Connaught Type B series

[jamesholland]

Another one, the ex Leslie Marr "toothpaste tube" Connaught B Type which went to New Zealand with a 3.4 litre XK Jaguar engine fitted. It was later brought back to the UK by John Harper and fitted with a copy of its original streamlined body and sadly caught fire when sold back to New Zealand.

[Belmondo]

Originally Posted by jamesholland

Another one, the ex Leslie Marr "toothpaste tube" Connaught B Type which went to New Zealand with a 3.4 litre XK Jaguar engine fitted. It was later brought back to the UK by John Harper and fitted with a copy of its original streamlined body and sadly caught fire when sold back to New Zealand.

I think I saw John Harper race that car at the first meeting I ever went to (AMOC St. John Horsefall, Silverstone, 1982). I was only eight at the time though, so can't be certain of it.

[John Turner]

Absolutely right, Belmondo. I was there as well, but rather older than 8! I have the programme and Harper was entered in Round 3 of the Lloyds and Scottish Historic Championship.

[PeterMorley]

Originally Posted by jamesholland

Another one, the ex Leslie Marr "toothpaste tube" Connaught B Type which went to New Zealand with a 3.4 litre XK Jaguar engine fitted. It was later brought back to the UK by John Harper and fitted with a copy of its original streamlined body and sadly caught fire when sold back to New Zealand.

Apparently there was not much left after the fire but I think that, as with the P25 BRM, the original (Toothpaste tube) body survived and the car might have been rebuilt using that.

[David McKinney]

I believe it was the streamliner body that Harper fitted during the last rebuild, before selling the car to France

The history is a little more complicated than the James Holland version
1) Built 1955 as 2.5 Alta-powered streamliner
2) Marr fitted Jaguar engine for 1956 NZ races
3) returned to UK 1956, refitted with Alta engine, fitted with 'Syracuse' body
4) in historic period, rebuilt by Harper with Jaguar engine and toothpaste-tube body (a combination it never had in period)
5) Harper subsequently fitted streamliner body
6) Harper sold to NZ where car raced in both bodywork configurations
7) After the fire, returned to Harper and restored as above

[jamesholland]

David, thankyou for putting the record straight.
Do you know the history of the car between the end of its Grand Prix life and John Harper?

[John Turner]

Good question, James. Another one, David, is do you know the chassis no? Can't help feeling this 'one off' racer would be a suitable candidate for the Chassis History Archive, with a bit more info!

[jamesholland]

John, it is chassis B3.
I need to do a bit more research but a brief synopsis is as follows:

B1, the Syracuse GP winner, remained with Rodney Clarke and was raced in historics by Alan Cottam and Paul Weldon. Later owned and raced by Peter Hannen (I think) however I could be getting mixed up with B2 as Alain de Cadenet raced one and Peter Hannen the other
B2 see above
B3 Leslie Marr, NZ,back to the UK, John Harper etc as per David McKinney's post.
B4 Rob Walker. Later raced in historics by David Duffy, Paul Burdell, Tony Smith and now Nick Wrigley
B5 The car that Stephen Langton lost his life in. Later to Euan Pugh I think
B6 Retained by Connaught cars and on permanent loan to the Science Museum.
B7 Raced in historics by Ray Potter when owned by Alan McKechnie. Later on display in Donington Collection.

There are a couple of continuation cars built out of original unused compenents such as Peter Morley's B8 (?).

All the above is from memory and I must apologise for the lack of period info. There is lots to add such as the Bernie Ecclestone and Paul Emery periods after the works sold the cars.

[Belmondo]

What happened to Peter Hannen? He was very quick in that Connaught. Didn't Martin Stretton also race the Rob Walker one – as well as the C –*fairly recently? No idea how you lot can produce this stuff from memory.

[jamesholland]

No idea what happened to Peter Hannen and yes you are correct in saying Martin Stretton raced B4 for David Duffy after he had hung up his helmet.

[David McKinney]

Originally Posted by jamesholland

David, thankyou for putting the record straight.
Do you know the history of the car between the end of its Grand Prix life and John Harper?

Taken to Canada 1960 but was back in UK by 1974, then to Harper soon after that

I'll add my two bob's worth to the individual histories when I have a bit more spare time

[D-Type]

B6 was the car bought by Piero Scotti. When he was less than successful, he stopped making payments so the works reclaimed it. When the cars were auctioned off in 1957 it remained unsold and was later loaned to the Science Museum in London.
Source: The Motor Racing Merchants by Anthony Pritchard.

Pritchard also says that B1 was burnt out following an accident at the 1957 Syracuse GP

[David McKinney]

This is my understanding of the situation:

B1
1955 works streamliner (Rolt, Fairman, Parnell, Brooks)
1956 works Syracuse body (Leston, Titterington, Fairman)
1957 works (Leston crashed at Syracuse)
car reportedly written off but frame apparently retained, sold at the works auction later in 1957, and subsequently used in a B1 resconstruction
Passed through hands of Paul Weldon, Dick Walsh (1973), John Beasley (1979)
Owned c1987-92 by A J S Mayman, raced by John Harper, Chris Mayman etc
With Coys of Kensington in early 1990s. Now in a private collection

B2
1955 works streamliner, later Syracuse body (McAlpine, Oliver, Parnell, Leston, possibly Scott-Brown, possibly Fairman)
1956 works (Scott-Brown, Titterington)
1957 works (Fairman, Bueb, possibly Leston)
sold at auction to Coombs and Young, Guildford
David Gardner in hillclimbs 1965/66
Owned early 1970s by Rodney Clarke and raced by Cottam, Walton, Weldon)
Via Rodney Tolhurst to a Belgian museum in 1980s
1988-1991 Peter Hannen, also raced by de Cadenet, who seems to have had ownership late 1990s

B3
1955 Leslie Marr private streamliner
1956 Leslie Marr NZ with Jaguar engine; then incorporated into works team, refitted with Alta engine and one-off ‘Dart’ body but not raced
1957 works ‘Dart’ (Lewis-Evans)
Sold at auction to B C Ecclestone. Raced by Lewis-Evans 1958
Paul Emery 1958-59 (raced by him, Bruce Kessler, Tony Skelton)
Peter Murdoch 1959 - took to Canada in 1960
1974 with Rdney Clark in UK
Thence to Harper who refitted Jaguar engine, raced with Dart and Streamliner bodies 1980-93
Paul Leuch raced NZ 1984-87 (both bodies)
Badly damaged in fire 1988 but returned to Harper who rebuilt with streamliner body and sold 1990 to Michel Gosset, France

B4
1955 R R C Walker Racing Team private car with one-off open-wheel bodywork (Rolt, Peter Walker, Fairman)
1956 R R C Walker Racing Team (Parnell)
1957 R R C Walker Racing Team (P Walker, Fairman)
Sold at auction. Raced by Ken Flint and Verdun Edwards 1957-58
Driven by Jim Berry for Alan Bateman 1960 and R M Bartram 1961
N Cutts 1962-63, later Bob Salvage, 1965-66 Peter Brewer
Rebuilt by Rodney Clarke in 1970s and renumbered B5
Chris Drake late ‘70s/early ‘80s, then David Duffy 1984-1993 (also driven by Lindsay Owen-Jones, Martin Stretton) renumbered B4 during Duffy’s ownership
1993 David Cark, 1994 Paul Burdell, 1995-2000 Tony Smith (also driven by David Clark, Ted Rollason)
Via Taylor & Crawley, Neil Corner and Duncan Hamilton Ltd to Nick Wigley 2003-date

B5
1956 works Syracuse body (Scott-Brown, Flockhart)
1957 works (Bueb, Leston, Lewis-Evans)
Sold at auction to J B Naylor and Geoff Richardson who raced 1957-59
John Norris 1960, D F Gardner 1961-64 (also raced by Mrs Hodgson), Peter Brewer 1965
Then to Rodney Clarke who dismantled and used best bits in his rebuild of B4
Later econstructed on original frame and renumbered B4
Stephen Langton 1978-88 (also raced by Soames Langton and de Cadenet)by now renumbered B5
1988 via Ed Hubbard to Ean Pugh

B6
1956 works Syracuse body (Gerard, Fairman)
1957 Piero Scotti on lease
Not sold at the auction. Ownership retained by Kenneth McAlpine who loaned to London Science Museum. To National Motor Museum some time in the 1990s

B7
1956 works (Leston, possibly others). Sold to Scotti but returned to works
1957 works (Scott-Brown, Bueb)
Sold at auction to Ecclestone, and raced 1958 by Salvadori, Scott-Brown, Fairman
Through trade to Peter Brewer 1965-66
Alan McKechnie 1967-72 (raced by Keith Knight, Tony Hutchings, Ray Potter)
1973 Tony Mitchell (raced by Potter)
Subsequently owned by the late Paul Morgan of Ilmor fame and on long-term display in Donington Collection

unknown
Parts owned by John and Peter Morley in Belgium in 1990s built into ‘spare chassis’ by Spencer Longland 2001.

[PeterMorley]

I can add a few more details:

B1 is in Bernie Ecclestone's collection.

Pretty sure B2 still belongs to Alain de Cadenet.

As you say B4 & B5 seem to have had their identities swapped round.
B4 should also have a different style of body - it was the first car without streamliner bodywork and was different to the works Syracuse style.

The space frame C-type was numbered C8 and is owned by Micheal Steele.

At the auction in 1957 they sold 2 chassis frames, one from B1 after it was burnt in Syracuse and was rebuilt as B1.

The other chassis was an un-numbered spare, bought by Dudley Gahagan at the auction, together with other components, and subsequently sold to us via the Langtons. This is known as B9 (number assigned by Duncan Rabagliatti).

The chassis together with a set of original components (engine, suspension, wheels, steering, brakes, gearbox etc) was built up for us over many years by Spencer Longland, with a new body copied from B2 (which is the most original, after B6 which was inaccessible). More recently it has been sorted out by Tim Dutton and is currently being prepared for next season.

The Langtons also built 2 chassis, one was assembled with a lot of original parts and sold to Josh Sadler, who also has the Connaught pre-selector transaxles and is apparently building a rear engined Connaught like the J-type that was never built.

The second Langton chassis ended up with Spencer who has collected various original bits and pieces over the years and will one day turn them into a car.

[jamesholland]

One of them was owned for a time by Colonel Herbert Jones, who was killed in action in The Falklands, in the 1970s. It was often entered for VSCC events but as far as I can remember never appeared. Can anyone identify which one this was?

[Patrick Morgan]

Stumbled upon this forum whild doing a little reserch.... For those interested:

B7 is now owned my my sister and I and has brought back from the Donnington Collection as it was starting to go a little moldy. The plan is to restore it to running condition next year. I have all the run sheets, what has been listed above is fairly accurate other than to add that Mr. Eccelstone drove B7 during qualifing for the Monaco GP in 1958.

Regards,

Patrick Morgan

[John Turner]

Warm welcome, Patrick. Thanks for the update, and we look forward to seeing it run!

[Leighton Irwin]

Peter Murdoch brought B3 to Canada and drove it sporadicaly. Note drove, not raced. Pretty slow. One event was at the Glen in a F. Libre race won by one S. Moss in a Cooper F1. Car sat in Toronto for a few years and in 63 I bought a 1/3 interest along with Yvon Corriveau. The plan was to convert it to a Can-Am car. Big mistake. Nothing happened and money disappeared.
Peter was Redex Canada and took in a partner by the name of Tom Hand. Before long Tom took over Redex and the Connaught was supposed to be an asset?? of Redex. So much for Andy and my 1/3 shares. Anyway, I was friends with Tom and arranged the sale back to Rodney Clarke. At least I recouped a little of my money. About 10 cents on the $. Live and learn.

[allenbrown]

There was a series of articles on Connaught in Motor Sport 1986/87. Jan 87 included part 3.

[David McKinney]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

There was a series of articles on Connaught in Motor Sport 1986/87. Jan 87 included part 3.

I wasn't allowed to use my own name for those

[jamesholland]

It was nice to see Tony Brooks reunited with a B Type Connaught at Goodwood last weekend and it looked absolutely right - would the very dark and slightly matt green be the correct colour and which chassis was it? I didn't recognise the car as one I had seen racing in recent years.

[PeterMorley]

Originally Posted by jamesholland

It was nice to see Tony Brooks reunited with a B Type Connaught at Goodwood last weekend and it looked absolutely right - would the very dark and slightly matt green be the correct colour and which chassis was it? I didn't recognise the car as one I had seen racing in recent years.

It is Josh Sadler's car built from a mixture of new and original parts that the Langtons had.
The project started a long time ago and was nearly finished when family tragedy apparently halted it, I think they have only just got it running.

Like the Lancia D50s, the attention to detail is great - proper ribbed hoses connecting the fuel tanks etc.
I'm not sure about the colour though, don't think any Connaught was ever that colour.

He also has the pre-selector transaxle built for the rear engined J-type Connaught project and is apparently going to build one.

[jamesholland]

Thankyou Peter.

The reason I thought the colour might be correct was because in old colour shots the early streamliners looked like they were that colour. Admittedly green is a colour which fades in photographs so we've probably no way of telling.

[PeterMorley]

I think the paint was slightly metallic which didn't seem right to me, but I think the BRM was so you never know.
The only original paint I've seen is on the short Monaco nose from one of the cars and that was a fairly bright green.
The Science Museum/Beaulieu & Morgan cars have very old paint (but not the original for the Scotti car since IIRC it was red) and I've not seen them for years to know what they are like.
It is really difficult to know about the streamliner's colour(s?) since old photos are so variable, I wonder if the Draw a Long Line book mentions the colour?
Peter

[markymark1]

Hope i am in right place for this as new to site and new to forums!! so i apologize now!!
Basically need information a car my father owns,as far as we know it is a connaught streamline body, but it has no fin now. he has had it from 1960-1970 found on a farm in a shed. Im awaiting for dad to get the info on it and will post later in the week!!! just wanted to say hi and before posting all information on it make sure im in the right place!!
Thanks for your time and hope im in right place and if not sorry!!!
Regards
mark