Tag Archives: Goodwin

Nice Competition – Fiberfab Bonito

Today’s self build special is a Fibrefab Bonito which I believe was designed to be built around a Volkswagen Beetle floor pan suspension and brakes with the motor mounted behind the rear axle.

Fiberfab FT Bonito, Rare Breeds, Haynes International Motor Museum

Fibrefab was a self build manufacturer founded by Warren “Bud” Goodwin in 1964 manufacturing a range of parts including body panels moving onto building kits for owners to assemble into complete cars.

Fiberfab FT Bonito, Rare Breeds, Haynes International Motor Museum

The Bonito, Avenger GT and Valkyrie are three of the many models from Fibrefab that to a greater or less extent resembled the Ford GT prototype racing cars.

Fiberfab FT Bonito, Rare Breeds, Haynes International Motor Museum

This particular Bonito, first registered as a Special in 1986, was found in a back garden where it had stood for 12 years. It has been built up into what is believed to be the only competition Bonito, in the UK, for use on stage rallies by Gary Candy.

Fiberfab FT Bonito, Rare Breeds, Haynes International Motor Museum

Unusually for a Bonito, the rear mounted 50 hp aircooled VW Beetle motor had been discarded in favour of a watercooled Volkswagen Golf / Corrado motor that is equally unusually mounted ahead of the rear axle.

Fiberfab FT Bonito, Rare Breeds, Haynes International Motor Museum

In 1983 Warren “Bud” Goodwin sold Fiberfab to Classic Motor Carriages a company that had to close after a legal action in 1994 involving “several hundred” customers.

Fiberfab FT Bonito, Rare Breeds, Haynes International Motor Museum

It would appear that a body was obtained by a company called ACM in the UK which was subsequently re engineered by Seraph Ltd to fit on a ladder frame with the motor in the front, this vehicle is known either as the ACM Excalibur, not to be confused with the Excalibur Roadster built in Milwaukee, or Seraph 3000.

My thanks to Bloggsworth, jcbc3, Elansprint72, Ray Bell, Michael Ferner and johnthebridge, at The Nostalgia Forum for their help in trying to identify the motor.

Thanks for joining me on this “Nice Competition” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another special Bentley. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Wheels & Studs – Lotus 23B

The Lotus 23 is a 900 lb / 408 kgs sports racing car, with a nominal passenger seat, built around a wide version of the Lotus 22 chassis frame with identical suspension to the single seater.

Customers had motors installed, from 750 cc / 41 cui to 2 over litres / 122 cui, that were manufactured by Coventry Climax, Lotus, Ford, BMW, Saab and even Ferrari amongst others.

Chris Goodwin, Lotus 23B, Goodwood Revival

In 1962 over 130 Lotus 23’s were built that are known to have been entered in over 600 national and international events and recorded over 110 outright victories and a more than a further 130 class victories up to the Kyalami 9 hours in 1981.

The Lotus 23 has two important footnotes recorded in the annals of Motor Racing history, both dating to 1962 first Jim Clark qualified a Lotus 23 6th for the 1000 kms race at Nurburgring, a race which included an impressive array of powerful Ferrari’s Porsche’s and Jaguars. The race started in the rain and the nimble Jim and the 100 hp Lotus 23 shot away from the Le Mans type start into the lead and remained there ahead of Dan Gurney in a Porsche until lap 12 of 44 when he was overcome by fumes from a split exhaust manifold and crashed, without injury. Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien eventually won the race in a Ferrari 246S.

For Le Mans in 1962 Lotus entered two cars one 750 cc / 45 cui and the other 1 litre 61 cui which is said to have upset several French teams causing the organisers to throw the Lotus team out of the race first on the grounds that the front and rear wheel hubs had 4 and 6 studs respectively, when this was rectified the organisers threw the cars out again because the front a rear wheels were different sizes meaning the spare wheel which had to be carried could not be fitted to front & rear axles. This was the final straw for Colin Chapman who vowed “We will never race again at Le Mans!” a promise he kept until his death in 1982.

Chris Goodwin, Lotus 23B, Goodwood Revival

The Lotus 23B seen here at the Goodwood Revival is driven by Chris Goodwin who finished third in the Madgwick Cup.

T22222 is an Austrian registration number that appeared on chassis 23-S-68 that was driven by Austrian hotelier Alban Scheiber on hillclimb events in 1963.

Chris Goodwin is yet another of my former racing instructors at Brands Hatch, who is better known as a sportscar racer, TV presenter and McLaren Automotive’s Chief Test Driver and Bruno Senna’s Manager.

My thanks to Lutz ‘r.altos’ M for the information regarding Alban Scheiber.

Thanks for joining me on this Wheels and Studs edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

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