Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #84

I-Spy an Ogle SX1000 - in 1967 and 2025

More info and a picture of Irish Mini based Special turn up

Getting ready to take the Le Mans Mini Marcos to the UK

The cars of Douglas Glover (4)

Some time ago I wrote about the cars built by Irishman Douglas Glover (part 1 here and part 2 here and part 3 here) and I intended to finish that off with a bit more about the man and his machines. Glover's very first car in particular, known as the DGS Special. I forgot that, but here it is now. 

To jog your memory: Glover worked as a production manager for Lincoln & Nolan, Austin agents for Ireland, which also assembled Minis for the Irish market. Glover came with the idea to create an Irish sports car, based upon the Mini. An Austin 850 meant for assembly served as a basis for the DGS Special, which was supposedly built in 1962 or 1963. It became a roadster with low doors and a boot, perhaps not unlike the MG Midget that had just come out and it is believed to have used several MG parts in the interior, too. The front also was adorned with an MGA sourced grille, with Mini headlights placed next to it and spotlights at the far corners. The car used the Mini’s bumpers.

It was registered 'LZC 775' (anyone who knows when? - UPDATE: Neil Kilbane does - it must have been around July 1961) and used for some local motoring events. Unfortunately I have only one picture of the car, kindly provided by Richard Heseltine, where it is seen frontally. Wouldn't it be nice to find out that there was more?

The DGS Special was in fact the prototype for the layer DGS Firecrest

Picture courtesy Richard Heseltine

The only picture I know of the Special was also used in The Autocar in April 1963

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Grille is from an MGA, badge looks to be Austin? What happened to LZC 775?

Picture courtesy Richard Heseltine

The cars of Douglas Glover (3) UPDATED

Over to another DGS Firecrest, built by Douglas Glover of Dublin, Ireland in the 1960s.

The first Firecrest was described here in detail recently (click here) followed by the second car, which was used for PR activities and later raced and spectacularly crashed on a hill climb in Donegal (click here). This is number three of which unfortunately not much is known other than that it is supposedly a coupe. 

'KZE 999' is a Dublin County registration, issued somewhere between May 1963 and June 1964. Apart from having a closed roof the car is wearing different headlights then the other two with large chrome surrounds plus spotlights (Facel Vega!?). The picture below is unfortunately the only one that I have of the car.

UPDATE 24 October 2020: Eddie Fitzgerald dropped me a line as he knows more about 'KZE 999': "I have a memory of seeing it in the mid 1960s. Glover started a business a few miles from where I lived, I think the roof section may have been a one-piece moulding fitted onto the shell like a hard top. I have seen this photo before, and it is the only one I have seen of the car, which was either stolen and never found or written off in an accident with a truck. Regards Eddie."

The number 'KZE 999' belongs to DGS Firecrest number three

Picture Jeroen Booij archive, source unknown

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

The cars of Douglas Glover (1)

When a new picture of a DGS Firecrest was posted to me recently (thank you Graeme), I was kind of surprised to find I never wrote about these cars here before. And since I'm in a good mood I thought I'd do a little write-up here on all the DGS cars that I know of, starting with the first one now.

DGS stood for Douglas Glover Special, with Glover being the man responsible. He was in fact production manager for Lincoln & Nolan in Dublin, which were Austin agents and assemblers for Ireland. They also link to what is possibly world's very first Mini-derivative, too (click here).

Anyhow. Glover had built a Mini based Special in 1963, which became a forerunner to the Firecrest. More on that later - let's focus on the Firecrest for now. A buck for a new body and a mould were made by maintenance staff of Lincoln & Nolan, with fibreglass monocoque production bodies to follow. The car's sides certainly seemed Midget/Sprite-inspired, and the windscreen, side screens, soft top and rear lights were sourced from that model, too. A Midget or Sprite hard top could be fitted also, but may have been altered. The front used double round headlights were placed further back with the possibility of putting Perspex covers over them.

The first production car was registered LZD 775 in 1963 and is said to have used Austin Cooper running gear. Wheelbase and track were similar to that of the original Mini. Just two more Firecrest followed, more on these soon.

The buck for the DGS Firecrest, made by the maintenance staff of Lincoln & Nolan

Picture courtesy Bill Bell / Jeroen Booij archive

The sides were clearly Midget / Sprite inspired and the (altered?) hardtop fitted, too

Picture courtesy Bill Bell / Jeroen Booij archive

Wheelbase and track, however, were similar to that of the Mini itself

Picture courtesy Bill Bell / Jeroen Booij archive

The first DGS Firecrest production car was registered LZD 775, here on a great PR shot

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Double round headlight were certainly distinctive. Sprite / Midget screen and sidescreens 

Picture courtesy Richard Heseltine

The car is seen here in Phoenix Park, Dublin during a 1963 MG Car Club trial

Picture Jeroen Booij archive