Coventry Evening Telegraph from Coventry, West Midlands, England • 3

Evening Telegraph Wednesday May 7 1986 3 News in brief ban on toj Metro could hit overseas sales By KEITH READ Motoring Correspondent AUSTIN hopes of World Championship success in rallying with the mighty Metro 6R4 have suffered a crushing blow From the end of the year powerful competition cars like their Metro 6R4 and RS200 will be banned It could end all hopes of Coven try -based Austin Rover repeating its successes with Minis in the 1960s and will hit the European sales drive which is all-important on its road to recovery and privatisation After the current trials and testing of the car on World Championship events Austin Rover was going for an all-out attempt on the title next year The ban on high-powered rally cars was imposed by the FIA motor international ruling body after the deaths in Corsica on Friday of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto The 200 mph Lancia Delta S4 smashed into a rock at lOOmph-plus and burst into flames Bomb attack on Teheran IRAQI planes bombed Iran's Teheran oil refinery today starting a huge blaze that could be seen eight miles away The Islamic republic news agency reported the attack but gave no further details It was the first Iraqi air raid on Teheran since last summer when the warring sides indulged in protracted retaliatory air raids and missile attacks against each capitals and other main cities Witnesses said smoke was belching from three points at the refinery complex but that the bomb was dropped from a single plane Guinness aims for record wife Jennifer Guinness who ended a week-long kidnap ordeal less than a month ago was today set to help break a yachting record Mrs Guinness with her husband John and seven fellow crew members looked certain to achieve a new record time for a voyage around the Irish coastline They expected to cross the official finishing line in Dublin Bay by mid-afternoon and knock more than 12 hours off the old fastest time Man attacked TWO youths attacked and robbed a man near Swanswell Park Coventry last night They kicked and punched John Newbury of Adderley Street Coventry at about 9 pm and stole his wallet containing personal papers £7000 theft A £7000 GENERATOR has been stolen from the Warwickshire county council depot at Ansty near Coventry Off the peg JEANS and shirts worth about £2500 have been stolen from in Broadgate Coventry Growing panes VANDALS have smashed two panes of glass worth £12 at a greenhouse in Howat Road Keresley End near Coventry The ultra-fast Metro 6R4: out after the November rally Jaguar on patrol! But Warwickshire police were delighted with this XJS question But good news The FIA is looking at what uses the redundant ultra-fast models from Austin Rover Ford Peugeot Lancia and Audi can be put to A new circuit-type sport could be introduced where safety of crews can be better supervised However Austin Rover believes that lower-powered versions of cars like its 6R4 with a 150 bhp engine compared with the 400 bhp works cars might still be allowed to compete Out of the race That could help the company which has about 100 of the overpowered Clubman cars still to sell for about £40000 each as well as its own works team to support But if the World Championship next year is decided using virtually production cars with modifications then Austin Rover could be out of the race Unlike Ford Lancia and Audi the Austin Rover and Peugeot teams have no standard production four-wheel drive cars on which they could base a successful rally car really know what is happening until we learn just what the FIA is meaning by its proposals which were hurriedly sketched at the said a spokesman for the Coventry-based company Investment costs Ford on the other hand was today quite confident that next year cars like the Sierra 4x4 or Sierra Cosworth IiS would be in and the ultrafast Metros and RS200s out As long as Ford sells all 200 of its £50000 RS200s then the £10 million investment will have heen covered Austin Rover could also recover much of its Metro 6R4 development costs Sixty of the 200 Metro 6R4 models have heen sold Meanwhile the works 6R4 will continue to contest the remaining rounds of the World Championship including the RAC Rally in November We rely on them says force sales to forces across the country have continued to increase and our results in the highly competitive American market reflect our success and A Hampshire police spokesman stressed that they had been well-served by the Jaguar cars Knocking He said: "I do not want people to get the idea that we are knocking British industry Our vehicles are out on the road 18 to 20 hours a day and we have decided to standardise our force with Volvos and on the traffic motorway Locally both Warwickshire and the West Midlands police have Jaguars for their chief constables Warwickshire also has three for traffic patrols of which two are based on the motorways A Warwickshire spokesman said: "We have had Jaguars since the late 1960s and they have been on the motorways since the beginning of the 1 980s "Some will shortly be replaced and we have already put in orders for more JAGUAR was today trying to shrug off the dent to its image dealt out yesterday by-Hampshire Police The southern lary have decided to stop buying the Coventry-built cars for their motorway patrols They decided to start phasing out their fleet of 16 Jaguar XJ6s and replace them with cheaper BMWs and Volvos But the worrying part behind the decision was a comment in their budget report that "Jaguar cars operated by the force had not proved sufficiently reliable for full operational Reliability Today a Jaguar spokesman said they were confident that the Hampshire move would not damage future sales to police forces And to back his claim Warwickshire police confirmed that they were replacing some of their four Jaguars with more of the British cars The Jaguar spokesman said: "We understand there were some teething problems when the Jaguars were first delivered to Hampshire three years ago "But we have always managed to put things right and the police drivers have been happy with the cars "The fact is that Hampshire can buy the BMWs and Volvos at a cheaper rate We do not have a car in that price range "But we feel that the reliability and quality of our cars has greatly increased since the Hampshire order "In the past 12 months GABY LEATHERS CLOSING DOWN FOR REFIT SALE Massive stock clearance at ridiculous prices due to refurbishment UP TO Vz OFF NORMAL PRICES all new gent's fashion jackets 30 OFF NORMAL PRICES all new ladies' fashion jackets Drastic reductions on all other jackets UP TO NORMAL PRICE RS200: power puts safety in way for Peugeot like the British show it is held every other year will star another new baby from the Peugeot group The Citroen AX project will have an engine of 1 -litre upwards while the new Peugeot will probably have 750cc and 1 -litre engines and rival cars like the Fiat Panda and Lancia Y10 It is unlikely the 105 will be built at Ryton Volumes would need to be much higher than the plant could manage without massive rebuilding Ryton is on schedule to build the new 405 up-market saloon which will be unveiled later this year A combination of the right volumes availability and top-flight quality from the Ryton plant has 1 understand virtually guaranteed the ticket to make the 405 A baby on the PEUGEOT is pushing ahead with its new model programme and this perky little hatchback revealed exclusively in Autocar magazine shows what the new baby will look like The car is likely to be called the 105 and will come in the range under the successful 205 some time in 1989 That would allow the French firm to launch it at the Paris motor show This Paris show SKIRTS from £15 MOTORBIKE JACKETS £49 TROUSERS from £30 JACKETS from CIO up to £25 SHEEPSKINS (slight seconds) from £35 length) DISTRESSED LEATHER JACKETS from £65 AND MANY MORE No s-ingle item will cost FANTASTIC BARGAINS £100 in our Super Refit Sale 32 CITY ARCADE COVENTRY Telephone 24689.