Trevor Godwin and the Coventry Automotive team - WNR 904s
Trevor Godwin returned to his native Coventry after a short period of working in Australia during 1981 and established Coventry Automotive at that time. Trevor had been active in rallying since the late 1960s and the return to a rally Mini took him full circle, as his first rally car was a Mini. In 1994 he had been rallying a Group N Toyota Corolla in the Mintex National series but with the re-homologation of the Mini Cooper a new plan was formed. The Toyota was retired after the Manx rally and all efforts geared to building WNR 904S to Group A regs with a view to its debut being the 1994 Network Q rally. David Wyer, who had been Trevor’s co-driver for years, would continue in the ‘office’ of WNR 904S.
In 1996 he would also build two ‘works’ Group N Minis ordered by Rover France and Rover Japan for the 1997 Monte Carlo Rally. The Rover France car, (Car 223, registration 572 BTX 95) driven by Frederic Vie/Lionel Currat would finish 52nd overall. The Rover Japan car (Car 219, registration 757 BVV 95) driven by Yasuo Kvsakabe, would survive the concentration run but would go off on SS6, sliding into a bridge causing terminal suspension damage and retirement from the event.
In 1997 to augment the Coventry Automotive rallying programme WNR 30S, the yellow Mini, was built to Group N specification and used on national and international events. Due to the busy competition programme both Minis would be used within the same year on national and international rallies.
Trevor would have three navigators, sometimes all three being needed in a busy competitive year. David Wyer navigated with Trevor for many years and was an Emissions Engineer at Jaguar cars. It was with David that Trevor first competed on the RAC in 1986 and the first overseas international in 1995. Rick Spurgeon was a product specialist at Horiba and Ian Harrop a development engineer with Zytek. Both Ian and Rick have competed with Trevor at all levels, as well as fulfilling support roles within the team.
On the support side Roger Cooke was the service manager for major events and was supported by Ambrose Butcher, Nimrod and Phil Leeson. All the support crew were long standing members of the team and had a wealth of experience at all levels of motorsport.
WNR 904S would compete on 7 WRC events
1994 RAC Network Q
1995 Rally of Great Britain (RAC Network Q)
1996 Rally of Finland
1997 Rally of Portugal
1998 Rally of Great Britain (RAC Network Q)
1999 Rally of Great Britain (RAC Network Q)
2000 Rally of Finland
International events for WNR 904S
1995 Rally of Finland (2 litre class only for WRC)
1996 Rally of Great Britain (RAC Network Q but 2 litre class only for WRC)
1998 South Swedish Rally
1999 Hunsruck Rally
WNR 904S would compete on more WRC events than any other Mini (7 x WRC events)
WNR 30s would be second (6x WRC events) with the Plant brothers' A13 GPN third (5 x WRC events; 1995 Monte car 197, 1995 Network Q Car 193, 1996 Swedish Rally Car 102, 1997 Network Q Car 162, 1998 Network Q Car 171). Trevor Godwin would compete on more WRC events in a Mini than any other driver.
In 1996 he would also build two ‘works’ Group N Minis ordered by Rover France and Rover Japan for the 1997 Monte Carlo Rally. The Rover France car, (Car 223, registration 572 BTX 95) driven by Frederic Vie/Lionel Currat would finish 52nd overall. The Rover Japan car (Car 219, registration 757 BVV 95) driven by Yasuo Kvsakabe, would survive the concentration run but would go off on SS6, sliding into a bridge causing terminal suspension damage and retirement from the event.
In 1997 to augment the Coventry Automotive rallying programme WNR 30S, the yellow Mini, was built to Group N specification and used on national and international events. Due to the busy competition programme both Minis would be used within the same year on national and international rallies.
Trevor would have three navigators, sometimes all three being needed in a busy competitive year. David Wyer navigated with Trevor for many years and was an Emissions Engineer at Jaguar cars. It was with David that Trevor first competed on the RAC in 1986 and the first overseas international in 1995. Rick Spurgeon was a product specialist at Horiba and Ian Harrop a development engineer with Zytek. Both Ian and Rick have competed with Trevor at all levels, as well as fulfilling support roles within the team.
On the support side Roger Cooke was the service manager for major events and was supported by Ambrose Butcher, Nimrod and Phil Leeson. All the support crew were long standing members of the team and had a wealth of experience at all levels of motorsport.
WNR 904S would compete on 7 WRC events
1994 RAC Network Q
1995 Rally of Great Britain (RAC Network Q)
1996 Rally of Finland
1997 Rally of Portugal
1998 Rally of Great Britain (RAC Network Q)
1999 Rally of Great Britain (RAC Network Q)
2000 Rally of Finland
International events for WNR 904S
1995 Rally of Finland (2 litre class only for WRC)
1996 Rally of Great Britain (RAC Network Q but 2 litre class only for WRC)
1998 South Swedish Rally
1999 Hunsruck Rally
WNR 904S would compete on more WRC events than any other Mini (7 x WRC events)
WNR 30s would be second (6x WRC events) with the Plant brothers' A13 GPN third (5 x WRC events; 1995 Monte car 197, 1995 Network Q Car 193, 1996 Swedish Rally Car 102, 1997 Network Q Car 162, 1998 Network Q Car 171). Trevor Godwin would compete on more WRC events in a Mini than any other driver.
PVW 885D rallying from 1966 to the present day!
PVW was rallying within the first month of being bought by Ascotts. It was campaigned extensively on national events between 1966 and 1970 with two internationals; The Fram Welsh international 1996 and the Circuit of Ireland 1968 where the likes of Roger Clark and Paddy Hopkirk would be in action.
The Ascotts would feature in the top 5 places in a number of Motoring News reports. Ruth would drive and her husband would navigate. Often they would compete three up, as was usual then, with Vic Cole, a decorated Lancaster Pilot from the war, who was an excellent additional navigator.
PVW was retired from rallying in 1971 and used as the family car until being traded in for a Triumph Herald in 1976.
A year later it was bought back by the mechanic apprentice Stephen French who worked for John White, who had rally prepared PVW over those 5 years. He owned PVW until 1991 but did not compete in PVW. Stephen Adams bought her and had the famous Downton Engineer Steve Harris prepare PVW for rallying. As bills mounted he sold it to Russell Earnshaw wh0 would use PVW on stage and road events pending the resoration of his Rally Mini Cooper. The best result being third on the illuminations rally in 1992. In 1995 Russell's Mini was ready and PVW moved into Richard Cravens ownership and competed on hill climbs and the Speedsport HRCR rally series. In 1998 my father bought it after writing off our rally TR4a on the Monte Carlo challenge in December '97. PVW regularly competed on the HRCR Speedsport and Safety Devices road rallies with forays into Europe and North Africa. PVW still continues to be rallied on HRCR events.
The Ascotts would feature in the top 5 places in a number of Motoring News reports. Ruth would drive and her husband would navigate. Often they would compete three up, as was usual then, with Vic Cole, a decorated Lancaster Pilot from the war, who was an excellent additional navigator.
PVW was retired from rallying in 1971 and used as the family car until being traded in for a Triumph Herald in 1976.
A year later it was bought back by the mechanic apprentice Stephen French who worked for John White, who had rally prepared PVW over those 5 years. He owned PVW until 1991 but did not compete in PVW. Stephen Adams bought her and had the famous Downton Engineer Steve Harris prepare PVW for rallying. As bills mounted he sold it to Russell Earnshaw wh0 would use PVW on stage and road events pending the resoration of his Rally Mini Cooper. The best result being third on the illuminations rally in 1992. In 1995 Russell's Mini was ready and PVW moved into Richard Cravens ownership and competed on hill climbs and the Speedsport HRCR rally series. In 1998 my father bought it after writing off our rally TR4a on the Monte Carlo challenge in December '97. PVW regularly competed on the HRCR Speedsport and Safety Devices road rallies with forays into Europe and North Africa. PVW still continues to be rallied on HRCR events.
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