From shopping basket to racing car

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 68

From shopping basket to racing car

By

JOHN HAWKINS

After finishing second in the 6-litre class of last season’s Arbuckles O.S.C.A. championship, the Christchurch driver, Steve Vigurs, decided his ageing Cortina Chev had reached the end of its development potential. If he was to have a chance of outright championship honours this season, a new car was needed.

Having looked at many different vehicles, Vigurs cast his eyes on his wife’s 1977 Mitsubishi Celeste and decided to search no further. With the large engine bay and the firewall set well back, the car seemed ideal for the installation of the big Chev V 8 engine which is used by almost all the 6-litre class contenders. His team has used the Celeste as the basis of its 1984-85 challenge, and after starting construction in early June the transformation from shopping basket to racing saloon is almost complete. The team hopes to have the car ready for testing late this month. “Basically we were looking to gain an increase in performance from the chassis rather than trying to squeeze extra power from the engine, which could lead

to reliability problems,” said Vigurs yesterday. “The Celeste will use the 355 Chevrolet engine and M 22 rockcrusher gearbox from the Cortina, but the whole package will be considerably smaller and lighter. The new car has 30 per cent less frontal area than the old one, creating less drag, and being 4701 b lighter it will obviously have a much better power-to-weight ratio. Acceleration and braking are of utmost importance at Ruapuna and it is in these areas that we hope for the most improvement,” he said. The V 8 Chev engine produces about 500 hp, but the team is hoping to purchase an even more powerful unit to complement the car’s expected good handling. Vigurs’ priority this eason will be the O.S.C.A. championship, but he might travel to the North Island to contest the annual sports sedan races. He is confident that after initial sorting the Celeste will be right on the pace of the established front-runners.

“If we can improve on our best lap times of last season by only half a second with the new car, we should be in good shape for the coming season,” said Vigurs.