The Targa Florio Mini Marcos (2)

I wrote about the Targa Florio Mini Marcos recently (see here) and added that I do believe the car survives also. I still do, but finding out which of the Mini Marcoses with an early history in Sweden it is exactly, is no straightforward job. I'll try to explain my researches as simple as possible, but warn you that it's still full of side-steps and other details!

The article in the november 1967 issue of the Swedish magazine Bilsport is a great starting point for the search, as it describes the car in some detail. But it doesn't give away a chassis number and in fact mentions three Mini Marcoses being in Sweden at the time - two of these were owned by Jan-Erik Andreasson and his company Babea Racing while a third car was owned by Bo Elmhorn at the time, who ran Elmhorn-Troberg Racing Service of Stockholm (more here and here). That last car is in fact the easiest one to track down. It is chassis 7073, a car that is in the USA now (see it on the Mini Marcos Owners Club website here). So that leaves us with two. 

But now things get blurry. Remarkably, the Targa Florio car is generally believed to wear chassis number 7418, registered 'BSU 400' in Sweden. That car claims to have spent all of its life in Swedish racing circles and had been restored once in 1983 in Sweden before making it over to the UK in 2010 and be restored once again as a FIA Historic competition car (see here). However, this is a highly unlikely claim as the chassis number 7418 has to be that of a later shell. According to Joost van Diën, who knows his chassis numbers, this one is likely to have been built in late 1969 or even early 1970 and has all the features of a car of that age, too. So with the Targa Florio taking place in May 1967 it seems unlikely to be that. 

But what can be the reason for its claim then? Swedish Marcos Club man Per Haegermark provides the answer through a letter of which I have a copy. In it he writes: "This car (#7418 - ed) is definitely not the Targa Florio car. It was imported to Sweden in 1979 and registered as BSU 400 in Sweden on March 4th 1979. The person who imported the car was the co-driver at the Targa Florio. Johnny Lundberger. He formed a Mini-Marcos Historic Racing Team in the early 1980's together with two other Mini racing guys. I think it was easy for him to claim that this 'new' car was his old Targa Florio car. No one could argue about this then. Bearing in mind its higher chassis no. it is more likely it was built in 1969 or 1970 and definitely not in 1967 that's for sure. Regarding the requirement of the cars being road registered for Targa Florio in 1967, it seems that it was not mandatory, since there were no registration plates on it at the race."

So now it's the question which were / are the two cars owned by Jan-Erik Andreasson in 1967 and which of the two was or is the Targa Florio car. Look out for that in the next article.

1967 Targa Florio race saw a Swedish entered Mini Marcos run by Jan-Erik Andreasson

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The Targa Florio Mini Marcos came with a number of distinctive features

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The november '67 Bilsport article, which featured it tells about it in some detail

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Babea Racing AB was Andreasson's company

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Co-driver Johnny Lundberger in 1994. He died in 2009 but imported a Mini Marcos to Sweden in 1979

Picture Micke Pettersson / mpmoke.se

This car: 'BSU 400'. It is generally claimed to be the Targa Florio car but I don't think so 

Picture Platesmania.com

It has quite a comprehensive competition history also and is in the UK since 2010

Picture Jeroen Booij archive