Tuesday 10 March 2015

The Latin Landar

It appears that Spain has had its fair share of Mini derivatives. We know there was this Unipower which also appeared in a funky movie, there have been some Broadspeed GTs; about a year ago we reported about the Mini Jaba found in a derelict state, while there was also a rare AMC Cub six-wheeler. Then there was a Spanish Mini Beach Car and there were a couple of Scamps owned by King Carlos. More recently a nice coachbuilt Mini emerged in Barcelona.

Avid reader Peter Camping now comes up with a Landar R6 that raced the Montjuich circuit during the Barcelona 12-hour race of October 5, 1969. Peter writes: "The Landar is named GT but I assume it's an R6. I found out about it as I was looking for more information about an F100 car which mentioned a certain David Boler with a car named Boler-BMLC (see scan). I found out that he drove this Landar in Barcelona. On your blog of 27 September 2012 I also noticed a D.E. Boler who raced a Cox GTM (see here) and I also recall reading about a Boler winning a North Yorkshire championship with a GTM - the same man?" The Landar, an R6 indeed, was raced together with a J. Stuart Whitehead.

Remarkably, not one but two Unipower GTs were entered to the same 12-hour race. One of them was a works car driven by Piers Weld-Forester and Robert Hurst, another a privately entered car driven by De Agustin and Alvarez. The latter did not arrive on racing day, while the works car did not finish the race. Also interesting is the Nerus entered Silhouette-BLMC mentioned on the 1970 Brands Hatch race sheet, as that car is linked to the Camber and Maya GT (see here). Thanks Peter for sharing these very interesting pictures. Wouldn't it be nice to find out more about the Landar?

The Landar R6 of David Boler and J. Stuart Whitehead in action at Montjuich
Picture via Peter Camping

And here about to overtake (?) a Costin Nathan sports car - similarly rare!
Picture via Peter Camping

Note that the Boler/Whitehead Landar R6 has a much-modified front end
Picture via Peter Camping

Boler came 10th at Brands. Nerus Silhouette-BLMC is interesting, too
Picture via Peter Camping

4 comments:

  1. This is the Nerus car; http://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/nerus-silhouette-f100-sale?feat=oldlink the BMC 1293cc engine is replaced by a Ford 1600

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  2. That's interesting. Do you know if it was a Mini engine? The lay out suggests it wasn't, but then that doesn't say too much…

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  3. Hi, J.S. Whitehead is my grandfather. I would love to hear any more information you have in regards to this. I will be sure to show him these photos.

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    1. Thank you for your comment. I have heard rumours of the car's survival, but have never seen any evidence of this. What I'd like to do is write another article on the car here on these pages or an update on this one, asking readers again if somebody knows more. It would be terrific if your grandfather could ad any input.

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