Wednesday 27 February 2019

Mystery Mini derivative (57)

Here we have a real mystery. These two pictures were found by Roald Rakers and he was eagle eyed enough to notice the A-series engine behind the single seat. Or actually: engines behind seats, as not just the red car wearing number 77 appears to use Mini power, but also the yellow one wearing number 66. Click up to see them bigger. All we know is that these pictures were taken at the Kaldenkirchen oval in Germany in 1987. This is a track used for auto speedway, so these cars must have been entered in that, too. The red car advertises 'Roban Engineering' and I can only find a company in Port Talbot, UK with that name. The yellow car's advertising is not quite so clear - 'Plorius' perhaps. Who knows mnore?

Kaldenkirchen 1987: a Mini powered speedway racer with links to Roban Engineering
Picture via Roald Rakers

Same track (Kaldenkirchen), same year (1987), same race? Yellow car is A-series powered, too
Picture via Roald Rakers

Zoom to see it better. Like the red car it seems to have Weber carb. Is that 'Plorius' on its side?
Picture via Roald Rakers

3 comments:

  1. Hi Jeroen, the telephone number on the red car is an old london one, 01 643 was the code for the Sutton/Belmont area.

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  2. Roban Engineering also known as Roban Pumps made double diaphragm pumps in the 1980's. They were from Gants Hill, Ilford, Essex - a London telephone dialling code. They no longer exist.

    The car looks a bit like a Terrapin, but with a much beefier rollcage

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