The Radnall brothers built only four Landar R7s, and so far I tracked down two of these. One of them was sold new in the USA and is still raced regularly there in the hands of Carl Braun. Another spends its days in a Japanese lock up garage in a pretty sad state now. Pity indeed. From what I understand car number three was heavily modified in the USA and (sadly, I think) equiped with a Suzuki motorcycle engine somewhere in the 1980s. The fourth and last car appears to be missing, but I think it could be the one on the picture below. The image was sent to me by former Landar R6 owner Milton Holland (more here), who took it on a hill climbing event but couldn't remember when or where. I think it could be Harewood, where Frank Aston raced a Landar R7 in 1971 - and far from slow, too. He took the baby CanAm racer to 1st in his class during the event and also brought it home 1st in the 'Castrol BARC Top Test Run Off', or so I found on the Harewood Hill history website... Now, where could this baby be today..?
UPDATE 10 April 2013: Not Harewood but Shelsley Walsh! Both Chris Gittins as Alistair Cox are sure. Chris wrote: "It is on a section of track called 'crossing'. Alistair added: "It is indeed Shelsely Walsh. Interestingly, there's a picture on this page of the Dennis Pegg noted on the Harewood program in his Lotus XI driving Pandora / Mistron at exactly the same point in 1974 (see here). Oh, and I know the owner of the 3rd car you mention, the much modified car in the US. Have sent him a link to this." Thanks chaps!
Frank Aston in the Landar R7 at what could be Harewood Hill climb
Picture courtesy Milton Holland
Frank Aston drove the Landar R7 to victory in his class and in the Run Off
Picture courtesy harewoodhillhistory.co.uk
Hi, The Landar is pictured at Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb. It is on a section of track called "crossing". Regards, Chris Gittins
ReplyDeleteHi Jeroen,
ReplyDeleteAs noted above, it is indeed Shelsely Walsh. Interestingly, there's a picture on this page of the Dennis Pegg noted on the Harewood program in his Lotus XI driving Pandora / Mistron at exactly the same point in 1974.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/racecar/pandora/dennis_pegg.htm
Oh, and I know the owner of the 3rd car you mention, the much modified car in the US. Have sent him a link to this.
Chers,
Al
Wow! Thanks Chris, thanks Al!
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI'm Dave Young from Springfield Illinois. I have the Landar r7 that you've lost track of. I have most all of it's history and the list of previous owners. I'd be glad to share anything about it. I have pictures on my Facebook page. I know Carl Braun and see his car at Vintage Sports Car Drivers Assocation events as I am the Chief of Tech for them.
Hi, just like to say that this is definitely not Frank Aston's R7, when you enlarge the picture it certainly doesn't look like him and when I spoke to his son about this, he confirmed my memory that the car was blue when he owned it, and he bought the car new from Landars in roughly '71.
ReplyDeleteFrank also had an R6, as did my father who bought his new as well around 1973. They ran a metal recycling business together and got into racing at the same time. We have no knowledge of what happened to Franks R7 after he sold it but this must be a later owner. After the R7, Frank commissioned the one and only R8 from Landars but only kept it a short time.