Oddly enough, the
Vauxhall FE Victor and Ventora had a decent amount of exposure in motorsport,
with the V8 Ventora being the most famous FE raced - Big Bertha. Produced as a
prelude to a Vauxhall V8 Ventora intended for production, Big Bertha was written
off and the mechanical components transferred to a Firenza coupe, to make Baby
Bertha. I can only imagine how frightening this creation was!
The FE series was also popular in drag racing, competing in the funny car series (as I understand it, spaceframed chassis, V8 engines, glassfibre bodies). The first one was out the same year the car was launched, in 1972, and the story of the FE in drag racing begins here - if you thought the mythical VX490 F.I. was quick, check out these interesting beasts ;)
 |
|
Pictures above and below from http://www.ukdrn.co.uk/ |
(from Nitroheaven - http://www.nitroheaven.freeserve.co.uk/)
In April of 1972, Roland Pratt and Mike Derry built the UK's first true funny car, the Transcontinental! Essentially a fibreglass Vauxhall X4/90 with Clive Skiltons 1971 Chrysler Hemi engine. SPRs July International featured Swedish and Swiss entries and the total writing off of the Transcontinental funny car. Driver Roland Pratt was unhurt. A collection of donations from competitors and fans raised around £1000 to help with a rebuild. To download a movie clip of the crash go to Jon Spoards Nostalgia Website.
The FE inspired a number of drag racers to build funny cars using replicas of the shell - more pictures should be coming soon.
(Jeremy can be emailed on quartermilenewsmakers@compuserve.com and his website is at http://eurodragster.com/apira)
This is a rear V8 engined dragster, that is 'based on' a VX4/90 - more information will be coming soon. Seen here marked for Ed Shaver, the car would appear to have been originally run by Pete Barnett.
For fans of drag racing, check out http://www.ukdrn.co.uk/
This
pair of VX4/90s, belonging to Dave Richards, are seen here starting a 'race'
from John O'Groats to Land's End in June 1999. The blue car is a replica of a caravan-racer -
one other area of motorsport where all heavy saloons were popular ;)
More information on the FE in motorsport will be coming soon. However, submissions of FEs used in banger racing will be placed in the FE graveyard, and any /recent/ banger-raced FEs that weren't already did will be accompanied by a fair amount of spite - though I accept most cars used in banger racing are beyond saving, or common at the time, and often many useful spares are recovered before the car is raced.