Recreation 1984 Rover Vitesse

The TWR Rover Vitesse crashed and destroyed by Marc Duez in torrential rain at the Silverstone Tourist Trophy in 1984 has been recreated by AWS Engineering. The car, reckons AWS boss Alan Strachan, is “as original as you can get without being the real thing”.

The recreation of TWR’s 10th Rover chassis has been built up around a complete set of genuine running gear.

“It has a period engine, and all the suspension, the gearbox and the rear axle are genuine TWR parts,” explains Strachan. “Over time we have been able to acquire a lot of spares from all over the place. We’ve always struck while the iron’s hot when bits have become available.”

The car isn’t the first Rover recreation by AWS. It bought chassis 11 (see above), which it reverse engineered to complete its first SD1 commission. That knowledge subsequently went into the new chassis 13.

Sourcing some of the standard parts needed to build up a Group A racer is becoming increasingly difficult, says Strachan.

“Getting hold of a ’shell that you would want to turn into a racing car is getting more expensive, but it is the odd-ball parts that are the hardest to find,” he explains. “Group A regs demanded that you had to run a lot of the original interior: the race cars ran wind-up windows.”

The recreation of the Duez/Jeff Allam TT car has yet to race. AWS plans to get it out soon, if it’s not sold beforehand.

AWS Engineering, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire.
Tel: 01608 64445, aws-engineering.co.uk