Sports Cars
The peak of Kaditcha's form was in the mid-1980s when Kaditcha sports cars dominated the Australian Sports Car Championship. Chris Clearihan won the 1982 Championship in a 5.0L Chevrolet powered version, with Kaditcha's finishing that year in 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Clearihan finished 3rd in the 1983 Championship, which was won by Peter Hopwood driving a later model Kaditcha-Chevrolet. Hopwood moved to the Australian Drivers' Championship in 1984 with Clearihan taking over the 1983 title winning car. He finished second in the 1984 Championship.
Kadticha's most famous race car is one that no longer bears its name. The Romano WE84 raced by Bap Romano began its racing life in 1983 as the Kaditcha K583. Romano used the WE84 (re-engineered by former Williams and Tyrrell Formula One mechanic Wayne Eckersley) to easily win the 1984 Australian Sports Car Championship. The K583 was Australia's first closed top, Ground effects aerodynamics. Bap Romano's 1984 ASSC domination was almost complete, setting Pole Position at every round, scoring fastest lap at for each race contested (Clearihan scored fastest lap in Heat 2 of Round 1), and won all bar Round 1 at Calder Park where Romano crashed heavily in Heat 1, damaging the car enough to ensure it was a non-starter in Heat 2. Clearihan's Kaditcha-Chev won Round 1.
Most Kaditcha sports cars were powered by either the 5.0L Chevrolet V8 engine or the Mazda 13B rotary engine. The K583/WE84 was at first powered by the 3.0L Cosworth DFV V8, originally developed for Formula One. Romano upgraded to the 3.9L Cosworth DFL in late 1984 for the 1984 Sandown 1000 World Sportscar Championship race at Sandown in Melbourne. Currently the car runs the 3.5L Cosworth DFZ V8, with Romano having Barry Lock rebuild the car in 2010 following its major crash at Amaroo Park in 1986, the crash ending the cars original racing life.
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