Identifying a car can be easy when you have enough historical photographs. I found quite a lot of holes on the car I recently bought, and all of them can be traced back to its past, wether they have been filled or not. It was the major key to identifying the car as the Le Mans Mini Marcos.
Holes for the side indicators were a giveaway on the Le Mans Mini Marcos.
But what's that little hole just in front of it?
Picture Jeroen Booij
This is the signature indicator like it should be, seen here at the Le Mans weigh bridge
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
But here we see the car again in 1970 at the start of the Treffort hill climb with the added hole.
I have no idea what this was for. Also note the modified bonnet, just like it is today
Picture via Enguerrand Lecesne
Holes were drilled in both doors to illuminate the door numbers during the night section
They have all been filled but cannot be rubbed out completely
Picture Jeroen Booij
The same door can be seen here with the lights still in it
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
And also from the inside it's clear that it used to have holes here. The doors appear never
to have had side boxes like most other early Mini Marcoses have
Picture Jeroen Booij
This is just to show the left hand side had similar lights fitted to illuminate the number 50
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
This is the modified bonnet of the car. You can still see the holes were the little bulges
were made to make the 1 1/2" SU carburetors fit properly
Picture Jeroen Booij
These bulges can be seen here, this picture was taken at Le Mans test day,
they were painted during the actual 24 hours race
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
The rear lights used came from a Simca 1000 and these should still fit in perfectly today
Picture Jeroen Booij
There they are as shown at the Le Mans pit street back in 1966
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
The big filler gap, now filled, was of course another great giveaway clou in identifying the car
Picture Jeroen Booij
Seen here with the now missing, and rather huge, filler cap. The tank is still there
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
This was another clue. The car originally had one of the fake louvres on the left hand side
opened up. It's still the same after all these years
Picture Jeroen Booij
Here again from the same angle, but now taken in 1966. The opened louvre is good visible
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Not much of the interior is left, but the dashboard still shows plenty of recognition marks
There are three holes on top, right of the centre, plus one on each side on the left
Picture Jeroen Booij
This is the only good historical photograph I have of the car's interior, taken in 1975
You can clearly see all the holes that are still there. Also note two holes in left hand door
Picture Michel Tasset / Jeroen Booij archive
The car used just a single wiper on the left hand side as it was left hand driven
Picture Jeroen Booij
Initially a wiper could have been fitted on the right, too, but this hole was later filled
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Great to see all of this. Love it.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the read and pictures again today!
ReplyDeleteThe rear lights were also used on the Lancia Stratos (sound much better then a humble Simca!)And in the RH wiper hole ther was a 90 degree tube pointing forward (no idea what that was for???
ReplyDeleteThanks chaps! Oh - and the 90 degree tube you mention must have been the wiper stalk.
ReplyDeleteThe wiper stalk was only there in the practice shots. In the race shots it's replaced by the forward pointing 90 dergee tube. here are some shots to look at
Deletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/147151765@N03/31662977256/in/dateposted-public/
Great to see this fabulous piece of both Marcos and Racing history here good luck with tracking the bits down and the rebuild.
DeleteFantastic Jeroen, so excited to see this! Cann't wait to see it in the original state
ReplyDeleteSame here Fred!
DeleteExcellent research and investigating Jeroen, it's so important to gather all the clues together so there can be no doubt of the cars provenience. Now comes the difficult bit, recreating all those details! Good luck with it, I look forward to the finished article.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Simon. I know it's not going to be easy, but still look much forwards to getting the puzzle right!
DeleteThis is fantastic stuff. If your journey is as much fun as it was when I started my Unipower you'll get lots and lots of new info coming your way. Enjoy the journey Jeroen!! Pete
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Pete! It is not unlike your car, isn't it? And like you wrote before, this forensic stuff is wonderful!
DeleteGreat find Jeroen, hope you find some of the missing parts
ReplyDeleteNick W.
Be interested to know what holes and filled in holes, are present under the passenger side of the car (remembering it was left hand drive). The provenience is crucial as a number cars have been painted up in these colours over the years.
ReplyDeleteSo what's the new on the other great question, was it stolen as you said in another article and any light on what happened and where it has been in the years in-between? The detective work must have been massive to track it down.
ReplyDeleteThe front indicator lights are very similar to this (as used on 2cv's among other French cars. http://s-www.iookaz.com/images/9af808eb-4f27-478a-89fd-ca1b091049c4/IOO_01/title-1478901208.jpg
ReplyDeleteAnd the long range lights are Cibie rather then Marchal ones (as they wrongly identified them for the LeMans replica) and should look like the first one you'll see when using Google with this name "longue portée CIBIE 1-10-01"
Thank you very much for that!
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