all round drum brakes and lever arm dampers. The 750 Motor Club’s Trophy series does as it is intended for Austin 7 based specials. In fact our 45 year old bits are very modern compared to some of these Trophy series racing cars.
Other cars
We have two small hatches that we hope to make Junior Hot Rods, they are a Citroen AX and a FIAT Cinquecento. We have several road legal cars that we use in the business and are maintained by students of Class Racing; these are a Land Rover Discovery and a Hyundai Trajet both converted to run on LPG. We have a Ford Mondeo, Toyota Corolla and A Jaguar XJ6 Executive. Then we have some unusual vehicles including bikes and ‘off road’ buggies based on FIAT mechanicals.
We will no doubt add to the collection so if you know of a car that has failed its MOT or is too expensive to repair send us the details and you might end up driving it around a track one day!
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