When Alfas tackled the celeb circuit 

Alfa Romeo’s Procar silhouette racer would never get to compete on a grand prix weekend, but the 164 did. A fleet of them. They were, however, bog-standard road cars driven by rank amateurs.

They contested the Alfa 164 Celebrity races, which was meant to be a lead-in to the inauguration of the FIA Production Car Championship in 1989. Bernie Ecclestone and Cesare Fiorio hatched a plan to run a grid full of Alfa’s new four-door saloon for luminaries at eight Formula 1 events in Europe in ’88. Björn Borg was among the star names: the tennis legend took his turn at Monza along with Paolo Rossi, hero of Italy’s victory at the 1982 World Cup.

Come Silverstone in July, there was less-star quality aboard the 16 V6-engined ‘racers’, which were prepared under the eye of former RAM team boss John Macdonald at the old Haas F1 factory near Slough that Ecclestone owned. The British GP crowd had to make do with Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, the myopic ski jumper, and Christopher Dean, one half of the Torvill & Dean figure skating duo. Also taking part were a serving cabinet minister in Kenneth Clarke, snooker heart-throb Tony Knowles and jockey John Francome.

The shortened five-lap race, held in wet conditions, was won by Bill Wiggins – ‘Bungalow’ Bill – the property developer walking out with actress Joan Collins at the time, so definitely in the ‘famous for being famous’ category.

Those involved in the running of the one-make race at Silverstone remember not the on-track antics but what happened on the way home. The inclement weather resulted in the private plane that had brought in the celebrities from London’s City Airport being unable to make it back to Silverstone. Another means of returning the stars to the capital had to be magicked up. The only option was to use what was referred to as the FOCA bus, Ecclestone’s command HQ in the F1 paddock, complete with blacked out windows.

“It was such a cock-up,” says Herbie Blash, who remembers some of the ‘talent’ hitting the drinks cabinet – and it would be wrong to name them. “When it came back to Chessington there was cigar ash everywhere [the culprit may or may have not been a Member of Parliament!] and drinks had been spilled. We had to have a major clean-up before Bernie got to see it. He would have flipped!”