Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #86

Meet the Broadsprint Coupe

Deep Sanderson 301 sells

New pictures of the lost Coldwell GT of Macau

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #42

How a lost Outspan Orange Mini turned up again

The Biota in the field - still there!

O'Youngs Unipower GT at Macau - where is it now?

Unipower GT at the 1969 Macau GP

Phil Newsome sent in a picture of a Unipower GT, unseen before to me, through our mutual friend Guy Loveridge. And it's an unusual photo of the car in the sandbags on the side of a racing track in Macau. What happened there? According to Phil the car was crashed in the Sports & GT class race during the 1969 Macau Grand Prix. Next, it was just left there whilst the main GP went on! That is the winner of the GP race seen here flying past the crashed Unipower GT - Kevin Bartlett in an Alfa-Romeo V8 powered Mildren single seater.

I'm not totally sure of the car's racing number. It looks it may well have been number 50 on the picture and that would be confirmed by the hand written entry list that Phil sent over, too. Two entrants are mentioned on that: Mr. William and S.Y. Tam. Who drove it? I found out that it must have been Charles Ching, a very successful barrister from Hong Kong who was educated in Oxford. There is another photograph of Ching's car taken at the '69 Macau GP, from the Imagens Daluz archives. It seems the car is darker in colour, though, but that must have been the light? It was entered under number 27 that year. Who knows more about it? And could it survive? It may even have been turned into this creature..?

Unipower GT was left on the track while the 1969 Macau Grand Prix went on

Picture Philip Newsome archives

Hand written entry list has the car as being entered by Mr. William and S.Y. Tam

Picture Philip Newsome archives

But the car must have been raced under number 27 by Hong Kong barrister Charles Ching

Picture Imagens Daluz / Natalino Cauto Wong

1967 Mini Marcos works cars - a conclusion

This is a longer than usual piece. Click on the 'read more' link below for the full article.

A lot has happened since I wrote this article last week. And it looks that I may well have judged too soon in writing that the white Marcos in Japan has to be the 1967 Le Mans car. Could the one in Zimbabwe be that after all? I would not have believed it last week, but I'm looking at the matter now with a different view. But then I did not know then what I do know now.

First of all I have now seen pictures of the Zimbabwe car prior to its mid-1990s restoration. And it certainly looks as if it once had a modified roof / windscreen. That still makes it very odd for a second (works) car to have this, too. So, apart from several smaller details that will need to be fitted in, the main question was - and still is - could the '67 Le Mans sister car have had a similar modified windscreen / roof, too? I decided the only way to properly check this was to order all the photographs that I have of the two cars, put them in chronological order and see if a conclusion can be drawn from there. 

So here we go - a selection of these pictures is seen below. Still perhaps an overwhelming number of them, so if you are not the kind of anorak that I have become on this subject by this time, please ignore them. Oh - I have called the 1967 Le Mans Mini Marcos and the FLIRT ladies team Mini Marcos simply the green car and yellow car respectively - just to simplify things a little.

Castle Combe Easter Monday 27 March 1967

Green car seen in the paddock

Note aluminium front end and sills. Just two rear lights. Odd shaped SU holes in bonnet

1967 works Mini Marcos: an update

Thank you all for the comments coming in on last week's article about the Mini Marcos, believed to be the 1967 ex-works racer and Le Mans car (click here when you have missed it). Well, it seems it is not that, although it is an ex-works car. This is how the nut was cracked.

The other car, you ask? Yes, there was a second works racer built to the same specifications. Works mechanic Mike Treutlein told me back in 2011 that they built two near-identical cars, one metallic green and one primrose yellow. The first was used by a men's team and became the 1967 Le Mans car. But the second was never used at Le Mans. It was raced by a ladies team: FLIRT - for First Ladies International Racing Team. Drivers were with Jackie Bond-Smith, Joey Cook and Jacqui Smith. It was raced at the Nurburgring in Germany, Mugello in Italy, Phoenix Park in Ireland and probably at several more venues.

It is recognizable by its squarish front wheel arches, just have a look at the several pictures in the previous article and below here. Both cars were raced at the 1967 Nurburgring 500 kms race, as at Mugello. Reader Edward Fitzgerald adds that they were also both seen at a race at Phoenix Park in Ireland in September 1967. Fitzgerald: "Jem Marsh drove this car at Phoenix Park September 67; Tim Lalonde drove the green car."

I now also know that the car was sold in 1968 to Macau and sold once again to Japan in 1971. In fact the Japanese owner contacted me also, writing: "I seemed to buy this Marcos in Macao in 1971. He sent a photograph of it also, but added: "Because it is a publication, please do not publicize it." I won't. But it's good to know more about it now. And it does indeed seem that both cars built by Marcos Cars had their windscreens changed. The green Le Mans car first, the primrose yellow FLIRT car soon after it.

This is the picture that made the ball go rolling. This is the ex-works car at the Macau Grand Prix in 1969, but is the FLIRT car and not the Le Mans car

Picture Carros Classicos de Macau

Only colour picture of the car that I know of. Here at the Nurburgring 500kms in 1967.

The windscreen is not yet modified here

Picture Werner Ullrich

But look carefully and you will see it is here. This picture was taken at Phoenix Park, Ireland, in September 1967. The other works racer was supposedly raced in the same race by Jem Marsh

Picture via Edward Fitzgerald 

The girls from FLIRT: Jackie Bond-Smith, Joey Cook and Jacqui Smith in 1967

Picture still from British Pathe movie

Once more at the Phoenix Park race in 1967. The other works racer, the green 

1967 Le Mans car, was there also, says reader

Picture Irish Photo Archive

Could this really be the 1967 Le Mans Mini Marcos? UPDATE: It's not

An interesting picture was posted online this afternoon by a classic car enthusiast from Macau. It shows a Mini Marcos that was supposedly raced there during the Macau Grand Prix of 1969. According to the poster the car was an ex-works Le Mans car in 1967. Remarkably, the windscreen fits into that, as a tall windscreen can clearly be seen on the photograph, just like the 1967 Le Mans car had. The same goes for the light on the door. Could it really be that?

The full story of the 1967 Mini Marcos works Le Mans entry can be found here. After Le Mans the car was raced in Africa. But what happened after that? It is believed it remained there, only to be found in a derelict state and fully restored several years ago now. The car's works mechanic Mike Treutlein, whom I tracked down in 2010 (here), didn't know of its survival, though.

Also: the works racer had a sister car, which was light yellow in colour. The question is if that possibly could have had a modified windscreen also? If not, this new picture would throw an all-new light on the Le Mans car's survival. Naturally I have contacted the person who posted the image and he has promised me to come back to me. To be continued.

UPDATE 29 October 2018: Not the Le Mans car, but the other '67 ex-works racer (click here)

UPDATE 8 March 2020: Confirmed to be "The ex-Le Mans car driven by two French ladies" at the Macau Grand Prix in 1969 by driver Keith Payne, see his comment below.

UPDATE 26 June 2020: This is confusing to me, too, but I now firmly believe this to be the 1967 Le Mans car after all now that new pictures have emerged. Full story here

UPDATE 1 July 2020: To further confuse you - I now draw again the conclusion it's not the 1967 Le Mans car but the FLIRT car after all. Full report (not for the faint hearted) here.

This picture shows a Mini Marcos during the Macau Grand Prix of 1969. It is believed to be the works car that ran at Le Mans in 1967. Could it really be that? The modified windscreen fits the bill

Picture Carros Classicos de Macau

Let's go back in time. This is the works car on the weigh bridge at Le Mans on 10 June 1967. Note the windscreen here, which had just been modified overnight

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

This is during the 1967 Le Mans race, still on the 10th of June 1967. The car made only a disappointing 13 laps before it had to withdraw from the race

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Mugello, 23 July 1967. This car is raced at the road circuit in Italy. Is it the same car repainted, or did Marcos change its sister car's windscreen also? 

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

4 November 1967. The colour suggests this has to be the ex-Le Mans car. It is entered in the 9-hour race at Kyalami, where it comes 15th overall. Jem Marsh standing next to it

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

December 1967. The same car is raced in the Pietermaritzburgh 3 hours by Peter Kat and Dirk Manis

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And again... That's believed to be Peter Kat in action, somewhere in Africa, supposedly in 1968

Picture credit unknown / Jeroen Booij archive

This car is offered for sale in the UK in late 1967, with the picture taken during the ADAC 500kms race in Germany on 3 September 1967. Is it the Le Mans car repainted, or is it its sister car with a modified windscreen also? - that's the question

UPDATE 26 June 2020. This certainly is the FLIRT car

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Avis Andersen Cubs - where are they?

I had a request from Macau last week regarding Coldwell and Unipower cars and took a dive in the files. What I also found were the pictures below that I'd totally forgotten about. They are Andersen Cubs sold to Macau where they were used as rental cars by Avis. The pictures date back to 2005 so I guess the cars were still in use at the time. They even had the rare six-wheeler version on offer. And according to my information the Avis headquarters in Macau weren't on their own offering Cubs. On the Seychelles and in Greece they had them, too, while another 36 went to Kenya. What happened to these cars?

Avis Andersen Cub could be hired in Macau with Avis. This picture dates back to 2005

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And there were more. Remarkably, first car in line wears the same registration as the red one above

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

How about a six-wheeler version, also known as the Sundancer? Another was seen in Spain in 2012

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Wells' Coldwell

A while ago I got in touch with Rob Wells, who's been buying, selling, racing, maintaining, building and rebuilding cars. All different sorts of cars but mostly racers. There'd been several Mini based ones, too, and coincidentally the Coldwell GT was mentioned. To my surprise Rob recalled he'd had one of those too (of only 4 built)! Unfortunately he didn't have any pictures of it, but when I looked in my own files I found that had some myself! Well, just two of them but it was good anyway. Rob easily recognized himself because of his helmet with 'Suzuki' written on it. He also remembered he'd modified the roof as the car was so low. And when you look closely at the picture below you will see that his Suzuki helmet just pops out of the open roof, with the rear view mirrors are right on top of it. The pictures were taken during a 6-hour relay race but Rob couldn't remember exactly when, but probably post-1973. He drove the car together with Bob Hurst and does remember the clutch went when he just came from a hairpin.

I don't know which of the four Coldwells this one is but can guess. It cannot be the one that went to race the Macau Grand Prix in 1970 (full story here), and I am guessing it's neither the one in the Maruyama collection that I photographed for my book (as that one has a bit of a documented past). It can also not be the one which Coldwell founder Bill Needham tracked down in a Sheffield garage some years ago, as that was still unfinished after all those years. That leaves only one car: the one that is believed to have ended up in an American museum of unknown wherabouts. Americans, come in..! 

Rob Wells in action in the Coldwell GT with modified roof. Note helmet popping out!

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

Some fierce competition in 6-hour relay race. Note that Coldwell GT is lower than GT40!

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The lost Coldwell GT of Macau

Ah - the Coldwell GT. Another legendary Mini derivative of which just four were made by Bill Needham in the late 1960s. As a matter of fact the very first car he built has intrigued me for a while now. It was Needham's own racer, which he sold in 1970 to a chap in Singapore planning to race it there. Probably to a man named Tony Lam as this name is painted on the car in old pictures that I found. In one local report the driver is named 林昔時, but I guess that could be the same name. There's not too much known about where he entered the Coldwell racer, but fact is that it made it to the Macau Grand Prix at the Guia circuit in November 1970. With start number 55 it qualified 21st there and had to start from the back of the grid. In the 45 laps race it did finish as a respectable sixth overall, though, with a works entered F2 BMW gaining first position and lots of more powerfull stuff to compete against. Not bad at all.

All in all an intriguing story, I think. When I asked Bill Needham some years ago about the car and its destiny he told me he believed it was crashed later as the new owner sent him a letter asking ‘Can you repair this part?’ while on a picture of the car - that his wife managed to dig up - accompanying the letter he had penned a circle around the complete front end! Needham never heard anything anymore and assumes the car is still there. Now that would be a cold case I'd like to investigate. Anyone out here with friends in Singapore's and / or Macau's historic racing scene..?

UPDATE 25 April 2021: I now understand the car overheated on day one, with the 8-port head and gasket damaged. A borrowed 1071 'S' engine with 649 cam, big valve head and 45 Weber was fitted next. 

The picture that was sent to Bill Needham with the complete front end circled

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Before the race. Tony Lam's name is painted on the Coldwell's ultra-low roof

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And again, behind the single seater. The car is tiny and so is the man leaning against it

Picture courtesy Natalino Couto

Needwell's ex racer at the start grid of the 1970 Macau Grand Prix. It came 6th overall

Picture courtesy Motofan.com.hk

Rear view was never the GT's strongest point. The light blue car is an Elva Mk7

Picture courtesy Motofan.com.hk

The Coldwell GT in hands of Tony Lam during the GP. Things were fine back then

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

A map of what the Macau Guia Circuit was like back in 1970. A lap was (and is) 3.8 miles 

Picture Jeroen Booij archive