Gordon Spice (18 April 1940 – 10 September 2021) was a British racing driver who competed in both

sports cars A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

and

Touring Car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. Th ...

racing in the 1960s and 1970s, before starting

Spice Engineering Spice Engineering was a British racing team founded by driver Gordon Spice with Raymond Bellm in the early 1980s, later becoming a successful sports car constructor in 1986. They competed in the World Sportscar Championship in Europe as well as ...

with fellow racing driver

Ray Bellm Raymond Anthony Bellm (born 20 May 1950) is an racing driver from the United Kingdom. Driving career He began his racing career in 1980, running in historic racing series and winning the British Historic 2-litre GT class in 1983 and 1984 dri ...

in the 1980s.

Racing career

Spice was most notable for his involvement with the

Ford Capri The Ford Capri is a fastback coupé built by Ford of Europe, designed by Philip T. Clark, who was also involved in the design of the Ford Mustang. It used the mechanical components from the Mk2 Ford Cortina and was intended as the Euro ...

, both as a driver and as part of Spice Engineering. Starting off his British Saloon Car Championship career racing Minis in the late 1960s for Downton Engineering Spice went on to paid drives in Minis for Jim Whitehouse’s Equipe Arden team in 1968 (winners of the British Saloon Car Championship title with a Mini the year later with Alec Poole) and raced John Cooper’s team Minis with Steve Neal in 1969 but despite Spice’s pace and occasional race win were outclassed by the 1300 Broadspeed Ford Escorts. Gordon eventually progressed to the works Ford team, CC Developments, co-run by Dave Cook, running the Capri 3.0S. He won his class on five occasions between 1976 and 1980, but never won the championship outright. In all, he took 24 overall race victories. In 1980, he took on Andy Rouse as team mate, and the two dominated their class, only losing out on the title to

Win Percy Winston "Win" Percy (born 28 September 1943, near Tolpuddle, Dorset) is a former motor racing driver from England. Percy was British Touring Car Champion three times, and at the time of his retirement was the most successful non-Antipodean drive ...

. In the 1980s, Spice competed in the

World Endurance Championship World Endurance Championship may refer to: * FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series held since 2012 * World Sportscar Championship, an auto racing series which used the title World Endurance Championship from 1981 to 1985 * Endura ...

with his own cars, under the banner

, or those of

Jean Rondeau : Jean Rondeau (13 May 1946 in Le Mans, France – 27 December 1985 in Champagné, France) was a French race car driver and constructor, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1980, in a car bearing his own name, an achievement which remains unique ...

. He won the C2 class in the World Championship in 1988. Spice, as well as running a car accessory shop in Ashford (Middlesex), in the early days of car accessory retailing, he co-founded in 1971, with his brother Derek, Gordon Spice Cash And Carry. They supplied motor accessories to trade customers and, at the peak of the business, they had cash and carry depots in Staines, Watford, Canning Town and Leicester. Subsequent flotation as a PLC in 1986, and an over ambitious investment in a state of the art central distribution centre, plus changing market conditions, led to the demise of the company.

Personal life

Spice died on 10 September 2021 from cancer, at the age of 81.

Racing record

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) † Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

Complete Formula One non-championship results

(

)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

Summary on Haynes Publishing