British Sprint Curiosities

[allenbrown]

As I lurch from one project to another, unable to settle and finish anything, I've been playing around with results from the British Sprint Championship. I've heard of 98% of the cars that appeared but some are complete mysteries to me or, like the Felday, Vixen and Terrapin(s), ring only distant bells.

Who can educate me on any of these?

Aldon Viper-BMC A (Pat Ryan 1970-71)
Alton-Jaguar 1954-58 (Mike Barker 1970)
Beagle-Ford (John Chilton 1979)
BRD-Hart TS001 (Les Edmunds 1990)
Datalinski PG2-Ford (Tony Westwood 1978; Basil Pitt 1985)
DBM-Ford BDA 80/01 (Bill Morris 1985)
Felday-BRM (John McCartney 1970)
Harper-DBX (Peter & Ray Harper 1981)
JAS/Piranha-Ford TC (John Stonard 1977-83)
JAS-Elden-Lotus TC (John Stonard 1984)
Jasag-Rover SD1 (Eric Munnoch 1980)
JDS-BMC Sphinx (John Frampton 1977)
Jomo-Ford TC Mk5 F3 (Paul Mawson 1976)
Landar-BMC R6 (John King 1972)
Malan-Ford 83C (Alan Stevens 1983)
Mercury-Ford TC GT/23 (Pat Ryan 1971)
Merlin F2 BRM 1600cc (Peter Bull 1973)
Minib-BMC (Bill Niblett 1974)
Motus-Bultaco Mk 7 250cc (Dick Foden 1984)
Normandale-BDD/BDA HS88/1 (Roger Kilty 1989, Harry Simpson 1990)
NSU Snail VDTUIT (Robert McGimpsey 1989)
Rent-A-Hill Special-Ford (John Bailey 1973)
Rudeani-Ford (Adrian Moores 1974)
Sidewinder BMC Mk2 (Rick Stevens 1974)
SPA-Ford BDG 390 (Barry Goode 1990)
Terrapins various (Allan Staniforth, A G Turnock, John Frampton and Cliff Colwell)
Vixen VB5-Imp (David Render 1971, David Franklin 1972, Terry Smith 1974-75, Chris Bigwood 1976)
Wee-Ford (John Chilton 1977)
Zip Shadow-Yamaha 250cc (Phil Jefferies 1985)

There must be some interesting stories behind some of these.

Allen

[Nordic]

Terrapin

To the right of Red Pilbeam there is the rear of David Goulds Terrapin. In the entry its listed as a Gould Terrapin 80/3 1570cc.

Martini Mk1
to the right of the Pilbeam is a something called the 'Martini Mk 1'. it was powered by a 750cc engine and driven by a guy called Peter Wilson. in 1980 its FTD was 38.70 up the Val Des Terres class FTD was 34 sec. The following year it got done to 36.33 and was 4 in class. The overall FTD was J Thomson 30.95(I wonder whats happened to him) in a Pilbeam with a MP40

[Woolley]

Terrapins are built by Alan Staniforth. Well known to hill-climb fans, IIRC they were originally built for own use. Small, lightweight and motorcycle-engined, they're very quick little beasts. Their success lead to some being sold to customers - I think to order, but some would have been Alan's own cars being sold on. He went on to constuct an uprated version called a Megapin. I suspect these were among the first (carbon?-)fibre tubs on the hills. I remember reading a story where Alan nearly poisened himself with the fumes while working inside the tub!

he's also had published a book on the subject of design and construction of competition car suspension.

[Milan Fistonic]

Tearrapins were single seaters with rear-mounted Mini engines.

Staniforth wrote a book, High Speed - Low Cost, about the design and construction of the car.The sub-title is The story of a 140 mph Mini engined world record breaker and how to build it.

The book was published in 1969 and the cover blurb contains this:

Staniforth built his first Terrapin four years ago. Two more have since been built in Britain, and a fourth has been constructed in Panama. The car has had considerable success (including 20 class wins) in hillclimbs and short-distance sprints, culminating at the end of the 1968 season with the establishment of three world speed records for class G cars (750 - 1100cc) gained at Elvington in October.

[Jeremy Jackson]

The BRD TS001 was John Travis' March 75S look-alike that was discussed briefly on the March 73 - 77S thread. BRD was Blackgate Racing Developments, if my memory is still OK.

The Landar R6 was a sports-racer bulit in the mid-late 60s by the Radnall brothers in Birmingham (i.e Landar was their surname reversed). I think it used Cooper / Cooper S engine & transmission.

I think John McCartney's Felday-BRM was the P56-engined sports car that Mac Daghorn & Jim Clark used in the 1966 group 7 series here.

[D-Type]

Wasn't the Felday 4-WD?

[Jeremy Jackson]

Yes it was, sorry, should have mentioned that...

[allenbrown]

There seem to have been a number of Feldays. Westbury used a Felday-Damiler SP250 to win the 1963 Hill Climb Championship and, some years later, Tony Griffiths used a Felday 6 with a 4.7-litre Ford engine in 1966. Was it the Westbury car that was 4WD?

In one place, Mason's book refers to McCartney's 1970 car as the Felday 4 but the Sprint web site calls it the Felday 5.

Allen

[Vitesse]

Beagle: somewhere in the furthest recesses of my memory is an idea that there were several Beagles, specially built for the Monoposto Formula, which I think was a single-seater equivalent to Formula 1172.

Don't take that as gospel though ...

[Vitesse]

Just spotted the Vixen VB5-Imp listed too. The Vixens were built for the British national Formula 4 of the late 60s/early 70s, by a chap called Alec Bottam. Among the drivers who cut their teeth in them were Bernard Unett (70s tin-topper) and Mike Wilds, who reached F1 and is still driving in Historics.

F4 was originally for 250cc bike-engined cars, but the limit rose progressively first to 875cc (hence the Imp engine) and then 1000cc, which let in the medium-sized Mini and Anglia engines.

If this one first appeared in sprints in 1971, then it had probably just retired from F4, as the limit rose in 1970 and I think the Imp-engined cars were immediately outclassed.

[Vitesse]

There were four Feldays completed, but more planned:

Felday 1: Peter Westbury's Daimler-engined 4WD hillclimber
Felday 2 & 3: Aborted hillclimb projects
Felday 4: 4WD sports car with 2.0 litre BRM engine. Raced by Westbury, Mac Daghorn and Jim Clark.
Felday 5: 7.0 litre Holman & Moody Ford V8-engined Group 7 sports car.
Felday 6: 4.7 litre Ford-engined hillclimber used by Tony Griffiths and Jonty Williamson. NOT 4WD!
Felday 7: aborted road car project.
Felday 8: aborted F3 project.

Oh, and on the Landar ...

Reading Jeremy's post you might think the R6 was a one-off. According to Georgano there were fifteen, most of which may have been exported, fitted with 1300cc or 850cc BMC engines for SCCA Class C and D.

Someone called R Peart won the 1150cc class in the 1968 Canadian Sports Car Championship in one and a D Boler won the same class in the 1969 Yorkshire Evening Post Championship. Clive Radnall came second in the 1969 Motoring News Championship.

[Kid Prozac]

Originally posted by Woolley
He went on to constuct an uprated version called a Megapin. I suspect these were among the first (carbon?-)fibre tubs on the hills. I remember reading a story where Alan nearly poisened himself with the fumes while working inside the tub!

The first Megapin was in fact built by Ian Scott. The story told in 'Race and Rally Car Source Book' is cracking,

Yes, it was a complete carbon/kevlar tub wet layed up in his garage. The buck for the car was made from plaster, in the style of the Jordan 191, that took something like a month to cure!

Think the best piece from the story is when Scott eventually went on to turbocharge the engine. The story goes he had got friendly with a local store for the use of their huge car park to practise starts, one night testing a new design, the inlet exploded 'with such fercoity several locals reported a bomb going off' and the resultent explanation to the police who arrived shortly after!

Scott also put a push button pneumatic shift on the car, when it was rare even in F1.

IIRC, in 1994 the second one was built, this time by Staniforth and Scott, think this had a spaceframe, I remember seeing a picture of it in Autosport.

I also remember Glyn Sketchley having a pretty potent verison of the machine, and I think there was another built in 1995ish. Also a few years ago there was an orange one for sale in Autosport.

Does anyone know actually how may Megapins were built? I had the joy of speaking to Allan at this years Formula Student event, he was our design judge, unfortunately I didn't have the time over the weekend to speak to him some more, hopefully get the chance next year!

[Jeremy Jackson]

Originally posted by Vitesse
Oh, and on the Landar ...

Reading Jeremy's post you might think the R6 was a one-off. According to Georgano there were fifteen, most of which may have been exported, fitted with 1300cc or 850cc BMC engines for SCCA Class C and D.

Someone called R Peart won the 1150cc class in the 1968 Canadian Sports Car Championship in one and a D Boler won the same class in the 1969 Yorkshire Evening Post Championship. Clive Radnall came second in the 1969 Motoring News Championship.

I wasn't suggesting it was a one-off - my use of "The" was referring to the type, not as a singleton chassis. I saw Boler's car at Croft in 1969, and there were a couple in HSCC events in the 80s. Just didn't know how many were built.

They later did the R7, also using BMC (mostly Cooper S) components, and according to a conversation I had some years ago with an American owner, 26 of 35 built went to the US.

[Ol'_Motorhead]

" Someone named R. Peart ..."

I believe Roger is an expat Englishman who raced out of the Quebec region in Canada. I saw his Landar race at several tracks in Canada in the sixties. I'm sure I could find some photos of it but not so sure I'd succeed at posting them here . He was heavily involved in the governing body for motorsport (CASC) and I believe he's still active in the sport.

[Woolley]

Thanks for the extra details Mr Prozac, I was working from a not too-well informed memory, so the correction is appreciated.

[h4887]

The Mercury GT was really a Lotus 23 with a rather ugly body, featuring gullwing doors, IIRC...

Geoff Butcher

[Steve Wilkinson]

Right lets get cracking:

Alton-Jaguar - Built between 1954 and 58 for Sports Car racing similar to Listers owner/driver Mike Barker reputedly still owns te beast.

Beagle Mk1 - Built by Jim Yardley for Monoposto resembled the 1965 F1 BRM

Datalinski - Clubmens one-off used Mallock bits.

DBM - the Morris Brothers of South Wales built this Clubmens car using Mallock bits - common practice.

Felday-BRM - JJackson is correct and yes it was 4-w-d

Harper - another Clubmens car utilised Mallock bits.

Jasag-Rover - Built by Jim Sword up in Aberdeenshire. This chassis was eventually written off in a road accident when being trailered to an event. Single seater.

Jomo - Built as a 1 litre F3 car also run in F.Libre races.

Landar - again JJackson hits the nail on the head. Transverse mid mounted Mini engines. Ran in Sports Libre and GT classes.

Malan - Another 1 litre F3/F.Libre car

Mercury - H4887 is bang on - UGLY Lotus 23 chassised GT car - what a waste!

Minib - as the name implies this Sports car used Mini parts but as to configuration I have no idea.

Motus - this is a Kart which provided an excellent power to weight ratio

Normandale - single seater built for Atlantic which Roger Kilty ran. Harry Simpson bought it and after stuffing it into the trees at Doune's Esses the car was rebuilt and sold on to a driver in the South West. The car is currently in the Channel Islands fitted with a Suzuki engine.

NSU Snail - special built in Ireland which utilised a 1.1s NSU engine. Looked a bit like a baja special.

Rent-a-Hill Special - another mallock based Clubmens car.

Rudeani - small single seater built by Jack Heaton-Rudd and Frank Dean. Used Ford 105E engine and ran on ten inch Mini wheels.

Sidewinder - ally monocoque construction; orginally Mini engined but latter fitted with Kawasaki lump.

SPA - single seat monocoque built for a Hart 4 cylinder engine. Eventually fitted with a Judd V8.

Terrapins - Allan Staniforth built Terrapins but primarily for himself. He did however sell the plans and most cars were built from these plans. This left the 'constructors' a far bit of license and most were slightly different.

Vixen - Vitesse has nailed this one.

Wee-Ford - yet another Clubmens special.

Zip - another Kart device.

Finally

Megapins - constructed by Ian Scott in Cumbria they have featured varied types of chassis i.e. spaceframes; ally monocoques; ally-carbon fibre monocoques; full carbon fibre monocoques. All have been bike powered and all have been used in sprints and hillclimbs. Ian Scott should be out with his latest chassis in the 2005 British Sprint Championship.

Hope I haven't missed any!!!!!!!!!

[rbs]

The Alton Jaguar.This was started in 1954 and was based on a supercharged Alta engine.As this was unreliable a C type Jaguar engine and gearbox was fitted.Lotus coil spring front suspension and Aston Martin rear suspension was used. Registration no 5 GPK.

[Steve Wilkinson]

Just stumbled onto a brief history of the origins of this car:
1971 - Alan Richards purchased a Monoposto racer called the Alter Ego Special in partnership with Mike Bolton. This car had been fitted with a FIAT engine but this was retained by the original owner hwever the car was complete with the Citroen Light 15 gearbox. The pair then purchased a Ford Anglia 1.0 engine for seventy five quid. Before installing the engine the car was stripped down to the last nut and bolt and when the rebuild was finished renamed the Gryphon. At its debut event (Long Marston Sprint) the Gryphon was taken into second in class driven by Richards.
1972 - After a winter check over the Gryphon was back out the following year. At its first event the Gryphon broke the gearbox during Saturday's practice. En route home the pair stopped at a scrapyard where the purchased an entire Citroen Light 15 for fifteen quid. The donor car was driven home, the gearbox removed and installed in the Gryphon. The following day the pair were back at Prescott where Mike Bolton took second in class! The pair then made the decision to 'modify' the bodywork and it emerged looking a bit like a GP Eagle. However the car still handled like a pig. At the end of the year Bolton rolled the car at the Woburn hillclimb and although he emerged unhurt the car was in a sad state.
1973 - The car was then completely rebuilt (second time) over the winter. Into the new season and the car still handled badly. Eventually there was another big off, this time at Pontypool Hillclimb. Mike Bolton now dropped out of the partnership whilst Alan's brother-in-law Graham stepped in as mechanic. Alan bit the bullet and completed a redesign of the front suspension which he also made. This was duly installed during the rebuild and Gryphon 3AR was ready. Several class wins followed and the season wrapped up with an FTD at Fairford Sprint.
1974 - Over the Winter a regs change permitted cars to run superchargers without any penalty so for fifty quid Richards purchased and fitted to the Anglia unit. However this extra power caused headgaskets to blow on a regular basis and eventually there was a big bang when the engine let go. A replacement block was purchased and Alan rebuilt the unit. However it immediately started a death rattle and the acquisition of a new cylinder head cured the problem once and for all. In what was left of the season Alan scored well enough to be sixth in the Hillclimb Leaders.
Into 1975 and with success after success the Hillclimb Leaders championship was secured.

[Steve Wilkinson]

Having successfully campaigned a self built Terrapin John Frampton engineered and bulit the JDS Sphinx. It had a succession of BMC engines and also sprouted wings after initially having none. It looked a bit like an Elden with the spaceframe tub being covered in an ally semi-monocoque - very much a slab sided design.

[Steve Wilkinson]

I understand that the NORMANDALE started life as a Formula Atlantic GRD which was extensively modified to go hillclimbing. It ran as the GRD HS85. Normandale, who did the original changes, then reworked the car as the HS88.

[jamesholland]

I remember the Alton-Jaguar appearing in historic sports car races in the 1980s still owned by Mike Barker. The latest mention of it I can find is Flavian Marcais driving it at Montlhery in 2002 so possibly it is now French owned.

[Megashed Teaboy]

Bill Morris's DBM80 was in fact an Ensign which ran with March 782 bodywork on it. It ran with a few different engines including a Turbo charged BDJ. This car was only run by Bill, his brother David use to share the Mallock and an earlier Ensign. They use to be very quick at the now Defunct Pontypool Park.

Cheers

Rich

[John Stonard]

I may be able to help with identifying most of these cars and drivers - especially the ones owned and raced by myself. Allen, feel free to drop me an Email and I will fill in some details for you. Alternatively I will put together what I know and post here as soon as I can

[John Stonard]

Aldon Viper-BMC A (Pat Ryan 1970-71)
Pat Ryan lives in Halesowen in the midlands. The Aldon was a slender chassis designed powered by a BMC mini engine and used for sprints and hill climbs.

Beagle-Ford (John Chilton 1979)
John Chilton at the time lived in Weeford. He and Arthur Hinds raced as part of a team called the Beetroot boys. The Beagle was designed and built by Jim Yardley and powered by a Ford pushrod. Arthur Hinds, at the time, raced a Mallock powered by a Vegantune Lotus Twin cam.

Datalinski PG2-Ford (Tony Westwood 1978; Basil Pitt 1985)
It was built as a clubman’s racer, I think it was powered by a Lotus twin cam but may be wrong.

JAS/Piranha-Ford TC (John Stonard 1977-83)
Well I should know about this one. I purchased the car in ’75 as a rolling chassis. It was a copy of an Alexis and had been used a sprint car previously. I completely altered the car, namely the suspension and bodywork and then fitted a Lotus Twin cam. The car was renowned for its cornering abilities but was extremely heavy and was let down with straight line speed. Used on tight and twisty sprint and hill climb circuits the car was in its element. It was sold to a driver in Stafford (who the name escapes me, but he was not a competitor at the time) who drove the car into a tractor and wrote it off.

JAS-Elden-Lotus TC (John Stonard 1984)
This car was found in a garage as a rolling chassis. The chassis was built as a show chassis for Elden for the Formula 2000 series. The original engine used in the car was actually a wooden mock up. The suspension was not set up at all and was put on the car originally purely for show. When I purchased the car I spent a good amount of time modifying it to sprint specification and fitting a Lotus Twin cam of my own making. The car was considerably lighter than the previous Piranha. I raced the car in sprints and hill climbs up to the end of the 80’s when I retired from competing. My Nephew, Andy Saxton, had by then started to dual drive the car with me and later bought the car from me and continued. He stopped racing in the early 90’s and the car sat in his garage for many years. Towards the end of the 90’s the car was found to be no longer competitive so the engine/gearbox/suspension was removed and is at present being transplanted into a road legal Lotus 23 replica! The chassis was scrapped.

JDS-BMC Sphinx (John Frampton 1977)
All I can remember of this car was that it was a single seater.

Malan-Ford 83C (Alan Stevens 1983)
This car was built by myself in my garage in Elford for Alan. The tub was March copy built by a local Tamworth Formula 3 team. The suspension was a copy of the JAS Piranha suspension and fitted with a Lancia Twin cam. This engine proved to be unreliable and had a weak bottom end. It threw a rod through the side of the block at the Colerne Sprint near Bristol. The start line stewards were not happy as they got showered in hot oil and Italian conrods. Alan later fitted another Lancia engine. The car was later sold to Mike Duffield who replaced the ill fated Lancia engine with a BDA and heavily modified the car and suspension. Mike was from the Bristol area. The name MALAN is a combination of Alan and his wifes name, Margaret.

Motus-Bultaco Mk 7 250cc (Dick Foden 1984)
This car was built by Ray Rowen for Dick Foden.

Rent-A-Hill Special-Ford (John Bailey 1973)
BDA powered Mallock

Wee-Ford (John Chilton 1977)
A clubman’s racer built by John Chilton. It was powered by a Ford cross flow and John raced this car up until he bought the Beagle (mentioned above) and he became part of the beetroot boys. The name of team was actually 597 Beetroot, which was the name of his company in Weeford.

Zip Shadow-Yamaha 250cc (Phil Jefferies 1985)
Another Kart based racer. This and a few others were seen around the sprint and hill climb circuit around the same time. One was raced by Ray Rowen. These Karts caused a lot of controversy and were banned on a technicality of not having any suspension.