Not at all sure John, but I think it was a regular Targa competitor at the time (2005)
First 4 from 2002
Targa 2005 again
Jo Hill's controversial Herald V8. This spectacularly driven Herald V8 (Rover V8 power) was hugely popular on Targa and as at that stage, there was very little opportunity to compete with this sort of car for the rest of the year, Jo asked if he could run with ERC.
I rewrote the rules to accommodate the car as I considered it a period car with an appropriate period engine (from the same group - BL), therefore COULD have been built in period.
In period it was obviously OK to put a Corvette engine into a Ford Zephyr and everyone clapped their hands with glee.
For some reason, this car divided attitudes like no other. It led to a major split between the Series and those race organisers who demanded each car had a CoD - which obviously it wouldn't get. We stood by our stance that it should be allowed to run and when Chris & I offered our version of T & C rules, we left a section open precisely for this type of car. As you all know, this never happened. More's the pity.
To this day, you can't build a period saloon special and get it accepted. Even though the ERC rules were rewritten to accept this type of car, contrary to the doomsayers, the series was never overrun by cars of this type and even Jo didn't run with us, as I believe he moved to Australia. Our rules allowed a maximum of 5 repowered cars per season, but to date, 12 years later, the number of cars accepted on application = 0.
You can of course stuff a Ford V8 into a 1300cc Capri and call it a Perana...