Excalibur Triumph T100 engined single seater

[scholar96]

Can anyone help?
I am trying to research the history of my Triumph engined single seater sprint / hillclimb car.

The car is called Excalibur and is registered with the 500 OA as number 22 on their register. I believe it was built around 1960, and raced extensively on the hills. We have detail of the car being raced by Gillian Fortisque-thomas and Jeremie Thurston (sorry about the spelling) in period.

The car itself is of quite an unusual (I think) design, having limited suspension on the front, and a wheelbase of only 6'. It runs a Triumph 500cc twin, coupled to an AMC gearbox. We believe the front bodywork was the rear of a Cooper 500 Mk ?.

Any information on this car would be extreemly helpful, pictures of the car in action would be an amazing bonus.

Please can anyone help.
My thanks in anticipation.

[Derwent Motorsp]

Well Gillian is now Gillian Goldsmith and heavily involved in Astons, - a very capable driver and it should be easy to contact her.

[911thillclimber]

A very fast Lady indeed.
Also find Steve Wilkinson on here, he is a master of hill climb data.

[jamesholland]

May we see some pictures?

[ant]

yes would love to see some pics of this please, sounds like an interesting machine

[scholar96]

Here we go, I hope this loads OK.

If it has the picture below shows the car as we aquired it about 5 years ago, time has passed by very quickly and presure of work hasn't helped progress much.

The chassis has been checked over, prepared and painted now. We have an engine in the process of being built up, and paterns for the front bodywork are being made up.

Interestingly the original body was apparently the rear body / engine cover from a Cooper. The intention is to make a copy of ths body rather than use the later aliminium slab sided body which can be seen in the picture.

I have found a couple of early pictures of the car racing at Shelsley Walsh (I think) as soon as I work out how to copy and upload these I will put them up. One of the pictures has a name on the rear which is Bob Light, this looks like a professional job and I suspect it was taken when Jeremy Thurston was driving the car.

I have also found some more info about its previous owners etc., it would appear that the car was built by Jack Dillard in 1959, in about 1980 it was bought by Jeremy Thurston and John Pescott. from there it passed to Doug Hacking Motorcycles in the late 1980's. Several owners later it came into my possesion, we intend to try to get it out on the hills later this year.

[scholar96]

We have been working on Excalibur recently, we are also building an engine which is based on the T100 crank cases and internals, the intention once complete is to re-unite the car with the hills.

As can be seen from the latest pictures I have re-instated the roll bar as fitted in its early years, however we have used larger roll bar tubing, if you are going to have a roll bar it might as well work.








The pictures are of the car as it is now, before completion of the chassis and awaiting the newly rebuilt engine.

The picture below is of the car as campained by Jeremy Thurston some time in the 1980's.

[Gripper]

Hi, I was lucky enough to drive Excalibur at several Prescott meetings in 1987 following a 6X fuelled conversation with Jerry at a nearby pub the previous autumn.

It was fitted with a JAP engine at the time and was very entertaining to drive. This was how I felt at the end of each run! Sometimes I even made it to the top of the hill without spinning. Deep down I don't think it will be quite the same animal with a Triumph motor.

You may be able to contact Bob Light via the BOC at Prescott. He has plenty of pictures of Excalibur. I have some and will seek them out. Why not come to Prescott this weekend and find Bob?

Good luck with the project and I can't wait to see it again.

Clive Berry.

[scholar96]

Wow, thats brilliant, just the kind of post I have been hoping for.

I can appreciate the car may not be the same with a Triumph in it but unfortunately the JAP engine now resides with someone else, it was removed prior to me aquiring the car, and we have some experianced help with Triumphs.

Will you be going to Prescot.

We have some pictures of Excalibur but if you could help aquire some more I would be delighted.

[Gripper]

Excalibur @ Prescott in 1987, images by kind permission of Bob Light.

Being shorter than Jerry Thurston (most people are!) I needed some foam padding in order to reach the pedals.

Clive.

[scholar96]

We have realy made progress on Excalibur lately, it is mainly with thanks to 'Gripper' who led us to Bob Light. Bob sent me some pictures of the car racing at Prescot and from these we have been able to re-do the chassis to its original specification.

We have also had confirmation that the bodywork was originaly made in aluminium, and from the pictures we will be re-making it as it should be rather than the crude aluminium body that we already have.

This has of course meant some delays as we re-make some of the work already done but I think it is well worth it as this is quite an interesting little car.

We are still struggling to get much information about the cars race history pre 1980 but I am sure something will turn up sooner or later.

[scholar96]

Here are the latest pictures of Excalibur with a small speedway tank mounted as it was in the early days.

[scholar96]

After a long silence here we are again. We have been bevering away on Excalibur, and using information supplied by you guys we have finaly pinned down the specification of Excalibur as best we could.

The result is that the chassis is finished and the bodywork has been re-done in aluminium. We have tried to keep within the original spirit and style but have for safety reasons closed in some of the gaping holes in the side which are evident in earlier pictures.

The picture is of the car with the basis of the new body fitted ready to be finished.

We have now had the chassis powder coated in satin black (as a contrast to the polished alloy) and are about to start final assembly.