A Landar R7 (one of 4 built), which turned up in a German television show last week could be a car that previously made it to these pages (see here and here) but I'm not sure. Reader Thomas von Kreisler thinks it is. He wrote: "I found the lost Landar R7. It is in Düsseldorf Germany since the 70s. The owner hill climbed it and it has been in his shed ever since. He is in his seventies now and sold it in a television show in his yard for € 5500. The car has an A-series 1275 engine (possibly Formula Junior) with Hewland gearbox, which was missing although a box of ratios came with the car. Best wishes - fantastic books - thank you for the nice work, Thomas."
I found out that the show is called 'Der Trödeltrupp' ('The Mess') on channel RTL2, which broadcast the episode with the Landar last Friday, but unfortunately couldn't any more information on the car in relation to the programme. I did find one picture of it, which shows the car with a white body. Could it be the car from the brochure as shown below? That appears to have been white, too.
This Landar R7 was supposedly sold for 5500 Euros from a German lock-up
Picture courtesy Good Times Fernsehproduktion
I found out that the show is called 'Der Trödeltrupp' ('The Mess') on channel RTL2, which broadcast the episode with the Landar last Friday, but unfortunately couldn't any more information on the car in relation to the programme. I did find one picture of it, which shows the car with a white body. Could it be the car from the brochure as shown below? That appears to have been white, too.
This Landar R7 was supposedly sold for 5500 Euros from a German lock-up
Picture courtesy Good Times Fernsehproduktion
The car shown in the brochure and a few magazine reports was white, too
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Hewland? Then the engine must not be transverse...
ReplyDeleteFinding another Landar R7 is a great! That makes four currently known and possibly all of them.
ReplyDeleteIn the year 2000 I talked with Peter Radnall who confirmed he thought four were built. I’ve actively raced Landar R7 (SN 70411 – LCF!/1300S 7042) in the USA since 1999. I also have a friend in USA who owns a second R7 which is modified and now has a motorcycle engine and different body, and then there is a red car in Japan that Jeroen discovered. That makes four.
I’m not sure which car was the first. I plan to look at the photograph of the car in Germany and compare it to the original sales brochure, and to the frame in my car for differences. Anyway it is absolutely great to know this car exists.
If anyone can help me I would like to make contact with the prior/current owner of the car in Germany. Hopefully someone will have that information.
Carl Braun / clbraun@vintagerace.net
Hello everybody, I am the proud owner of the car now! After having had a good look at everything it appears to be in good original condition. It actually has an Austin-Mini-race engine, no gearbox but it was a Hewland Mk8 or 9. Engine and gearbox are not transverse, this seems to be a modification that the car received in the early seventies. I have a copy of the original "Wagenpass". The owners/drivers were Peter and Heinz Hardt. Peter Hardt was known for racing the Landar R8 from 1975 on. The races mentionned in the Wagenpass date from 1972 to 1975, so obviously the car was replaced in 1975 by the R8. It seems that the car was not raced anymore after this. The Wagenpass has been issued in spring 1972 but the car has a 1970 chassis number. So obviously the car was raced by it's first owner from 1970 until end of 1971. May be it was Frank Aston? I read in a forum that Frank Aston raced a blue Landar R7 and that the car is missing. In any case, my car initially was blue! I would appreciate any information on the car and am happy to give any information as well as photographs which could be useful for this forum!
DeleteThanks for your message. There was only one blue Landar R7, so chances are it was indeed Aston's car. Any more pictures would be much appreciated. Could you send them to jeroen@jeroenbooij.com ?
DeleteHello again, I have found Heinz Hardt, I had him on the phone right now! He gave me some first informations: He and his brother Peter Hardt (he died last year) bought the Landar from Frank Aston and the car was blue. Is Frank Aston still around? Does anybody know if he was successful with this car and where he raced it? It was Heinz Hardt who did the modification to the Hewland gearbox, it was a Hewland Mk8. To be able to do this conversion they used an Austin-Healey Sprite crankshaft and a special adaptor from Hewland. The engine which is actually in the car is a race engine but has "only" one Weber carburettor with a huge intake manifold. Heinz Hardt told me that they ran the car with a special cast iron 8 port head and 2 Weber carbs, later on they used an aluminium head with 4 Amal-carbs! Is it possible to find such a cylinder head? Any help will be appreciated. Heinz Hardt was very excited that the car has reappeared, he will send me photographs from those days if he finds some, and is happy to give any information about the car. I will take some good pics and post them.
DeleteThat's excellent news. I will dig out my R7 file too!
DeleteI have a bunch of photos of Frank Astons R7 and happy to send some scanned images to Anonymous if you would like. He owned R6/7/& 8. Although the latter was towards the end of his participation. I would be interested to know where that ended up. The R7 was hugely successful. It slotted into the under 1300cc sports car class and there was really nothing to touch it. It was super light despite having a bigger Can-Am look about it. It had a fuel injected mini engine with curved injector pipes which pushed into the drivers compartment - it pulled 133bhp. One event at I think it was Prescott Hill climb he made it into the top 10 run off with all the big boys and their single seaters. The car demolished all the class records wherever it went. Clive Radnall was a clever guy and great to see these cars are still out there.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your message. It would be lovely to write another article on the car here. Feel free to contact me on jeroen@jeroenbooij.com
Delete