HRDC Academy Build a Historic Racer for £15k & Go Racing in 2014

The ‘HRDC Academy‘ is an initiative by the HRDC to introduce potential competitors to mainstream historic racing via an easily accessible, cost effective route.

The project has been designed by Julius Thurgood, founder and Race Director of the Historic Racing Drivers Club, to eliminate many of the common pitfalls that confuse would be competitors in ascertaining which route to take when entering this most specialised sector of motorsport.

By creating a ‘control Formula’ surrounding the use of a single make, easily sourced donor vehicle, the HRDC believes that it can provide a stable platform whereby this formula, initially to be launched as a class within the HRDC existing series structure, can flourish in such a way that it will, in time and with good management, and grow into a stand alone series.

The specification of the conversion kit has been carefully designed to optimise the full historic race experience at an entry level budget. For the reason the HRDC has determined that all HRDC Academy cars will run on Dunlop CR65 L section tyres in parity with common HRDC regulations.

All ‘HRDC Academy‘ cars will need to be currently MOT tested and road registered. (Competitors will be reminded to retain the donor cars’ original road wheels and tyres for this purpose).

The Vehicle:

Any Austin A35 saloon – 2 or 4 door (A30 derivatives are permitted but do require more work to convert to series specification).
All van ‘Countryman’ or pickup derivatives of the A35/A30 are expressly excluded from this series.

The Conversion:

A specific race kit has been designed to convert a road going Austin A35/A30 saloon into historic race specification.
The elements of this conversion will be made available to the public via endorsed HRDC suppliers. Each Element of the conversion will carry a HRDC reference number. Conversions using parts not supplied via these approved suppliers will not be acceptable to race in the HRDC Academy Series.
All cars will run sealed engines supplied by Classic & Modern Engine Services in Bracknell, Berkshire.
All completed cars will then be inspected by an approved HRDC eligibility scrutineer and on passing inspection, will be given an approved HRDC chassis plate with a unique chassis number, plus a HRDC vehicle ‘passport’. On passing this inspection, the recipient will then be able to apply the unique HRDC livery to their car.
The ‘HRDC Academy‘ class cars will be initially introduced to one of the current HRDC Series.
You have one built? Race it at Donington on the 5th October in the ‘HRDC Allstars‘ race which is supporting the British GT Championship.