1980 Tiga SC80

Tiga SC80 at the Saint Goueno Hill Climb in Brittany in 2017 driven by Fernand Santerelli.

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For more photos of the VHC cars at Saint Goueno, click on this link.

Tiga Race Cars, Reading, England.  Tiga was named after its founders, former Formula One drivers, Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley.  Tim Schenken was a very succcesful F3 driver but only got on a F1 podium once for Brabham.  Howden Ganley has success in F5000 before his F1 career that yielded two fourth places for BRM.    Apparently, the proper pronunciation is like the big cat - Tiger.  They formed the company in 1974/5 and started off making Formula Ford cars.  In 1977 they began making Sports 2000 cars and at this they were very successful.  Between 1979 and 1985 their Sports 2000 car won either the British or European championships.  The SC80 won the British Championship in the hands of Ian Taylor.   It had a simple monocoque chassis and tubular fame bolted on to a 2 litre Ford Cortina engine.   The body is glass fibre.  The engine was tuned to develop about 130bhp and this pushed the car along at up to 135mph.   Occasionally these cars ran in bigger races.  In 1980 Divina Galicia and Mark Thatcher finished eleventh in the Brands Hatch 6 Hours, an event that was part of the World Championship of Makes.

Matra Murena

Eric Bailly, Matra Murena on the 2017 Rallye du Pays Avallonnais.

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For more pictures of the 2017 Avallon Rally, click here.

Matra, Romorantin, France.  Sometimes called the Talbot-Matra Murena, this was an early eighties mid-engined sports car that was relatively unusual in that it had three seats next to each other with the middle one folding when not in use to become an arm rest.  It had a steel chassis and glass fibre coupé body.  Just under 11,000 were built between 1980 and 1983.  The car had good handling but the engines were not that impressive.  The basic model had a 1.6 litre Simca engine and the more powerful version a 2.2 litre Talbot engine.  The 1.6 litre had a top speed of around 113mph and a 0-60mph time of just over 11 seconds.  The 2.2 litre had a top speed of 122mph and a 0-60moh time of just under 9 seconds. They were rallied in 1981 and 1982 in major rallies such as the RAC and Monte Carlo but without great success.  Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Max Mamers drove 4WD versions of them them in the 1982 French rallycross championship, both achieving wins and Max taking the Championship. Jean-Pierre Jaussaud drove one in a European rallycross championship round the same year scoring a class win.  These cars continued their successful rallycross careers for some years.

Ralt RT3 - Alfa Romeo F3

Bernard Honnorat, Ralt RT3-Alfa Romeo, Charade, Historic Tour 2016

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For more pictures of the Historic Tour visit to Charade in 2016, click on the link above.

Ralt,  , England.  Ralt was founded by Ron Tauranac after he sold his interest in Braham.  The name comes from his initials and that of his brother Austin Lewis Tauranac.  The RT3 F3 car was developed from the RT2 F2 car and first appeared late in 1979 driven by Elio Salazar.  it was a very successful F3 car and had a very stiff aluminium chassis and honeycomb bulkhead and incorporated ground effects.   Stephan Johannson clinched the 1980 F3 championship by winning the last three rounds in a Ralt RT3 using a Toyota engine.  The Ralt also clinched the German F3 championship driven by Frank Jelinski.  In 1981 Jonathan Palmer won the British F3 championship in a RT3-Toyota and in 1982 Tommy Byrne repeated this feat.  By this time most of the grid was drtiving Ralts.  1983 was a classic F3 season and Ayrton Senna won from Martin Brundle, both in Ralt RT3s.  Johnny Dumfries won in 1984.  Most of this British success was with Toyota motors.  Elsewhere in Europe they were also raced with Alfa Romeo and VW engines.  Pierluigi Martini won the 1983 European Championship with an Alfa Romeo powering his RT3.