5 Stimson Scorcher replicas / rip-offs
Unipower GT: lost film footage found, director's daughter tracked down and a heavy crash
The 4-wheel drive Mini derivative - made by the Ford Motor Company
Showing posts with label Crashes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crashes. Show all posts
Monday, 23 June 2025
Wednesday, 20 January 2021
New Zealand MiniSprint: Crashed, rebuilt and... disappeared
Graeme Farr's messages always bring a smile on my face, and the one he sent recently did so, too. He wrote: "Did I ever send you this cool period photo of Tony Gilbertson's car after he crashed it in '67? It was rebuilt as good as new. Still hunting for the car...
It's the genuine Trickett built car Tony imported to New Zealand in 1966. Best, Graeme"
As always with Graeme he had more to show, adding later: "The two photos of it in blue but without the racing livery is the rebuilt car."
That is indeed an amazing photo and it looks like the smash was one easily forgotten also and I was amazed to hear that Gilbertson walked out with only minor injuries. Who knows what happened to the rebuilt car..?
Original 1966 MiniSprint imported from the UK was crashed heavily in NZ in 1967
Picture via Graeme Farr
Crumpled up seriously - amazingly driver Gilbertson suffered minor injuries
Picture via Graeme Farr
This must have been before the race - the 1967 NZ Grand Prix at Pukekohe circuit
Picture via Graeme Farr
And another period colour photograph. Venue unknown
Picture via Graeme Farr
And again at a NZ racing venue. The car was rebuilt after the crash but where is it now?
Picture via Graeme Farr
More from Graeme's scrapbooks. Top two pics show the car as he last saw it
Picture via Graeme Farr
Wednesday, 30 September 2020
The cars of Douglas Glover (2)
Douglas Glover of Dublin, Ireland, made just a few cars under the DGS banner and this is the second to take a more detailed look at.
After a first DGS Special, a buck / prototype for the DGS Firecrest and the first production car registered 'LZD 775' (full story here), the second DGS Firecrest became 'RZD 407'. It had a number of differences from the earlier car, for example the air intake on the bonnet and the lack of door handles. The car was used to shoot a number of publicity pictures and was seen in a few magazine articles.
What exactly happened in the first couple of years of the car's life remains unknown, but RZD 407 showed up in the hands of rally driver and hill climber PJ Wilhare in the late 1960s. By that time it used an extra air-intake and alloys, was bumper-less and was seen with a hardtop, too. Things went wrong when Wilhare entered the car at Knockalla hillclimb in Donegal in 1970. A fast left bend proved to be too much for the Firecrest and rolled at high speed. Somebody described it as follows: 'In a scene resembling an air crash Wilhare ended up sitting on the remains of the floorpan with the debris scattered far and wide.' What was left of the car was scrapped, but the crash made history as the fast left bend is christened 'Wilhare's Corner' ever since that day in 1970. Some more information on the Knockalla circuit and Wilhare's Corner can be found here.
DGS Firecrest production car number 2, seen here in a nice publicity shot
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Original caption: "Motoring in Ireland on holiday can be leisurely enough to enjoy a
friendly chat. On the road near Kilkieran, County Galway"
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Even the donkeys are friendly in Ireland! Note standard wheel covers, an 850 base..?
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Headlight covers made the Firecrest's nose even more aerodynamic. Standard Mini looks like a brick!
Picture courtesy Richard Heseltine
PJ Wilhare competed the car in a number of races with hardtop. Here at Kirkistown in 1969
Picture via Graemme Farr / Jeroen Booij archive
And here at Knockalla hill climb a year later. It was going to be the car's last outing
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Seen here with PJ Wilhare behind the wheel in the fast left bend. Things were okay here...
Picture via 'Pictures from the Past'
... But then it went wrong. This shot is taken just after it crashed - the Firecrest is surrounded with spectators and is not visible, though. Competitors were making their way back down the hill. All that was left of the DGS was the floor!
Picture Eddie Fitzgerald / O'Kane cars
Tuesday, 16 June 2020
All about the Hamlin Special - once the Fastest Mini in the World
An overwhelming amount of information has come to me about the Mini Special of Frank Hamlin (not Hamblin), which I wrote about last week (click here). I understand that Hamlin passed away in 2016 but he was involved in racing Minis for most of his life, still being New Zealand's Mini racing champion at the age of 74. Also: the car survives and is currently being restored.
Ken Douglas sent a great number of photographs of the car being raced, crashed and even being built back in 1965-'66. The tuning company that was also on the car's front wings was named Hamlin Charles Ltd. after Hamlin's team-up with Murray Charles in 1965. Ken also knew the car's current owner is Neil Whiting who is working on its restoration.
Another unbelievably detailed source of information was - once again - Graeme Farr, who even owned the Mini Special at one stage and sent over a first-hand story, mostly from talking to Frank himself about the car. Graeme wrote: "Frank called the car a Lowline Mini and it was built for an allcomers saloon class in 1966. But publisher Robin Curtis who bought the car off him and converted it to a road car called it a Minisprint and had a badge made that is still with the car."
He continues in great detail: "It was built out of a blue 1959 lightweight Mini but had parts from a wrecked Cooper 'S' which Frank bought. A panelshop chap called Jack Paterson (who was my neighbour in the '80s) did the alloy bonnet and doors and his employee Neil Hawker and polytech tutor John Oldfield did the roof lowering and John did the front guards with Neil finishing them."
"The car had the Cooper 'S' engine with a initially a AEG163 head ground by a chap called Bob Austin but I think to Frank's design. A new head was fitted later and also ground by Bob but this head was down 7-8hp than the original but Frank got this back when he further modified the head. The car had 105hp at the wheels on the rolling road dyno that Hamlin and Charles had. It had a 45DCOE Weber with a cold air box behind the alloy sheet dashboard which fed from the passengers side headlamp cowl. The cam was an Australian John Harvey cam which was a back to front BMC Sprint cam - with a exhaust duration longer than the inlet - which is like a modern race cam. Franks made his own big bore exhaust much like a BMC Competitions one."
"The car had a 16 row oil cooler and a crossflow radiator out of a Standard Vanguard 6. It had a straight cut box with a Jack Knight pawl LSD and was high geared to match the slippery shape. It ran a 3.7 at all tracks except the faster Pukekohe in Auckland where it ran a 3.4 ratio. It was timed at an amazing 132 mph in a flying 1/4 mile sprint with 8400-8500 on a 3.4 diff at the Main Drain Road sprint near Palmerston North. It was reported in a UK magazine as the 'Fastest Mini in the World'."
"The car had 5.5" Minilite wheels and a rear anti-roll bar and no seat belts and no roll-over bar. It had front negative camber by re-drilling the inner mounts on the bottom arms. Frank used a standard Mini seat and steering wheel. The car was painted a General Motors grey colour by the local GM agents Manthel Motors in exchange for work on a Holden used for the Benson and Hedges sponsored annual long distance production race which Frank drove with local racer David Slater."
"Frank raced it with considerable success in the 1966 season. The big crash at the Wigram airfield races was caused by an outer CV breaking on a high speed left-hander before the main straight. The car oversteered and hit a barrier and flew 30 feet into the air before coming down upside down and spinning 360 degrees on the roof - hence the damage. One report had Jim Clark pulling Frank out of the back window and telling him off for not wearing a seatbelt. Frank said petrol was dripping when he was upside down."
"The car was repaired but the regulations changed after 1966 when Group 2 was introduced which required a standard body. Frank sold the car to Robert Stewart in Christchurch who raced it briefly before converting it to a standard shell which became famous as the PDL Mini. Robert kept the EU7304 number plate, possibly because it was off the original Cooper 'S' that Frank has used."
"Robert put an 1100cc engine into the Lowline car and used the number plates off the standard donor body. He sold the car to well known journalist and publisher Robin Curtis who used it as a road car and daily driver for a number of years. Robin later painted it purple and fitted a 1275 engine and brakes off a Morris 1100. The car had a quilted headlining when Robin gave me a ride in it in the late 1970s. It was well used inside and out and still grey and silver at that stage."
"Robin sold the car to local Mini racer and mechanic Peter Zivcovic mainly for the modified 1275 it had which Peter used in his race Mini. The shell then ended up with Neil Whiting who sold it to me around 1985 - and then bought it back in the mid-1990s. Neil still has the car and is restoring it at present."
"An interesting aside is when the Wellington makers of iconic Mini movie Goodbye Pork Pie asked Robin Curtis who might be a good Mini driver to do the stunts for the film - he said he didn't know but had just sold his Minisprint to a local Mini racer and passed on Peter's details. They employed Peter who did a superb job on the film and has continued in the movie industry ever since. So the little Minisprint had a role in the success of the Pork Pie movie as well!"
Thanks very much to everyone who sent information about this very special New Zealand Mini Special, especially Ken and Graeme. Keep it coming!
Ken Douglas sent a great number of photographs of the car being raced, crashed and even being built back in 1965-'66. The tuning company that was also on the car's front wings was named Hamlin Charles Ltd. after Hamlin's team-up with Murray Charles in 1965. Ken also knew the car's current owner is Neil Whiting who is working on its restoration.
Another unbelievably detailed source of information was - once again - Graeme Farr, who even owned the Mini Special at one stage and sent over a first-hand story, mostly from talking to Frank himself about the car. Graeme wrote: "Frank called the car a Lowline Mini and it was built for an allcomers saloon class in 1966. But publisher Robin Curtis who bought the car off him and converted it to a road car called it a Minisprint and had a badge made that is still with the car."
He continues in great detail: "It was built out of a blue 1959 lightweight Mini but had parts from a wrecked Cooper 'S' which Frank bought. A panelshop chap called Jack Paterson (who was my neighbour in the '80s) did the alloy bonnet and doors and his employee Neil Hawker and polytech tutor John Oldfield did the roof lowering and John did the front guards with Neil finishing them."
"The car had the Cooper 'S' engine with a initially a AEG163 head ground by a chap called Bob Austin but I think to Frank's design. A new head was fitted later and also ground by Bob but this head was down 7-8hp than the original but Frank got this back when he further modified the head. The car had 105hp at the wheels on the rolling road dyno that Hamlin and Charles had. It had a 45DCOE Weber with a cold air box behind the alloy sheet dashboard which fed from the passengers side headlamp cowl. The cam was an Australian John Harvey cam which was a back to front BMC Sprint cam - with a exhaust duration longer than the inlet - which is like a modern race cam. Franks made his own big bore exhaust much like a BMC Competitions one."
"The car had a 16 row oil cooler and a crossflow radiator out of a Standard Vanguard 6. It had a straight cut box with a Jack Knight pawl LSD and was high geared to match the slippery shape. It ran a 3.7 at all tracks except the faster Pukekohe in Auckland where it ran a 3.4 ratio. It was timed at an amazing 132 mph in a flying 1/4 mile sprint with 8400-8500 on a 3.4 diff at the Main Drain Road sprint near Palmerston North. It was reported in a UK magazine as the 'Fastest Mini in the World'."
"The car had 5.5" Minilite wheels and a rear anti-roll bar and no seat belts and no roll-over bar. It had front negative camber by re-drilling the inner mounts on the bottom arms. Frank used a standard Mini seat and steering wheel. The car was painted a General Motors grey colour by the local GM agents Manthel Motors in exchange for work on a Holden used for the Benson and Hedges sponsored annual long distance production race which Frank drove with local racer David Slater."
"Frank raced it with considerable success in the 1966 season. The big crash at the Wigram airfield races was caused by an outer CV breaking on a high speed left-hander before the main straight. The car oversteered and hit a barrier and flew 30 feet into the air before coming down upside down and spinning 360 degrees on the roof - hence the damage. One report had Jim Clark pulling Frank out of the back window and telling him off for not wearing a seatbelt. Frank said petrol was dripping when he was upside down."
"The car was repaired but the regulations changed after 1966 when Group 2 was introduced which required a standard body. Frank sold the car to Robert Stewart in Christchurch who raced it briefly before converting it to a standard shell which became famous as the PDL Mini. Robert kept the EU7304 number plate, possibly because it was off the original Cooper 'S' that Frank has used."
"Robert put an 1100cc engine into the Lowline car and used the number plates off the standard donor body. He sold the car to well known journalist and publisher Robin Curtis who used it as a road car and daily driver for a number of years. Robin later painted it purple and fitted a 1275 engine and brakes off a Morris 1100. The car had a quilted headlining when Robin gave me a ride in it in the late 1970s. It was well used inside and out and still grey and silver at that stage."
"Robin sold the car to local Mini racer and mechanic Peter Zivcovic mainly for the modified 1275 it had which Peter used in his race Mini. The shell then ended up with Neil Whiting who sold it to me around 1985 - and then bought it back in the mid-1990s. Neil still has the car and is restoring it at present."
"An interesting aside is when the Wellington makers of iconic Mini movie Goodbye Pork Pie asked Robin Curtis who might be a good Mini driver to do the stunts for the film - he said he didn't know but had just sold his Minisprint to a local Mini racer and passed on Peter's details. They employed Peter who did a superb job on the film and has continued in the movie industry ever since. So the little Minisprint had a role in the success of the Pork Pie movie as well!"
Thanks very much to everyone who sent information about this very special New Zealand Mini Special, especially Ken and Graeme. Keep it coming!
Hamlin's 'Lowline Mini' under construction. It used steel guards with an alloy
bonnet and alloy panels on the steel door frames
Picture Jack Patterson
The crash at the Wigram airfield races was caused by an outer CV breaking on a high speed left-hander before the main straight. The car oversteered and hit a barrier and flew 30 feet into the air before coming down upside down and spinning 360 degrees on the roof
Picture through Ken Douglas
More pictures after the crash. It was reported that Jim Clark pulled Frank out of the back window and telling him off for not wearing a seatbelt. Frank said petrol was dripping when he was upside down
Picture through Ken Douglas
The car was repaired after the crash and raced once again succesfully
Picture through Ken Douglas
'78' Clearly was Frank Hamlin's racing number. This was World's Fastest Mini at the time
Picture through Ken Douglas
Frank Hamlin's second 'Mini Sprint' built many years later and now owned by Marvin Turton
Picture through Ken Douglas
Graeme Farr: "I owned it for a while. It sat inside a bedroom in my house which amused passers by. Photo here of us lifting it in through the sliding doors"
Picture Graeme Farr
Painted purple at one stage and fitted with an 1100 engine it was not quite the Fastest Mini in the World it had been before
Picture Graeme Farr
Neil Whiting currently owns the car and has nearly finished the restoration by this time
Picture Graeme Farr
The late Frank Hamlin seen here with another of his racing Minis - still champion at 74 years
Picture through Ken Douglas
Monday, 18 May 2020
How a Deep Sanderson racer was turned into a Triumph Special
It's been some time since I wrote about Deep Sandersons, so it was good when Christopher Tamblyn contacted me about one such car. One his stepfather once owned. He wrote:
"Dear Jeroen. My stepfather bought this car around 1964/1965 from a well-known garage owner and wheel manufacturer JA Pearce of Staines Middlesex, who used to make the Magna magnesium wheels. I remember the car had a scrutineer label on the door pull but that was for a hill climb, it did have a hot Mini Cooper engine in the back with a Weber carb and it was road legal. I remember coming home from school and sitting in the car and pretending to drive it, oh what days they were.
I also remember that the rear suspension kept braking at one of the rose joints eventually putting the car and my step father through someones front hedge of their house just outside of Winchester!"
From the pictures that Chris sent I recognized the car as 'AJB 150B' and had several pictures of it, too, being raced and crashed at the Nurburgring in May 1964.
Chris continued: "This is just amazing, I recognize that Weber on that big inlet manifold, and the small number plates, as you say this is the car and we didn't know about this bit of history. We kept the car but he dismantled it and put the body on a Triumph Spitfire chassis with some small modification! Just stopping for a cry! This car and all of its ancillary equipment were then sold to a really nice guy called Chris Gow who was someone big in the Mini club after my father had passed away who also owned a Deep Sanderson. Around about a year later Chris had either sold his car and I had also found the chassis number of our Deep Sanderson and I think I sold that to this person so that he could have a 'proper' Deep Sanderson. I hope you have been able to follow this story and I am sorry I can't be any more specific about our car, but please keep in touch as its always nice to talk to interesting people about classic cars. Stay safe and kind regards, Chris"
"Dear Jeroen. My stepfather bought this car around 1964/1965 from a well-known garage owner and wheel manufacturer JA Pearce of Staines Middlesex, who used to make the Magna magnesium wheels. I remember the car had a scrutineer label on the door pull but that was for a hill climb, it did have a hot Mini Cooper engine in the back with a Weber carb and it was road legal. I remember coming home from school and sitting in the car and pretending to drive it, oh what days they were.
I also remember that the rear suspension kept braking at one of the rose joints eventually putting the car and my step father through someones front hedge of their house just outside of Winchester!"
The Deep Sanderson 301 as owned by Chris Tamblyn's stepfather in the mid-1960s
Picture courtesy Christopher Tamblyn
The Deep Sanderson joined by the Jaguar XK140 of the Tamblyn family
Picture courtesy Christopher Tamblyn
From the pictures that Chris sent I recognized the car as 'AJB 150B' and had several pictures of it, too, being raced and crashed at the Nurburgring in May 1964.
Seen here in May 1964 at the Nurburgring, competing (?) a Ferrari 250 GTO
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Unfortunately, it was crashed on that day and ended in the bushes
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Chris continued: "This is just amazing, I recognize that Weber on that big inlet manifold, and the small number plates, as you say this is the car and we didn't know about this bit of history. We kept the car but he dismantled it and put the body on a Triumph Spitfire chassis with some small modification! Just stopping for a cry! This car and all of its ancillary equipment were then sold to a really nice guy called Chris Gow who was someone big in the Mini club after my father had passed away who also owned a Deep Sanderson. Around about a year later Chris had either sold his car and I had also found the chassis number of our Deep Sanderson and I think I sold that to this person so that he could have a 'proper' Deep Sanderson. I hope you have been able to follow this story and I am sorry I can't be any more specific about our car, but please keep in touch as its always nice to talk to interesting people about classic cars. Stay safe and kind regards, Chris"
The Deep Sanderson's body was eventually used on a Triumph Spitfire chassis
Picture courtesy Christopher Tamblyn
Longer and taller, re-registered and repainted in red, but still recognizable as a Deep Sanderson!
Picture courtesy Christopher Tamblyn
Friday, 17 February 2017
Midas at MIRA - Confidential...
Thomas of Sweden contacted me last week about my earlier message on crash testing Mini based cars (read it here). Thomas got hold of the full crash test report of the Midas Gold some years ago, classed as confidential. Naturally, I asked him how he got it and if he hasn't had any troubles with it. He wrote: "I have this document from a Midas Gold owner in Sweden, and he has got it from what he calls MED. I don’t know was this means but I think it was Midas Cars themselves. I think the document was confidential at MIRA when they did the crash test. But I asked him in 2015 if it was okay to publish it on my blog, which was fine." The crash test focusses on the movements of the steering column, or so it seems, but have a look for yourself. I have uploaded a few of the pages below. The full report can still be found on Thomas' website here.
Confidential Project No. 435500, carried out for Midas Cars Ltd. on 11 March 1986
Picture courtesy Thomas / Minimoke.se
The Midas was towed up to a speed of 49.2 kmh (30.6 mph) and crashed on a 90 Degrees barrier
Picture courtesy Thomas / Minimoke.se
Before the crash. The report states that six high speed colour films were taken of the test, too…
Picture courtesy Thomas / Minimoke.se
The Midas Gold passed the test with flying colours. All the photos and graphs are on Thomas' websbite
Picture courtesy Thomas / Minimoke.se
Monday, 6 February 2017
Crash testing Mini derivatives
The news that Europe's car crash club Euro NCAP is 20 years old, made me wonder how many Mini based cars ever made it to an official block of concrete. The facilities at MIRA in the UK are much older and there must have been at least some of them over there? The Midas Gold is often claimed to be the first composite car to pass MIRA's ECE30 crash barrier test to ensure TUV approval, to sell these cars overseas. But there had been others. The Autocars Marcos estate, for example, had been crash tested here as early as june or july 1970. And then there was the fiberglass bodied Peel Mini that went there perhaps even as early as 1966, when it was conceived (update: according to Bill Bell it was 1968). But there were other facilities, too. The McCoy was tested at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, where a crash test was carried out, too. I'd love to learn a bit more about all of these, or perhaps others? Let me know when you know more.
UPDATE 17 February: A reader has the full and confidential report of the Midas at MIRA unearthed… Click here to see for yourself.
The first composite car to pass MIRA's ECE30 crash test: the Midas Gold
Courtesy Midas Owners club
But this composite car made it way earlier to the concrete block of MIRA: the Peel Mini
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
June or july 1970: the Autocars estate, built and developed by Marcos Cars is crash tested at MIRA
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
This is not the McCoy, but its forebear the Clan Crusader at MIRA. The Mini-based McCoy
was crash tested at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh
Picture courtesy Clan Crusader Owners Club
UPDATE 17 February: A reader has the full and confidential report of the Midas at MIRA unearthed… Click here to see for yourself.
Friday, 25 November 2016
Heerey from the horse's mouth
None other than Howard Heerey himself recently shared some pictures from the days of old. He wrote: "Works GTM built for the '68 season to compete in the up to 1150cc class, seen here at Ingliston. Loved the paint job, Jaguar indigo metallic fading to aluminium metallic at the bottom of the panels with the big yellow race stripe, which I unfortunately spoilt by putting it through Esso sign at Oulton later in the season. I don't have any photos of the mechanicals, but the radiator was mounted in its normal place on the front of the subframe and then a duct was made out of alloy which directed the air up and back through the hole in the bonnet. The fuel tank was mounted just ahead of the windscreen." Great photographs, thank you very much for sharing them, Howard!
GTM works racer, which was campaigned by Howards Heerey who took over the project from Cox
Picture courtesy Howards Heerey
Oops. Car was damaged at Oulton Park later in 1968 after a 'T-bone' crash
Picture courtesy Howards Heerey
That's not fibreglass! This was after all the prototype, on display in London in 1967
More about it here. But where is it now?
Picture courtesy Howards Heerey
Thursday, 2 June 2016
Martini Mini - 50 years ago
This month, 5 decades ago, spelled the end for the Martini Mini ASC - the only German Mini based car dating back to the 1960s that I know of. And as I have so many historical pictures of the car in the files (all of the pictures below have not yet been seen in Maximum Mini 2), why not publish some of them here and do a little commemorative write-up?
Willi Martini based his workshop in an old garage adjacent the Nürburgring track, which was not a bad idea. He repaired, sold and tuned BMW cars from there and also carried out tours on the track for speed freaks wanting to see it from the passenger seat! A car of his own design was made together with Ford stylist Uwe Bahnsen in 1963 and initially BMW 700 based. But a year later he teamed up with Austin dealer and Mini racer Dieter Mohr from Giessen to turn the car into the Martini Mini ACS (for Austin Cooper S) with 1275 power and a lightweight fibreglass body, which used an Austin grille placed upside down. It was first raced by Mohr and John Aley, who thrashed the car around the 22.8km-long track at 10:50 – a very respectable average speed of 126.33km/h. When the car’s front was badly damaged when it went off the 'Ring in 1965 Martini decided to rebuild the car with some modifications. He got rid of the Austin grille and enlarged the air scoop on the bonnet. The next racing season the Mk2 version, now painted British Racing Green rather then white, appeared at the Nürburgring. It was raced on two occasions in 1965 before disaster struck during the 1000km race of June 1966. The Martini Mini crashed at 200 km/h into a sliding Abarth. It rolled but fortunately driver Ralf Juettner got out unharmed. The car, however, was so badly damaged (pictures here) that there was no chance of rebuilding it and it was scrapped.
Willi Martini based his workshop in an old garage adjacent the Nürburgring track, which was not a bad idea. He repaired, sold and tuned BMW cars from there and also carried out tours on the track for speed freaks wanting to see it from the passenger seat! A car of his own design was made together with Ford stylist Uwe Bahnsen in 1963 and initially BMW 700 based. But a year later he teamed up with Austin dealer and Mini racer Dieter Mohr from Giessen to turn the car into the Martini Mini ACS (for Austin Cooper S) with 1275 power and a lightweight fibreglass body, which used an Austin grille placed upside down. It was first raced by Mohr and John Aley, who thrashed the car around the 22.8km-long track at 10:50 – a very respectable average speed of 126.33km/h. When the car’s front was badly damaged when it went off the 'Ring in 1965 Martini decided to rebuild the car with some modifications. He got rid of the Austin grille and enlarged the air scoop on the bonnet. The next racing season the Mk2 version, now painted British Racing Green rather then white, appeared at the Nürburgring. It was raced on two occasions in 1965 before disaster struck during the 1000km race of June 1966. The Martini Mini crashed at 200 km/h into a sliding Abarth. It rolled but fortunately driver Ralf Juettner got out unharmed. The car, however, was so badly damaged (pictures here) that there was no chance of rebuilding it and it was scrapped.
Ford designer Uwe Bahnsen gave Martini a hand in the car's design. Mini engine clearly visible here
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Fill her up please! Martini's base at the Nurburgring track proved an ideal location!
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
John Cooper (Dunlop jacket) showed an interest in the car, too. Willi Martini wears flat cap
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
And off they go. The Martini Mini ASC (centre) was entered in a huge number of races at the 'Ring
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
It's seen here late in 1965 during another race at the 'Ring, but one that ended not well
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Here in the famous Carousel curve, showing how to take the ideal line to an unsuspecting DKW driver
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
But the driver got over enthusiastic and had a big off, ending up near the track, damaging the car
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
But Willi Martini didn't give up. He rebuilt it, now turning it into the Martini Mini Mk2
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
The front had now been modified dramatically with huge air scoop. Sides and rear were unchanged
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Last picture before the car went off once more, being damaged beyond repair…
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)