TOM's GroupA Supra Crashes at Fuji - 1987 Video

[LordDigital]

Here is the video (rare ,never seen video with factory TOM's car - in this one still under Moniolta Blue/White Colours)

[video=youtube;mcImDU2FcEQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcImDU2FcEQ[/video]

Here is the "historic" data:

The 1987 Fuji JTCC (JAF Japan Touring Car Championship) was The Race of the JTCC season in Japan ,mostly because it was also a round of WTCC and Asia-Pacific mini series. For the TOM's Minolta this was the second race with the MA70 supras ever (right after they won Round 4 at Sugo on the Supra's Turbo Debut in JTCC!).

You can find the race results on the JAF's site .In this race the unfortanat fact that the Turbo Supras were hopelessly outclassed by well prepped RS 500 was quite apperant ,the faster supra that remained on the track was beaten by 3 Sierras ,even the Schnitzer M3 were faster (M3 running in lower class 2).


Here is what is see on the video:

Car 36 (driven by Eje Elgh / Mauro Baldi) in the pits with what appears to possibly be a steering issue. Goes back on the track and crashes pretty much righ a way ,what I see is that the driver either did not countersteer enough or his steering was possibly locked at 10-15 degrees or lower steerig angle -> leading to the crash. Locked rear brakes could've been the issue but I see the rear wheel rotating at the beggining of the accident...

 

[LordDigital]

Here is some onBoard ACTION of the GroupA TOMs supra ,driven by Geoff Lees from Great Britan. RESPECT :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

[video=youtube;8j3tOcVur1M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j3tOcVur1M&feature=plcp&context=C3e32288UDOEgsToPDskIPLTIq-7z4xXEhAm0GS5BI[/video]

 

[te72]

I love these posts of yours man, if only we had access to Youtube 10 years ago, huh?

 

[TrqMnstr]

Seems like he was coming in way to hot into that corner. The accident occurs on camera from 1:46 to 1:49 you can see the corner way to soon. Maybe brake fade and couldn't slow down enough? Awesome vid by the way :icon_bigg

 

[IJ.]

Wonder if the Eggenberger/Texaco Sierra had the illegal body work that got disqualified from Bathurst

Great find Dig thanks for posting!

 

[LordDigital]

Wonder if the Eggenberger/Texaco Sierra had the illegal body work that got disqualified from Bathurst

Great find Dig thanks for posting!

Lol ,good Memory Ian! I believe that the double DQ for Ford was a done deal and the team fixed the Wheel Arches just before the race at Fuji.

Edit - Confirmed on Franks site:
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jong/Races/1987%20Fuji.html

Ford tried to play it safe, and entered a third car for Hahne and Schneider under the banner of Andy Rouse - a bad decision, since Rouse sold his own car to Japan and shared this with Nagasaka - but he lost the chance for points, while Hahne and Schneider had endless problems and never got near the front.

The tale that the Australian protest were withdrawn (after the cars were cleared from using illegal fuel) was nearly true; but the team of Frank Gardner hadn’t, and days before the race, the Sierras were finally disqualified from the Bathurst 1000 - the wheel houses were indeed bigger than allowed, which helped to lower the cars and use 17” wheels.

Now Ford was 6 points behind instead of 28 points; Ludwig and Niedzwiedz had to win, while a second Sierra had to block Ravaglia from second. The wheel arches were hastily modified, and after practice the Ford empire was happy; two cars on the front row, only the third car was way back in 12th. BMW was happy too; Ravaglia was only 2 seconds a lap slower than the Sierras.

The race started well for Ford, though Soper took the lead after an error of Ludwig. The third car ran into all sorts of problems, concluding in a collision with a Holden; they finished a lowly 17th.

Just before half-distance, the Sierras came in, took a little fuel and soft tires and haunted for 20 laps. After the next regular stop, they were still ahead of the BMWs, led by Ravaglia. But 17 laps before the end, Dieudonné was missing; he came in with a blown rear tire. So Ravaglia was now second in the WTCC classification; to add insult to injury, Rouse finished second on the road but did not take away points from Ravaglia, who took the title!

Both Toyota and Nissan had been quick in practice, but had an unlucky race.

 

[IJ.]

Lol ,good Memory Ian! I believe that the double DQ for Ford was a done deal and the team fixed the Wheel Arches just before the race on Fuji.

I remember it well as I scored a fabricator job with the eventual winner the following year

 

[LordDigital]

I remember it well as I scored a fabricator job with the eventual winner the following year

Sounds like you had the connections Now tell me some inside information what were the Front and Rear baseline static Camber on GroupA Supras - I wrote to John Smith but he never got back to me... Front castor strategy would also be a huge help (I want to know if the Myth of minimum 10degrees was actually true).

 

[IJ.]

Sounds like you had the connections Now tell me some inside information what were the Front and Rear baseline static Camber on GroupA Supras - I wrote to John Smith but he never got back to me... Front castor strategy would also be a huge help (I want to know if the Myth of minimum 10degrees was actually true).

Sorry we had M3's then Sierra's while I worked there, Supra's were always too expensive here so I didn't get one till they were quite old and I'd moved on from the race teams.

Only person I can think of that might know would be GroupA/Steve but he's been MIA here for years.

 

[JDMMA70]

From my collection.

1987
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOAeljHk7i4
1989 (Full race at Tsukuba this is 1 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg_wjBD1O0c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWOJousvfD0

 

[LordDigital]

Sorry we had M3's then Sierra's while I worked there, Supra's were always too expensive here so I didn't get one till they were quite old and I'd moved on from the race teams.

Only person I can think of that might know would be GroupA/Steve but he's been MIA here for years.

Sound like you were in the Dark Side of the suspension technology (MaaaacPherson MaacPherson)

Steve seems to be from UK ,never heard of Toyota backed GroupA program there? The (un)famous British M.I.L cars (Shell sponsorship IIRC) were so unreliable that there was no way that the rumor that Toyota backed MIL by any means could be true. MIL program was one of the worst MA70 failures in Europe... IMO TOM's and Benami were the only two that figure out the suspension setup for the MA70 , interestingly enough the naturally aspirated Benami Supras were nearly as fast (if not faster) than the turbocharged TOM's -> the power of FIA GroupA regulations!

 

[LordDigital]

From my collection.

1987
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOAeljHk7i4
1989 (Full race at Tsukuba this is 1 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg_wjBD1O0c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWOJousvfD0

The first race - intro of the Godzila the killer of the RS500 and groupA Supras were already dead by that time.

Second race is intresting ,Unfortunately TOMs were still running Corollas ,MA70 Turbo was not even ready for Tsukuba (mid year race ,Round 3 of the 1987 Japan Touring Car Championship) ,mostly because Toyota screwed up BIG time by not passing the homologation of the Turbo car for 6 months! This basically killed the only chance for MA70 to ever have success in GroupA ,in 1988 rules changed in way that made turbocharged 3000cc cars such as Supra race participants and not competitors...

 

[JDMMA70]

The first race - intro of the Godzila the killer of the RS500 and groupA Supras were already dead by that time.

Second race is intresting ,Unfortunately TOMs were still running Corollas ,MA70 Turbo was not even ready for Tsukuba (mid year race ,Round 3 of the 1987 Japan Touring Car Championship) ,mostly because Toyota screwed up BIG time by not passing the homologation of the Turbo car for 6 months! This basically killed the only chance for MA70 to ever have success in GroupA ,in 1988 rules changed in way that made turbocharged 3000cc cars such as Supra race participants and not competitors...

Weird both the Bijo and the Fujitsuten cars were boths TOMs. You can see their sticker on the bumper. I have more videos too lazy to post them right now.

 

[IJ.]

Steve had a bunch of Tech drawings and hard parts which If I recall included a set of Group A uprights.

 

[Turbo Habanero]

Some awesome video's i spent the last hour watching all of them

 

[jdm2191]

I think he felt a urge to drift lol

 

[IBoughtASupra]

What front rims are those, VOLKS?

 

[znick742]

awesome old footage

 

[LordDigital]

Here is another old vid from 1987 ,two Minolta TOM's MA70 in 1987 Fuji InterTEC 500 Race.

Interesting part is at 1:40 when on the first lap TOM's Supra #36 was out outdraged on the straightway by a Nissan Skyline (TOM's were still limited to 100% stock CT26 and the cars were very weak). As a result there is a contact and spin ,resulting in DNF for the Supra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOAeljHk7i4&feature=related

 

[LordDigital]

Also some footage from GroupA races in Europe - the only video that I've ever seen of the Fastest MA70 ever build - Bemani Toyota Supra ,private car that was faster than the Factory TOM's cars!

24 Hour Race 1988:

Jump to 6:55

Jump to 4:00

Jump to 2:24