Venturi 200 up for auction at Brooklands

Is there anyone on the forum who has first hand experience of driving the 200 and 300. I rather got the feeling with the tyre profile etc it may be a bit too old school whereas the 300 like the A610 is a little further up the evolution ladder and a bit more modern with brakes etc. I could of course be completely wrong with my asumption.

I drove Martin's (StunnedMonkey) 300 once. Very nice car, but it seems you do need to get the geometry right as it was extremely sensitive to set-up.

He'd had his adjusted and it made a BIG difference to how it was when he got it, however I'm still not convinced it was totally correct as it was still fairly twitchy. If I was to go for one then the first port of call would be somewhere with full 12 point alignment (Hunter or similar) system and get the geometry set.

Mid-engined and low volume production though, does anyone know how to best set them up?

When I was preparing my RX7 for trackdays I went to Wheels in Motion as everyone I knew said good things about them, they set up my car perfectly so I wouldn't hesitate in recommending them to anyone as there are all sorts of racing cars there being set up as well.

I'll second Wheels in Motion Chasham as they have done all my cars and have been pleased with the results and service.

Trevor.

Is there anyone on the forum who has first hand experience of driving the 200 and 300. I rather got the feeling with the tyre profile etc it may be a bit too old school whereas the 300 like the A610 is a little further up the evolution ladder and a bit more modern with brakes etc. I could of course be completely wrong with my asumption.

Hi David

I drove four 300’s prior to buying my 260. The 300 is a larger car externally to the 260 it has a slightly longer wheelbase and wider track when compared to the 200/260, see the dimensions below. Having said that though I do not believe there is any more space inside the cockpit of the 300 over the 200/260.

Length:
300 – 4240mm 200/260 – 4090mm
Width:
300 – 1840mm 200/260 – 1700mm
Height
300 - 1180mm 200/260 – 1170mm
Wheel Base:
300 – 2500mm 200/260 – 2400mm
Track:
300 – F = 1500mm R = 1590mm 200/260 – 1460mm
Weight
300 – 1250kg 200/260 – 1255kg.
Power:
300 – 281 hp 260 – 260hp 200 – 200 hp.
Tyres:
300 – F -205/50/17 R – 255/40/17 200/260 – F – 205/55/16 R – 245/45/16.

Now the chassis are both made in the same way and to the naked eye they are identical other than the overall dimensions mentioned above. They are as Darren says sensitive to geometry set up, Stunned Monkey was never 100% happy with his, Paul Dobrowski, (200), noticed a big difference when he had his set-up and Keith Walker (400 GT), had his checked and set-up after it swapped ends on him on a French main road that was slightly damp, slightly up hill and curving slightly to the left, he now is much happier with the handling. Me, I found my 260 was fine, in fact better than all of the 300’s I had driven, but I took it to Ollie the same chap that Keith and PaulD had used up Blackburn way, he said mine was slightly out compared to what he had done to the other two Venturi’s and set it up the same as the other two cars. Ollie said to me when he first saw the 400 GT it reminded him of the 1970’s & 1980’s Matra Le Mans cars so he set them up fairly neutrally as per the Matra’s. After mine had been done it did feel a little better. Philippe Bachelet who is something of a Venturi aficionado over here in the UK says the 300 was designed to be a bit softer to drive compared to the more focused 260.

Now the brakes, on the 300 they have bigger discs and are more modern than the 200/260 but are still I believe of the single piston and sliding calliper type as per the 200/260, however nobody has yet been able to successfully identify exactly where the discs for the 300 come from! The 200/260 however is from the R25 turbo, using the R25 front discs both front and rear on the Venturi. I personally feel the 200/260 brakes need to be improved a point made by Clarkson in 1992 when he tested the 260 for Top Gear. I aim to see if it is possible to use Stephen Dell’s multi-piston brake upgrade kits to improve the braking of my car.

Performance wise yes the 300 has a higher top end 280 kph/175 mph versus 270 kph/168 mph for the 260 and 0 – 62 mph/100 kph in 5.2 seconds versus 5.3 seconds for the 260 though the 200 would be 243 kph/ 152 mph and 6.9 seconds to 62 mph/100 kph according to “Autocar & Motor 2/11/88.

In real terms the difference between the 300 and the 200 would be most noticeable, though the difference between the 300 and 260 is not so noticeable especially on the public road. On the track I believe the 260 would make up for its power disadvantage in the corners as I am told it is more focused and the 300 has been set up to be more forgiving hence the longer wheel base etc. To prove or disprove this would require a Top Gear type shoot out with the Stig at the wheel of each car and nobody is likely to be daft enough to give their car up for that sort of punishment.

After all this if it helps I think the 300 is prettier.

300 Chassis



260 Chassis



A drivable 260 Chassis

Thanks Paul, there is just about everything I need to know in your post.
Still not sure if the car sold on Saturday though. If not it might be worth contacting the owner and making a cheeky offer for the 200

Thanks Paul, there is just about everything I need to know in your post.
Still not sure if the car sold on Saturday though. If not it might be worth contacting the owner and making a cheeky offer for the 200

Thanks David. Just let me know if you want his contact details.

The 300 brake disks are unfortunately Venturi only. Easiest to have new bells and separate rotors made.

The 300 brake disks are unfortunately Venturi only. Easiest to have new bells and separate rotors made.

Might be worth seeing what Dellboy has in his little box of tricks!!

See under Tuning & Styling/Braking and check out those discs

The stig can use mine when it is running properly, would be nice to see a shoot out with an a610 also!

The stig can use mine when it is running properly, would be nice to see a shoot out with an a610 also!

The "Boy" Clarkson did test an A610 against my 260 in 1992, and anyway after what they did to and said about French Plastic recently I'm not sure they should be allowed within touching distance of Alpine's or Venturi's.

I wouldn't allow any of them within touching distance to any of my cars

Just spoken to John Williams at Brooklands Historics the car did sell.

Just spoken to John Williams at Brooklands Historics the car did sell.

Yes I have just had an email from Geoff the former owner, he is a bit sad it went as he really didn't want to sell it but he had to

The price was £9100 and he suspects it may have gone to a dealer as the guy bought two cars on the day.

Oh well, it will be interesting to see what it goes up for considering the eye-watering mark up on the 300 in London.
Guess I'll just have to go and buy some more boring (forgive the pun) Glencore shares and give the Esprit a treat.