As promised already in 2009 German florist, singer and Rallycross driver Heiko Paries has mailed the first pictures of his brand new Rover MG TF 160 sports car racer to ERC24 now. The roadster is not completed yet but the man from Hamburg, who moved to Steinau in Hessen earlier this year, is looking forward to shoot-in his new MG at the Ewald-Pauli-Ring at the nearby town of Schlüchtern within a couple of weeks.

The idea for a new car was born in 2009 at Nysum in Denmark when Paries sold his former Rover MG ZR right at the spot to a Danish driver and went home with an empty trailer. Although the anglophile florist was keen to built a car for the ERC he had to concentrate on his move to a new home and a new flower shop by the name of "Stilblüte Steinau", officially opened last March in the hometown of fellow Rallycrosser and father of his fiancé Antje Kirchhof, Hans Kirchhof.

The TF 160 is prepared following the German Group H rules and, thereby, can be used for the German Division 4 as well as in foreign countries like Great Britain, Denmark and Belgium, where non-homologated cars are eligible for Rallycross use. At least one start in Austria is also on the 2011 calendar for Paries.

The sports car will be equipped with the original TF 160 hard-top and is, according to its owner, the first MG roadster to be used for Rallycross. "The same MG model is available as a cup race car version under the tag MGF for circuit racing, but differs a lot from my Rallycross machine. Especially the safety rollcage in my TF 160 cannot be compared with the one in the cup racer," said Paries to ERC24. "The safety rollcage is done by my former Rallycross colleague Peter Købke Nielsen in Denmark, the suspension work was in the hands of AVO UK Performance Suspension and Briton Ray Deacon, while all other work was done by my team under chief mechanic Thorsten Freese in Hamburg. Thereby, one can see it all as a three nations project," claims the MG campaigner.


Source: Eddi Laumanns for ERC24 News