Car Graphic Classic - Mini variants and Maruyama interview

When there's something about Mini based cars in magazines, they find their way to here from wide and far and wether they are old or new.The latest issue of Car Graphic Classic from Japan did, as it happens to be a Mini special. I was lucky to contribute a piece, but what has to be much more interesting is an interview with Kazuo Maruyama, the caretaker of Mini Maruyama - Tokyo's Mini Valhalla. Apart from that Mister Maruyama is the owner of an incredible number of historically important Minis and Mini derivatives. There was no doubt he was the man to visit when I started writing about these cars and I did that in 2007 and 2008. However, this is the first time I've seen a full feature interview with the man, which was about time. Pity I can't read it, but I'm sure a translation will be possible these days. You can order the magazine here.

UPDATE 11 March: Translation now made and supplied by the article's author Yoshi Hayata. Thank you so much!

 

Car Graphic Classic is a beautiful magazine with this issue focussing on the Mini and its offspring

Picture Car Graphic / Jeroen Booij

Kazuo Maruyama may well be called Mister Mini derivative. He is interviewed in this issue

Picture Masayuki Arakawa / Jeroen Booij

The Nevill's Landar R6 - now in pictures

It's almost two years ago that I posted about the Landar R6 of Graham Nevill's dad Gordon Nevill. Back then, Graham sent me some great film footage of the car in action back in 1973 (see it here). Meanwhile, he had another look in the attic and out came some images, too. Graham wrote: "Hello again Jeroen, I have scanned in a few prints of our old Landar R6 which I hope you may find useful to add to the stock, it’s the same car you alerted subscribers to some time ago when I posted the youtube footage. To recap, this is from about 1973 and is the last R6 Landar built which my dad bought new from the Radnalls that year. The phrase ‘where is it now?' always springs to mind... Best wishes, Graham."

Meanwhile, I also asked Mr. Maruyama if it could be his car - as I suggested last time. He wrote: "I think that it is the same car. Same colour and characteristic rear view mirror and the passenger seat oil cooler" He also sent me a copy of the car's V5 document which learned me it had been registered as 'AAB 6D' when in the UK.

But that didn't ring any bells with Graham, who replied: "Thanks for the follow up. I'd seen this R6 before as it’s the one featured in your first book and I did wonder if it was the same one but the wheels put me off. Ours had black Revolutions I think, although it does have those similarities as mentioned. The oil cooler does sit a lot higher on ours and most R6s have the mirror centrally mounted in some form and this one does have a similar shape to ours. This one however does not have lights and neither did ours whereas a lot, at least in the pics available, have headlights fitted. Obviously a lot can change over the years."

The last of the Landar R6s, when owned by Gordon Nevill back in 1973

Picture courtesy Graham Nevill

It could be the car that is now in the Maruyama collection in Japan, or is it?

Picture courtesy Graham Nevill

Several similarities, although roll bar and rear view mirror are different though

Picture courtesy Graham Nevill

On the drive in 1973. It's one of only 10 Landar R6s built by the Radnall brothers

Picture courtesy Graham Nevill

Maruyama's car was registered 'AAB 6D' at one point, but that doesn't ring bells with Graham

Picture Jeroen Booij

Landar R6 in full Technicolor

While I am working on Maximum Mini 3, messages about cars that have been featured in the previous two books continue to come in, too. And the one I received today from Graham Nevill is a particularly great one. He writes: "Hi Jeroen, I have been a fan of your site for a long time now and especially enjoy any articles regarding Landar cars as my father campaigned an R6 in the early 70’s. At the time when I was about 16, I took some 8mm cine footage which I have finally had scanned and uploaded, I am sure you will enjoy it ! There is very little period amateur motor racing film around and none featuring Landars, so quite rare. Wish I had taken a lot more at the time!"

Graham's great video - 9 minutes no less, can be seen below here, but Graham adds some more information about the car, too: "My father, Gordon Nevill, started motor racing with his work colleague and friend Frank Aston, of whom mention has been made on your site, as his old R7 which he acquired new from Landars, has just resurfaced in Germany (click here). They were both directors of a metal recycling business in Ironbridge, Shropshire and started racing using increasing tuned minis, competing in local hillclimbs, sprints and then circuits such as Silverstone etc. After being introduced to the Radnall brothers, Frank bought his first Landar, an R6 in about 1971 and this was soon followed by the blue 1300cc R7. A dizzying selection of racing cars then passed through Franks hands including a Chevron B8, B16 and B19, McLaren M1a, Gropa (a coupe B8 with Ford power) and the Astra - which is the car in the footage. Finally he commissioned the one and only R8 new from Landars but only used it for a couple of events. He then gave up racing for the golf course in about 1975. My father had a Chevron B8 after the Mini but then bought the R6 in 1973, apparently it was the last R6 made by Radnalls. This R6 was fitted with the 1275 bored to 1300 and later in his ownership had the 8-port Arden cross flow head fitted which was quite exotic for the day. Due to their many dealings with Clive and Peter Radnall they became family friends and one time Clive treated us to a flight over the Birmingham area, taking us up in his private single engine plane. After he finished racing in 1975, meetings with Clive and Peter became less frequent but I did have the pleasure of seeing Peter about 5 years ago, in his 70’s now, compete at Loton Park hillclimb when he hurled a motor bike powered little rocket ship of a single seater up the hill with great skill. My father always loved the R6, finding it a beautifully handling little machine and I was quite involved as well changing wheels and simple mechanical work etc. I would of course love to know what has happened to it over the years and still think the R6 would make a lovely little road/track day car."

That is some fantastic footage Graham, thank you for sharing! I do not know about the current whereabouts of the car, but it could be one of the R6s that have ended up in Japan. I saw what was believed to be the ex-John Handley and Barry Pearson works car in the Maruyama collection, but I'm not sure about that. It was silver grey too. Perhaps another reader will know more?

Video courtesy Graham Nevill

This R6, in the Maruyama collection is believed to be the ex-John Handley car. I don't know

Picture Jeroen Booij

 

This good looking Landar R6 shows up in Japan every now and then, but I do not know more about it

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Another mystery Landar R6 in Japan. an air dam has been added to the front at some point

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Is this really the only Autocars Marcos survivor?

Autocars, the Israel based motor manufacturer built Standard Triumphs under a license, but planned to broaden their range with a model of their own in the late 1960s. In order to do this Autocars co-founder Yitzhak Shubinski teamed up with the late Jem Marsh to design and build a fiberglass bodied but Mini based car. Marsh flew to Israel in late 1969 were he found the works “A shambles with apparent little concern for work or production targets”, but never the less signed a contract. Back in Westbury, he started work on building three or four prototypes with estate bodies, while another two saloons followed in 1970. The estates were called W90 and were yellow, blue and red according to Marcos Heritage-man Rory McMath; the saloons were called W95. Unfortunately it all lead to nothing and both models never made it to the (Israelean) market.

But I wonder what happened to these prototypes. One of the estates was crash tested at MIRA, while another was used by Jem's wife Judith as a practical utility for years before being restored in 1992 by the Marcos Owner's Club. After the restoration it was sold to the Maruyama collection where it remains to this day. Another estate is said to have been languishing in an orchard not far from the old Marcos factory in Westbury, but there is no evidence. Fact is that one of the saloons ended up as a toy car in a Tel Aviv kindergarten! It was there photographed by Yohay Shinar in the 1990s, but disappeared soon after. And so the Maruyama-car is the only one I have ever seen. Is there anyone out here who knows more about the others?

The W90 estate just after the restoration in 1992 - is it the only Autocars Marcos surviving?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

As I saw the car in 2008 - it's stored outside which hasn't done it too much good

Picture Jeroen Booij

The interior is a match of things old and new, with an interesting dashboard

Picture Jeroen Booij

The engine is believed to be a 998 Cooper. According to Kazuo Maruyama it's fast, too

Picture Jeroen Booij

This is the W95 saloon as seen in a Tel Aviv kindergarten by Yohay Shinar years ago

Picture Yohah Shinar 

Sloping roof and different back end for the saloon. Bodies were of excellent quality

Picture Yohah Shinar

BOO! I'm alive!

Look at that! It's the Ogle SX1000 'Super' that was recently featured here as being the car used in an advertisement (click) and driven by Stirling Moss (click again). Well, it's alive and well in Tokyo, Japan in Mister Maruyama's fabulous collection. I didn't see it when I was there, but fortunately reader Colin Baines did. As can be seen it still wears it big chrome bumper, a feature for the 'Super' versions, now with some fog lights added to the grille. Thanks Colin!

This is an Ogle SX1000 with a very nice slice of history. It lives in Japan now

Picture courtesy Colin Baines

Camber/Maya files: KOO589

So far, I have described five Camber GTs in our little Camber/Maya GT files series (click here for a list of the cars). Of the six Cambers that are presumably built I do not know the sixth and last car, so that makes it time to change to the Maya GT: the successor of the Camber that was born out of legislation due to the low headlights. 'KOO589' was built in 1967 and registered as a Maya GT, although it came with a Camber GT nose. The first owner was given a Maya nose with it to put on the vehicle and both nose sections remained with the car. In a typical 1970s metal flake blue colour it was abandoned in a field in 1980 where it spent several years without drivetrain.

Len Bossard rescued it from there in 1992 and undertook a big restoration on the car. According to him the longest job of the whole rebuild was to chip the badly crazed blue silver flake finish off the fibreglass body. Bossard fitted a replacement front subframe complete with brakes and kept the rear one. Also the windscreen was cracked an needed replacing and it took a while to find a company that could reproduce one. In the Summer of 1994 the Maya (with its Camber nose section) was on its wheels again in a new bright red paint.

Not much later, the restored Maya GT attracted the interest of well known Japanese Mini collector Kazuo Maruyama and the car found a new home in Tokyo where Maruyama added it to his Mini derivatives shrine. The registration number was sold and Maruyama parked it outside one of his warehouses. It was there that I photographed it some years ago. Unfortunately, it has hardly seen any use since its arrival in Japan, and the restored car will in fact need another restoration to become roadworthy once again.

The Maya GT under restoration in Len Bossard's workshop in 1992

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Just finished in a bright new coat of red paint. The restoration took over two years

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And the Maya GT as it is now in Tokyo. The car has not been used since and is unregistered

Picture Jeroen Booij

Interior is pretty much neglected. Despite hot weather it does rain in Japan, too

Picture Jeroen Booij

There is a mysterious (chassis?) plate under the engine bay (top left) which says 'M/M 19746'

Picture Jeroen Booij

UPDATE 26 april 2012: the original owner has got in contact with me and sent over some pictures of when it was in his ownership. He also made the chassis plate. Click here for the story