Virtually unknown Basil Green built muscle car.

[Gavin RS]

Hi everyone.Just registered,never knew about this site.

I have a Capri Perana and a Sierra XR8.

Reason for my mail is about another SA built car of which very few people know about. 12 cars only were built by Basil Green Ford and Geoff Mortimer. 2 legends in SA Motor racing as everyone knows.

Well I have what is believed to be car # 001

Attached is an advert from SA Car mag for you to see.This is the only reference to these cars and there was never any road tests carried out.
Specs of the car can be seen on the advert.

The car is a Ford Sapphire Cosworth sold through Basil Green Ford.(Most people confuse the car with the V8 Sapphire’s that Grosvenor Ford & Novel Ford built)

I have had my car for 10 years and wont sell at all.

Hope you can feature the details on your site.I have decent pics etc.

Also: if you would like I have the original magazines with the road tests on :Fairmont GT, Granada Perana, Capri Perana, CanAm Firenza, Sierra XR8, Alfa 3.0LGTV 6, I can scan and send you copies if you need.

[redracer]

Hey Gavin,

Nice to see you here I never even thought about your car to mention . Check this forum for pics of the Alan Poulter Cortina Perana, I took snaps of the road car at CITP, did you take any other pics ot the engine etc on the day ?

[FairmontGT]

Gavin, welcome to the forum, somewhere in the future I will definately add the sapphire. If you can scan those articles and road tests it will be a great addition to the website!

Hope you enjoy the forum.

Regards

Tiaan

[magda]

Hi Gavin

Welcome to the site.

YEs, I would like a copy of the road tests on the Granada, Fairmont and Capri. I have the CAR magazine where they had the road test for the Sierra XR8

Thanks

Magda

[Firenza GT]

Gavin, some years ago here in cape Town either there were a couple of them or it was the same car. One or the same was parked outside Owen Ashley's workshop here at Killarney for a long time without moving. Not sure of there was something wrong with it. I then saw another or the same car being driven as normal on trhe road. Was a white one.

But before that we here in Cape Town I think saw the race cars debut and the night beofre race day the cars still were not completely finnished. Then the big prang, massive prang with Hannes Grobler in the twi turbo ex-rally Skyline. I have a photo of the lot of them coming out of Hoals which is the first corner and then there was no more one Saphire. Race was stopped as they crashed into the pitlane when there was still steel barrier. I am sure I have quite a few photo's of those race Saphires. At the time these cars were radical in that for me it was difficult to understand the concept of small capacity monster power. After all I only believed in a 302 Chev motor ! And the Chev 2500 "Iron Duke" which I believe won;t break down on the road to paradise ......

[Gavin RS]

Hi guys

The whit car that was in Cape Town some years ago was not a locally built car.It belonged to a friend of mine and was a 1989 model import.Geoff Mortimer built the engine to GroupA spec, I still ran that car on the dyno and I remember violent wheelspin as it hit 232kw on the wheels.never got a proper reading,even strapped down with 3 guys sitting in the boot it still wanted to spin.

He eventually sold the car (I was stupid by not buying it) to someone in the Cape who eventually messed it up.

The race Sapphires were monsters as the had more power than the V8's and arguably were quicker than the Audi Turbo's .Pity the cars are not still around.One of the motors is currently fitted into an Escort RS2000 (Redracers Dad) if any of you were at the CITP at Zwartkops you might have seen it on our Escort club stand.it was the black one.

My car has always been in JHB.from Basil Green to its new owner,then repossessed by the bank where I got hold of it back in 1997.Lately I have been getting lots of interest in the car from people wanting to buy it......not for sale.

I know of 3 other local cars still around.
.

[Firenza GT]

Well that makes sense as I saw thwe car being driven around and did'nt look as if it was being cared for. Sadly that car may not exist anymore and if you think of it very prominent in that projects history.

I have some photo's when Sarel raced one later years, not sure if it was a complete new car from the Schekter days. But I do rememeber seeing on in the pits on a trailer, it was a second car also with his name on probably spare. Also not too many years ago Ivor Raasch raced one of them I think. Also at some stage one of them maybe the Raasch car was for sale with a rally Ford laser I think also in the Autotrader. These are all cars that today could be restored to original look as a reference to the mad power days we had back then. There Interesting these forums as sometimes browsing through old stuff I often wondered if ever we'd discuss something like the Turbo'd Saphires. But I took photo's anyway being a Chev person. My take on them was that I always imagined them as being pumped full of streroids or something.

[Gavin RS]

Well that makes sense as I saw thwe car being driven around and did'nt look as if it was being cared for. Sadly that car may not exist anymore and if you think of it very prominent in that projects history.

I have some photo's when Sarel raced one later years, not sure if it was a complete new car from the Schekter days. But I do rememeber seeing on in the pits on a trailer, it was a second car also with his name on probably spare. Also not too many years ago Ivor Raasch raced one of them I think. Also at some stage one of them maybe the Raasch car was for sale with a rally Ford laser I think also in the Autotrader. These are all cars that today could be restored to original look as a reference to the mad power days we had back then. There Interesting these forums as sometimes browsing through old stuff I often wondered if ever we'd discuss something like the Turbo'd Saphires. But I took photo's anyway being a Chev person. My take on them was that I always imagined them as being pumped full of streroids or something.

.

I try to keep a record of all the cars I see from those days.I tried to buy the Laser as it was a 4wd Cosworth powerd Rally car,but I missed out,The Sapphire was also one of the proper race cars.I heard they ended up in Randfontein at Roelf Duplessis,but have not heard anything about them since.

I am not biased against Ford or Chev,I would love to own an original CanAm,I had a very nice Chev Chevair Berlina about 7 years ago until some F£$"£% took the whole back end out going through a red robot.I have had more Fords than Chevs as it just worked out that way.My brother has a Ford Escort RS2000 and a 2004 Chev Lumina with 450hp, awsome car and best of both worlds.

[redracer]

I know who owns the Laser rally car but he stripped most of it for spares Gavin my dad has the front brakes fitted to his RS that came off the Laser, the Sapphire that belonged to Raasch went through a few hands before the engine was removed and landed up with my old man. There were talks of converting the Raasch car to Sascar spec and I feel that would be a desecration of a decent car not too mention the racing heritage

Firenza please post any pics you may have of the Sapphires back then, sadly I only have snippets here and there. My brother still video taped the Sapphire's first race with Sarel being the new driver, he destroyed them the first heat starting from 8th on the grid and even with weight penalty even won the second heat

[Firenza GT]

How on earth could they have broken that Laser up ? have we not learnt yet ? You guys remember the Mortimer Chevair that Tony Pond also drove as well as sarel ? That thing had a Blydenstein motor, dry sumpt and everything the best built by Geoff. Well I saw that car and a spare arrive here from Namibia after it was titred and motors in pieces. Two Blydensteins in crates. The main Chevair still had some of it's Dealer Team livery the plumbing for the dry sumpt etc just the motor out. Had a ZF box with a trick clutch I also saw with the spares. A pile of chrome Rostyles they used from the Dealer Team days plus Minilites it had. The Namibians had rallied it there for a while and both this Blydenstein Chevair and antother which was running a 2,5 we bought cheap. The 2,5 immediatley went to oval track and was destroyed there quite quick. The main one had a V8 fitted, did some drags and then ended up on the Oval too. Gravel oval. By that time it was stripepd of everything as the cars were basically roadworthy for road sections of rallies. I then saw the car, this famous Blydensteined engine car abandoned stripped and a sad banged up shell in a yard.

Ok back to a sore topic, now we cannot establish or for some reason it cannot be said which Dealer Team car the Firenza that races up your way is. Either that the car has been mutilated to that extent or who knows. So for me even buying and keeping such famous cars, like the Laser, the Saphire etc, it can be raced be it in exhibits once a year at Zwartkops and Killarney for the Piper weekend. Now in some years maybe that Laser shell will pop up somewhere and claim it as a Van Der Merwe car, or maybe form a good base for any shell to be used with some components of that Laser if it can even be proved. Sadly this is what has happened to most of our heritage. However I think these forums will change things in a big way. We sorted a debacle aqround "fraudulent" Perana plates which has caused many paranoia and buyers to walk away from good cars. One thing I have picked here and at the Escort forums, there are still many wake-up people out there.