Quote:
Originally Posted by andy97
So when did the 1380 become popular and was it ever homologated?
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Manufacturers and thus Works Teams only Homologated (With the FIA), an, if you like, Wish List, for competition use at the time.
This was predicated on class regulations then ruling.
Cooper
s specs were set to compete in circuit racing and international rallying, mainly.
Also remember, at this time (1960 to 1975: may well have changed quite a bit after I retired totally from the sport), homologated specifications were "Works Options"; i.e. in theory, anyone
could order the optional bits or even a car built to the "optional" spec for competition.
One would have a hard job persuading works teams to fulfil such orders, as the factory was focused on its own team!
As I then ran three MG Midgets (in Modsports), we did manage to obtain a copy of the Midget/Sprite homologation papers.
Made yer hair curl!
Such esoteric delights as wide mag wheels; five-speed box, twinWeber 40DCOES (And naturally a four inlet port head); Lim-Slip diff; etc.
As Lord Nuffield, by this time, became extremely hostile to using motor sport to promoted his brands and had also become increasingly curmudgeonly and more focused on his charity foundation etc, his intervention starved Special Tuning Depart, at Abingdon of adequate funding. The earlier sad death of "Kim" (Cecil Kimber: The founder of MG sporting activities) in 1945, led to a gradual disassociation of BMC and Motor Sport.
Thus developments stalled.
In any case, the old BMC A Series was "far too long in the tooth", but Nuffield refused absolutely to invest in a new range of power plants, thus BMC were stuck with the A, B and C series; which was one of the core crisis points in the whole business and much contributed to its eventual demise.
Some members might be interested to read my analysis of the travails and misfortunes of what was the greatest British motor industry business, in an earlier age.
Here:
(N.B. Seems a software bug is scrambling the punctuation on that site; ignore!)