Lyncar

[marchof73]

I note that the name of Chris Morris has not been mentioned
I am sure he had an ex Nicholson Lyncar that he used in sprints and hillclimbs in the late 70,s/early 80,s/based out of Stroud.He then went on to Monopostos in a Lotus 69
If you,re out there Chris give me an email
Ian Thompson

[Steve Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by marchof73

I note that the name of Chris Morris has not been mentioned
I am sure he had an ex Nicholson Lyncar that he used in sprints and hillclimbs in the late 70,s/early 80,s/based out of Stroud.He then went on to Monopostos in a Lotus 69
If you,re out there Chris give me an email
Ian Thompson

I have a photo of Chris taken at Prescott in the Lotus 69 in 1976; can't say I ever saw him in a Lyncar.

[oneofapair]

To help with chassis number allocation for Lyncar group C car , the chassis plate bears the number 012 . I have this vehicle with a view to rebuild eventually and looked at the plate today(2/12/08). Hope this helps you to your final goal!

[St Eval]

Hi, my first post so be gentle.
The Roger Orgee car was run by Mike Lee on the Hills until a conrod tried to cut the block and head in two at Wiscombe a few years back. Mike then sold it as a roller. I may be able to find out from Mike what the Chassis number was.
The Ken Ayers car also resided in the Westcountry for several years, Run by Mike Remnant. It was re-tubbed by Ken Nichols and then laid up for several years. Then bought by Dale Pearce. Dale crashed it at Goodwood and I believe he has now sold it in damaged form.
I know this does not help a lot with chassis nos but at least adds a little more info. Cheers

[allenbrown]

Welcome Mr Eval. Just the sort of information we like. Thanks.

Allen

[David Martin Brown]

I have only just joined this interesting Group, and stumbled upon the Lyncar discussion. Keith Corridon ran the 79a 011 in Libre races in 1981 with a BDG. That engine expired at Castle Combe. I had been looking for a chance to go single seater and Keith invited me to buy in to the car for 82. We planned to run in Sprint events, both entering, and Keith also to compete in the Libre series. We purchased back an Alloy block 1600 BDA that Keith had previously used in his Taydec cars. It was, I recall, originally the engine in Dacre Harvey’s RS1600. Keith had developed it from standard engine into a very quick race engine running Lucas injection.
We entered it as Lyncar 79a 011. I had always understood it to have been the ex Villota car. Keith knew Martin Slater well and we had frequent visits to his premises at Slough. Therefore I am sure there should be no doubt about which chassis we had. I think there were two sets of bodywork, one lighter than the other. The original gel coat I seem to think was red.


Keith had done some development with the car prior to my investnment, including some changes to the steering geometry (Ackerman). We ran the car on a shoestring so to speak. Changing wings and roll bars between racing set up and sprint set up. At the start of the season we only had one set of rims for dry and three sets of tyres, so changing tyres for testing/race/sprint became a Friday evening ritual!
During the summer I sold my Lotus 41c and this gave us a little money to develop the car. Keith managed to locate a pair of ground effect sidepods which were from a Toleman F2 car. We think the profile was very similar to the Williams F1. Keith did most of the design work to adapt then to fit and as I recall we used some of the fixings already on the tub (that were there for sideskirts) and fabricated some alloy “hangers” to support the sidepods. Martin helped with some calculations, and the general concept. The fabrication was done by us but using Martin’s facilities at Slough while the fibreglass and spraying was carried out in Keith’s garage at his home. I think it was Mike the Pipe who made up the exhaust manifold which ran forward in the top of the sidepod clearing the airflow. It did give us a problem with heat build-up as the fuel pump was in close proximity to the manifold and starved of cooling air. The final car looked great.
The obvious problem was the existing rear suspension which was likely to interrupt the airflow. I remember sitting around the car at Slough with Martin and suggesting a lever arm suspension system locating the shocks at the rear of the gearbox. We just did not have the money to pursue such grand ideas. Martin helped out by lending us various springs and roll bars. Keith designed a smaller front wing. He also had the clever idea of using two grades of material in the side skirts. A hard section towards the front to take the wear from dive during braking and softer (better sealing) for the remaining 75% length. The testing was interesting, adding ever stiffer springs and roll bars. Just a few laps of Goodwood left me exhausted and bruised!
Although the ground effect worked very well, the car was really too heavy (it is a long time ago but I seem to think about 1200lb dry) for the little 1600. Some might say it was over engineered. The gearbox was an FGA 400 which I believe had been on Chris Amons F1 car at one time. The brakes were F1 spec. We used F2 size wheels and tyres. While great for the races they may have been too wide to warm up properly in the sprints, despite using soft Avon’s. We managed to find the money to have a second set of wheels machined by Jack Knight, oh the luxury of two complete sets of wheels/tyres!
An accident in the practice for a Libre Race at Donnington brought our season to a premature end. Sadly the chassis was put up for sale. I held on to the engine to put into a Caterham 7. A change of job meant that project closed just before completion and the engine sold on to a gentleman in the Midlands to be used in a Modsports Spitfire.
I recall a photograph of the car, in Roger Orgee’s hands driving through the streets of Birmingham, appeared in the National Newspapers on the announcement of the “Birmingham Grand Prix”. The last time I saw the car was about 5 years ago at Gurston Hill Climb where I recall it had a 2 litre BDG (?)running on Methanol.
Finally, just to mention that during my visits to Lyncar I was aware that design work was underway for the C2 car for Costas Los. They had worked on his Modsports Fiat X19. Also, we knew that Ken Ayres was interested in having a new car prepared based around a tub that was in the workshop. Almost certain the tub was unused.

Regards

David Brown

[davidjohnston8]

Originally Posted by davidjohnston8

The notes above are correct. The Ken Ayres car was built from a new tub that was hanging from the workshop roof. Martin was working on the DFV powered version of the Group C2 car for Costas Los, and the hillclimb car used the same rear end as the sportscar.

It ran a 3.9 DFL, which was bought from Lola's sportscar team through John Judd.

The last I heard of Martin Slater was he was living near Newbury, running Lybcar Stables, you can find him via Google.

If you are interested there is a great thread on Pelicanparts.com. Someone has found the styling buck from the Group C2 car.


> http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showt...0&pagenumber=1
>
> and see page 3
>
> http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showt...0&pagenumber=3
>

David

Its a few years since I checked up on this thread.

I am Ken's stepson, and had the joy of working at Lyncar for a couple of years. I can imagine that the new tub we used to build Ken's hillclimb car could have a duplicated plate. All you needed in those days was a set of number punches and you could put anything on a car.

As I mentioned before Ken's Car was a spare Atlantic tub that was hanging in the loft of Martin's factory. The rear end was a set of the Group C2 DFV suspension, it was built with two mounting positions, Group C2 and Hillclimb. We used an FGB box. The sidepods were built in house.

Ken ran the car with good success for a couple of years before using the engine in a new Pilbeam. Selling the car to the west country

The Group C2 car was abandoned the following year when a bodywork redesign failed, and we moved on to the March 84G.

During the end of the Group C project, Martin was commissioned to build a Supercar for an American basketball player. The one off car was built before the new owner was seen, the car was fantastic, the only little issue was the height of the owner. Martin had to cut the car down the middle, add 10' and redo all of the bodywork. The last I heard the owner spent years playing with the car before loosing interest.

The basic elements were then used to try to enter the Kit car market.

The last Lyncar single seater was a Formula Renault that ran in a couple of races before the money ran out

As I am full of stories, at one stage when we were clearing out the old Bath road workshop one of my friends saved the old F1 car airbox from a skip. He took it home, he lived at home and his mum would not allow it in the house.

Sorry to ramble

David

[mpbenson]

Hi all, well it's taken me a year or so until I spoke with Martin again, but I tried to collate the questions you'd posted into one email for his response;

Question 1. Does he know what happened to 006 after Vilotta had it?[
Went to a museum in spain, something to do Fangio

Question 2. Was there just a single F1 car or was a second car (007?) built?
There was a second chasis which eventually got scrapped

Question 3. Lyncar 007 was said to be a 1975 Atlantic car. Was it built?
Yes, it was built. Kevin Bowditch ran it in Atlantic and he bought it back about 15 years ago, and still got it but it needs a full rebuild. (intending to sell it)

Question 4. Was this all the same car from Wood in November 1977 on to Orgee or were there two or more cars in this history?
Yes, it was the one car.

Question 5. Was this car 008 or 009 or 010 or were all those numbers applied to it?
bit of a mystery that one, as there was a cock up. 10 was written off by Don Halliday when testing it (crashed at Goodwood), rebuilt it, Howard Wood raced it again and it was sold off to Orgee, and it was raised to 11 (then there was confusion cos there were 2 11's). 8 9 10 and 11 got really mixed up. Someone put the wrong numbers on the chasis at the time. Then it passed onto hillclimbers for several years... and Jeremy Bouckley now ownes it (back in it's original condition now, rebuilt by dad).

The other 011 was built for ken ayres for hill climbing.

Lyncar LA78-011 - Ken Ayres' hillclimb car.

Question 6. Was this indeed 'the last Martin Slater single seater'?
Apart from the Formula Renault, yes. It was the last for a long time. Still in hillclimbing but it has a rover engine now.

(Question 7. What was the chassis number of the MS83 sports car?)"

Cant remember but it was the Group C car.

From Howard Wood; "The key question for Martin regarding the F/ Atlantic car(s) built by John Anderson and me in 1977 and 1978 is the chassis no of the 1977 car and if a new chassis no was allocated to the 1978 car built from the 1977 remains.
If you are speaking to Martin please pass on my regards."

There were 4 chasis built of that type. One written off, the other never got built (spare), this was the 9, 10, 11 mixup.



To howard 'Great to hear from you, how is the leg? Lyncar is still struggling in Wales now. All the best to John if you ever hear from him.'


Hope this is of use, Martin hasn't changed - he still doesn't think my Clio Cup is a 'proper' car

[nacnac]

I am Nathan Corridon, son of Keith Corridon. I stumbled across this thread and it makes for some interesting reading!

If there is any further information anyone would like I will see what I can do. I will see if I can post some pictures on here at some point too.

Nathan

[allenbrown]

Originally Posted by nacnac

I am Nathan Corridon, son of Keith Corridon. I stumbled across this thread and it makes for some interesting reading!

If there is any further information anyone would like I will see what I can do. I will see if I can post some pictures on here at some point too.

Nathan

Your father's car isn't the easiest to figure out. It was called a Lyncar 79A on entry lists in 1981-82 but could you confirm that this was the same car previously driven by Emilio de Villota and Don Halliday, and later driven by Roger Orgee? Also, it would be very useful to know the approximate dates it was bought and sold.

Thanks!

[nacnac]

In answer to your questions:

Yes it was previously driven by Emilio de Villota (I don't know about Don Halliday). It was then sold to Roger Orgee.

Apparently it was built in 78 and bought by my father around 1980 as it was already 2 years old. It was then sold in early 1983, possibly January. Sorry but I cannot be any more precise on dates.

This is what my father had to say:


It was Emelio Villota who drove the car & John Anderson who owned it. I bought it from him as a rather sad rolling chassis, via Martin. I thought it looked okay without the sidepods, ( ex Toleman), but it was never quicker with them, although " more comfortable" to drive. Biggest problems were persistent understeer and excessive weight, esp. because of the DG gearbox. We wanted to widen the front track, to improve the ground effects, but Martin said it wasn't possible. It was a lovely car to look at & work on though! My best Libre race result was 2nd at Snetterton, where the car seemed to handle more neutrally than at Goodwood, in testing. Blowing up the BDG at Castle Coombe cost us most of that season & we reverted to the BDA with the same Lucas fuel injection, which then had too large throttle slides for a 1600, so the bottom end was rubbish. We would have been better reverting to Weber carbs, but we had spent a lot of money on the fuel injection system so kept it, but it was a pretty finickety system anyway. I eventually got the money back for the blown engine, from the engine builder but wasted a lot of that season. I didn't "back it into the Armco", but spun in practice at Regate & was hit by Martin Chambers in my old Taydec single seater, cracking the gearbox. Mum was 8.5 months pregnant with you, & we had no spare money to fix it & no time because of you & Abigail! I sold it as a wreck to Roger Orgee, less the engine.

[allenbrown]

Thanks Nathan - that's very helpful.

So about that Taydec. What can you tell us about that? Was that the Taydec Mk 5 single seater, as once used by Tate of Leeds Ltd in Formula Atlantic?

[oneofapair]

(Question 7. What was the chassis number of the MS83 sports car?)"


I can answer that.
The Chassis number is 012. I bought the car from Costas Los as a project and have yet to get round to starting, due to a number of other projects.One day maybe or perhaps she'll have to go!!! Have recently moved the vehicle and spares to new storage , in doing so took a couple of pics .See attached.

[allenbrown]

Thanks for that. Roughly when did you buy it from Costas Los?

[oneofapair]

It has to be 8/10 years ago ????

[PUG]

WAX MUSEUM. MADRID 2010.
LYNCAR ex-Villota FAKE?, dressed like colors "MADOM" of Lotus 78 ex-Villota, helmet "like Bellof" and with the name " M. SCHUMACHER "…, and the mechanic is throwing petrol with a spout of conventional gas station, for what orifice?

http://i2.tinypic.com/6svvvi1.jpg


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_APfsqkHnLV...s1600/DSC00847

Saludos

[allenbrown]

That certainly looks like the Lyncar. I was told years ago that it was in a museum in Spain but had been unable to identify which museum. It looks like it was repainted to be a show car at the time that Villota had the Lotus 78.

Great find!

[PeterMorley]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

That certainly looks like the Lyncar. I was told years ago that it was in a museum in Spain but had been unable to identify which museum. It looks like it was repainted to be a show car at the time that Villota had the Lotus 78.

Great find!

It's just about visible on their website, behind Fernando Alonso, still with the guy filling the water system with petrol!
http://www.museoceramadrid.com/ficha...s/f_alonso.php

It would be interesting to know how it ended up there, when my friend who knows Villota asked him about it he got the impression it had 'disappeared'.

Wonder if they'd be tempted by something more modern/appropriate...

[allenbrown]

I think you should try to find out Peter.

I had heard the same story (third hand) from Villota but I'd also heard (fourth hand) that Slater knew where it was and didn't particularly want anyone to find out.

[ensign14]

The helmet is Villota's design, but whom is the waxwork meant to resemble?

[Bruce Chambers]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

Thanks Nathan - that's very helpful.

So about that Taydec. What can you tell us about that? Was that the Taydec Mk 5 single seater, as once used by Tate of Leeds Ltd in Formula Atlantic?

Just came across this, I can't answer your question and several years on you quite possibly no longer care, but I do have images of the car as run by my father Martin Chambers.

[allenbrown]

Thanks Bruce. I have never stopped caring!

May I use these pictures on my (forthcoming) Taydec Mk 5 page?

[Bruce Chambers]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

Thanks Bruce. I have never stopped caring!

May I use these pictures on my (forthcoming) Taydec Mk 5 page?

Please do use the images, as I recall the car was sold to a chap in Scotland around 1983, although I think he was persuaded to take the car for very little more than he was willing to pay for the Hewland FT200 in order to clear the garage to make room for the newly aquired Lola T492 - bought from Martin Slater and collected from Lyncar - hmmm, we appear to be going in ever decreasing circles!