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Michael Caine Motorsport ltd

Mike is a Legend already in tvr Motorsport. Le Mans Veteran, Tuscan champ and pilot of the awesome Speed 12, his position as the ONLY Works tvr Driver speaks volumes. Add to that his confident and easy instructor style and you have a recipe for a TOP Instructor and despite all of that, he's STILL a really nice guy!

Mike started his racing career in VW Scirocco Road Saloon's and took the Championship. From there he moved to Fiesta's.Champion again. Caterham's followed where he won the Championship in 96 and 97. Can you see the pattern building here? Tuscans beckoned, and Mike had immediate success as runner up in his first season with four race wins, and was Champion in his second season in 2000. A quick sentence that, which belies the achievement. In taking the Championship, Mike beat Mike Jordan into second place and this was done on a fraction of his racing budget. It was generally agreed that Mike took the Championship on what equated to less than the tyre budget of Jordan's major John Guest sponsored team and several of his lap records still remain and are unlikely to be beaten now. In fact, Jordan thought so much of Mike, that he bought him in as co-driver when he raced Porsche's in the Porsche GB Cup in 2005 (but more of that later).

The success in Tuscans in 1999 & 2000 led to Mike being offered the factory drive. The factory wanted to move to GT Racing with the spectacular Speed 12, the most powerful car tvr has produced. The car had some success with two wins at Castle Coombe & Brands Hatch, against the likes of MacLaren F1's and the Lister Storms of the John Guest Team (Yes, it was Mike Jordan again!) Though the car must have been a real handful. Mike, ever the diplomat, only has nice things to say about the car and his time with it, but with over 600bhp and very limited aerodynamic development against such strong opposition. He had his work cut out.

From there Le Mans. It's the Holy Grail of Tin Tops and Mike's been there twice! The Tuscan T400r was the first tvr at Le Mans since 1962 and was up against all of the Greats in the GT category, Ferrari 360, Porsche GT3 RS, Pagani Zonda. It was always going to be tough. The Car was prepared by Racesport of Salibury and was sponsored by DeWalt in it's striking yellow and black livery. As we all know, the 24 hours of racing is the real enemy at Le Mans and so it proved to be the case in 2003. Unfortunately, even with heroic spanner work by the drivers and support teams neither car finished, but the cars were bloodied and plans were immediately put into place for 2004.

Mike was with the same car, but all else had changed. New sponsors Synergy Motorsport had spent a lot of time and money on the car. An extensive diet and painstaking development in reliability and performance had all fingers crossed. Maybe the "new" car 89 would be luckier than the 91 it was before. Well it was. The car finished in 21st overall and 8th in the GT category, ahead of it's sister car, which finished in 22nd and 9th respectively, a full 9 laps behind Mike's 89 car. The Glory days of tvr Racing, had yet to be bettered.

Sadly, with tvr's retreat from motorsport, Mike has been unable to continue his racing career with tvr, but a driver of his calibre is not left sitting on his hands for long. Mike was offered a drive in the fiercely competitive Porsche Cup GB alongside his old adversary Mike Jordan in the John Guest sponsored Eurotech car. A difficult season in one of the most competitive Championships in the Race Calendar and a more different drive to a Tuscan you could not find. Reliability also caused some missed chances but hey! That's motorsport! Mike had done enough though, to be offered another drive in the GB Cup in 2006 and has been on the podium already as I write this, and surely not for the last time? Another major acheivemnet.

True to form with his love of tvrs, Mike is never far from a tvr and is also the Sales Manager for Castle tvr near Stansted. He can't keep away from the cars for long and his reputation and easy style has put many a lucky customer in their tvr, so if you are interested in a test drive, give them a call.

Mike has been involved with the tvrmonster project since it's inception in early 2005. I had been fortunate enough to see Mike race several times in the Tuscan's and had also met him at a couple of trackdays, where he was coaching competing drivers who had been intelligent enough to book his services. With the briefest of phone calls and the patchiest of details, he backed the project immediately. "If you can get it off the ground Andy, count me in." It was a seminal moment in the project's history, when you say Mike Caine is on board, people listen, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have him with us. I have a couple of specific dates lined up to make the most of Michael and his unique talents, race calendar permitting!

Watch out for an interview later this year! Top Bloke, undoubtedly the best!