Butterfield at Brands Hatch - new picture

Hey, I haven't been writing about the Butterfield Musketeer for some time now (5 years to be exact, way too long). And we wouldn't want to have this lovely if not mysterious model fade into obscurity completely, don't we? 

That's just when this lovely picture was flashed over to here by Simon Greatham, supposedly taken at the circuit of Brands Hatch where Christabel Carlisle famously (?) drove the Musketeer against a whole force of Lotuses. She spun the car in the race, thus ending the sporting career for the Musketeer. 

There's no doubt this is the red car driven by Carlisle there, which was in fact the aluminium bodied prototype made by Williams & Pritchard and rebuilt with a Cooper 1000 engine for the race and registered '292 MJH' at the time. Is it also her standing behind it here? Together with the other two fibreglass bodied Musketeers, this car seems to have vanished from the earth since that racing day now more than 60 years ago. Let's keep hope in finding at least one of them back one day.

Butterfield Musketeer at Brands Hatch in 1962. Is that Christabel Carlisle behind it?

Picture courtesy Simon Greatham

Butterfield Musketeer prototype snapped

While reading about the Tornado Talisman recently I came across some cool pictures of the car in its prototype stage at Williams & Pritchard's workshop in Edmonton, London in 1961. But hang on, what was behind it? Yep, there's no doubt about that being the Butterfield Musketeer prototype in similar build stage, too! It fits in with what Richard Butterfield told me about 10 years ago as he'd trusted the job of body-bulding to them. W&P had previously made the much-modified body for Richard's Triumph TR3 and were now given the job to make the two-seater coupe body for the Musketeer in aluminium. Richard remembered it was finished just in time to have the car assembled for the Racing Car Show of January 1962 - the same show at which the Tornado Talisman made its debut... I found the photos were on the web also, and copied them here.

What happened to the prototype Musketeer remains a mystery to this day. What we know is that the original car was put on display at the Racing Car show in 1962 with a Mini 850 engine. Later that year, it was used to plug a mould to make replica bodies in fibreglass, while at the end of 1962 the car was rebuilt with a Cooper engine. It was then entered for the Peco Trophy race at Brands Hatch with Christabel Carlisle behind the wheel. She spun it and did not finish, but after that every trace ends. Any more information would be highly appreciated.

Yep. That's the Tornado Talisman prototype. But look behind it. That's the Butterfield Musketeer!

Picture through pistonheads.com

Another view. The craftsmanship of Williams & Pritchard was famous throughout the country

Picture through pistonheads.com

And from the front. Musketeer's round headlight just visible here. This must be late 1961

Picture through pistonheads.com

There it is at during the build-up of the Racing Car show in January 1962, it was red in colour

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Behind that aluminium body is supposedly an 850 engine, with double SUs and special rocker cover

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Action on the Racing Car Show of 1962 with the Butterfield Musketeer in the foreground

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Last sight of the prototype was at Brands Hatch at Boxing Day 1962, raced by Christabel Carlisle

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Racing Car Show 1966: Landar R6

Oops. I made a mistake in writing yesterday that the Camber GT and Cox GTM were launched at the 7th Racing Car Show, exactly 50 years ago. They weren't! In fact both of them were unveiled a year later, and so I'll have to wait for another year to mark their anniversary. No problem. There were still some more launches of Mini based cars at the Olympia show not to be missed. The Landar R6, for example, which was shown on stand number 46.

But hang on, that number was reserved for Broadspeed Engineering Ltd and their GT, wasn't it? Indeed it was. But Ralph Broad's creation wasn't on its own on stand 46. When you look at one of yesterday's pictures, you'll spot a covered up car next to the Broadspeed, which was the first production Landar R6. Painted on its side: 'Team Landar powered by Broadspeed'. Well, well, it seems that Landar's Peter and Clive Radnall were good chums with Ralph Broad, also from Birmingham. In fact they borrowed model Liz Corbett, too! She is seen on this picture in the diminutive Landar R6 with the same sharp suit in which we saw her yesterday. Groovy!

Stand 46 - were two exiting Mini derivatives rubbed shoulders: Broadspeed GT and Landar R6

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Hey, we've seen that face before! Liz Corbett, here in the Broadspeed powered Landar R6

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

A price list handed out on the 1966 Racing Car Show by Landar Components Ltd.

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

These are brother Peter and Clive Radnall with the alloy bodied Landar R6 prototype in 1965

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Like Broadspeed, Landar took a load of accessories to stand number 46

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Le Mans Deep Sanderson to be auctioned

The only Deep Sanderson 301 with aluminium body, built by Williams and Pritchard in 1961, is offered for auction on 23 July this year. I have tried to trace its history with some of the documents and pictures that I found, as the car in case is a rather special one. It is the 'DS 301' that was shown at the London Racing Car Show in January 1962 and the car that was raced at Le Mans in 1963 (click here for story) and entered for Le Mans in 1964 although it did not make it to the race that year due to an accident (click here). Strangely, the car wears chassis number '16', but perhaps that may have anything to do with the 1964 crash after which it must have been rebuilt. The works number '2 ARX' that it wears is unfortunately not with the car at the moment. Although there are some pictures of it with that number, it is said to have never been road registered untill 1970. It now comes with the registration number 'DGN 804H'. Designer and builder Christopher Lawrence sold it in Spring 1970 after it was registered and it made some appearances in ads and on pictures since. The current owner bought the car only a few years ago to have it restored by Lawrence, and it was raced a few times in the last two years. It is now estimated to make a price of 46-50,000 pounds when auctioned later this month. Not bad when you take a look at the old advertisements that I found! When interested in the auctioning of this piece of motoring history, click here.

UPDATE: It's been sold, but not for the estimate. See here.

The aluminium body takes shape at Williams and Pritchard's in Winter 1961

Picture courtesy Williams and Pritchard Register

The first Deep Sanderson 301 in primrose yellow, just finished for the Racing Car Show

Here the car can be seen at Le Mans in 1963, it is green by that time

And this is what it looked like after the crash while testing at Le Mans the next year 

Car and creator: Chris Lawrence in the Deep Sanderson just before he sold it in 1970

UPDATE 7 May 2012: This is not Lawrence but Bob Duncan some years later. Full story here

In the late 1970s it was offered for sale privately at 1000 pounds only...

...While in the early 1980s its asking price had doubled to 2000 pounds

This is a FIA document that I have of the car. It dates from 1986 

And here it can be seen in 1995 at Silverstone. I don't think the '2 ARX' plate is real

And finally, the car as it was in Spring 2011. Estimate is 46- to 50,000 GBP now...

Picture courtesy Guy Loveridge

Shocking designer also planned a Mini derivative

Mini derivatives can get pretty unusual. But they never get too obscure, do they? Well for me they don't. So when I heard that David Gittens designed a vehicle based on the Mini Moke back in the late 1960's I decided I needed to find out more. But who is David Gittens, you may want to know in the first place? Well, in specialist sports car circles American born Gittens, who lived in London back then, made some name and fame when he launched his astounding Ikenga. A pretty incredible supercar. It came on a McLaren M6 Can-Am chassis with Chevrolet Camaro 5.3 V8, had a dramatic body that was built by Williams & Pritchard's and was unveiled at Harrods (!) in 1968. And inside it wasn't any more down to earth, with fluid-filled instruments, a distance proximity sensor and rear view television camera. When Gittens returned to the US in 1971 he left his Ikenga in the UK, and it is said to be in a museum now. 

But what about the Mini Moke based car? Nobody knew. It took me a while to track down Gittens, but he appeared to live in Sarasota, Florida where he created a new type of guitar which he's teaching himself to play. He was most surprised when I contacted him and wrote: "Hi Jeroen. Thanks so much for your letter and interest in the Mini Moke based concept vehicle of 1967 ... what memories."

"The Mini Moke was one of five concept cars under development. Four of the projects were put on hold when my partner, English coach builder Charles Williams, died in June of 1969. A major effort was made to restart the project at Radfords Works Ltd. in London with the completion and exhibition of the Ikenga MKIII GT. This vehicle was exhibited in Paris and Turin (surprise of the Italian motor show) in late 1969, and featured at the 1970 Swedish International Motor show in Stockholm the following April. Shortly thereafter all of my efforts regarding auto design/building came to a close ... this was a very rich period in my life."

"The Moke did have a name however I do not remember it. The concept drawings and plans were displayed at the Earl's Court motor show but these have long vanished."

"In gratitude for awakening a rich time in my life, David."

That was almost two years ago, and David now sends me every now and then an update on his current art projects. I have never found out more about the Moke based car, but funnily a friend of David's discovered some 1968 footage of the Ikenga on snowy Sussex roads that was sent over to me too. It's of crappy quality, but what a lovely piece of period film it is. Enjoy it, and do let me know if you know more about Gittens' stillborn Moke project as this movie clip makes me wonder again...

Ikenga was David Gittens' finest. But he planned a Mini derivative too!