Tag Archives: Special

The Adjustacar – Lotus Ford 77 #R2

Like the photo’s featured in the Ferrari T2 post a couple of months ago today’s photo’s come courtesy of my school friend Sven Platt and were taken at the 1976 British Grand Prix.

The 1976 Lotus 77 was a second attempt at replacing the Lotus 72 after the underwhelming Lotus 76 was abandoned in 1974. Like the 76 the 77 featured an extremely narrow chassis, but with Lotus 72 style side pods which extended back to the leading edge of the rear wheels for the radiators.

Novel features for the Lotus 77 when it was first seen included air intakes that ran the length of the cockpit, in board brakes, that were mounted between a pencil thin chisel nose and the front wheels, and rocker arm suspension that was fully adjustable to meet the requirements of any track.

By the start of the European season non championship races the cockpit side air intakes for the motor were blanked off and replaced with a conventional airbox. The ‘adjustacar’ suspension proved difficult to set up but was retained, while by the Belgian GP the inboard front brakes were abandoned. At the Dutch Grand Prix an oil cooler was mounted in the nose to move some weight forward of the front axle line.

At the start of the 1976 season drivers came and went like a game of musical chairs, Ronnie Peterson was the incumbent #1 driver and Mario Andretti returned for a one off guest drive, after a six year break in the second car. After qualifying 16th and retiring with accident damage Ronnie swapped places with new boy & countryman Gunnar Nilsson who had been scheduled to drive for the March team. Andretti returned to Vels Parnelli team just in time for it to fold after the 1976 US Grand Prix West. British Formula 5000 champion Bob Evans was given two Grand Prix races at Team Lotus while Nilsson made his Grand Prix debut in South Africa. After failing to qualify for the US GP West Evans was dropped from the team and after trying out the Wolf Williams FWO5 in a non championship race freshly out of work Mario Andretti signed on as the Lotus #1 driver !

After Andretti rejoined the team Nilsson scored a couple of thirds during his rookie year while Andretti went a little better scoring two thirds and winning the thrilling final race of the season run in a monsoon that decided the championship between Niki Lauda and James Hunt that should make a thrilling climax to Ron Howard’s current film project ‘Rush‘.

The three Lotus 77’s, never known as John Player Special II’s as the sponsors might have hoped, were retired from top line competition at the end of 1977, however that was not quite the end of the story as once again David Render, swapping his Lotus 76, and getting hold of Andretti’s Japanese GP chassis, #R1, and using it as an effective hillclimb and sprint machine.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Adjustacar’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be reviewing last weekends Simply Italian event at the National Motor Museum in which a GALPOT regular won a prize ! Don’t forget to come back now !

Big Valve Special – Lotus 74 Europa Special

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In 1971 Chief Engineer Mike Kimberley oversaw the development of the upgraded Lotus Europa Twin Cam Type 74. featuring a 105 hp Twin Cam motor coupled with a stronger Renault 4 speed gearbox.

The upgraded Europa featured a 105 hp Twin Cam motor coupled with a stronger Renault 4 speed gearbox.

After the first 1580 Europa Twin Cams has been built the Europa model was again upgraded with a 126 hp ‘big valve variant of the twin cam motor.

The first 200 ‘Big Valve’ Europa’s were planned as a limited ‘Europa Special’ edition of 200 featuring the black and gold “John Player Special”, tobacco brand, paint work of the works Lotus Racing cars which won the 1972 World Constructors Championship and World Drivers Championship with Emerson Fittipaldi at the wheel.

The 200 ‘Europa Special’ limited edition vehicles, all featuring a 5 speed gearbox, launched in September 1972 are distinguishable by a numbered badge on the dash panel.

Such was the popularity of the Europa Special that the model was continued after the initial planned batch of 200 had been built sans numbered dashboard badges and in a variety of colours including black and gold until 1975.

I was unable to discern if the 1972 Europa Special seen here is one of the first 200 numbered cars, or one of post limited edition models, when I saw it at last years Goodwood Festival of Speed. Note how the rear bodywork has been tidied up to give better rear visibility when compared to the Type 54 Europa I looked at last week.

A Europa with the big valve motor was tested in period carrying a passenger from rest to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds and with a maximum speed of 122 mph. In all 3130 big valve Europa Specials were built from September 1972 to 1975.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Big Valve Special’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho’ on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be reviewing last weeks Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival. Don’t forget to come back now !

12 05 09 Lotus Type 74 disambiguation, it has come to light that at least one internet source lists two Lotus Type 74’s one the Europa Twin Cam / Europa Special and the other an open wheel Formula 2 car, former Lotus employee Rob, Kayemod on The Nostalgia Forum, has kindly informed me that the Formula 2 cars were only ever referred to at the Lotus factory as “Texaco Stars” in deference to their sponsor and that the Type 74 designation seems to have been applied to the racing car retrospectively.

Towing and Competing – Kayne Special III

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A couple of weeks ago I was privileged to meet MG Special Builder and Frogeye restorer Colin Cooper. Today I am looking at his third, and final, Kayne Special III.

Colin originally conceived the Kayne Special III as a towing car for his Kayne Special II as seen above at Oulton Park in 1983 and his Killeen K1 which I’ll be looking at next Tuesday.

Photo Copyright Frank Hall 1984.

However since he was taking part in events which allowed a driver multiple entries he decided to see what the Kayne Special III could do. Colin is seen above at Baitings Dam in 1984.

Kayne Special III was designed from scratch to Colin’s own design between 1981 and 1983.The green radiator cowl seen on the Kayne Special III above at Castle Combe like the more substantial safety cage was fitted after Colin sold the car.

Colin cut all of the square section tube chassis members with a hacksaw, no short cuts were taken with angle grinders, tacked all the members together and then had the chassis frame mig welded by a friend.

The 3.5 litre / 215 cui V8 motor came from a Rover SD1 complete with an automatic transmission which was attached to a rear axle sourced from an MG B. Note the steering column needs two universal joints to avoid fouling on the right hand bank of cylinders, this feature resulted in the Kayne Special III being unsuitable for anybody to drive with shoes size 7 1/2 or larger.

Running on 14″ MG B wire wheels at the front and 15″ MG C rear wheels at the rear and with a 0-100 mph capability in the region of 15 secs Colin could tease motorcyclists with his beautifully finished Kayne Special III.

With the automatic transmission Colin could drive the car to within 1 second of the times he achieved with the Kayne Special II. By 1984 Colin had fitted a manual transmission.

Colin sold the Kayne Special III when he retired from competition in 1985 for £2,700. The present owners and drivers of the car are John and Jonathon Biggs.

My thanks to Colin Cooper for sharing his memories and providing his photographs and to Chris Winstanley for allowing me to use Frank Halls photograph.

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

Never Seen It As Bad As This ! – Prescott Speed Hill Climb

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Britain’s wettest drought in history continued apace this weekend, but I did not let that get in the way of attending 3 very different events in 3 days. I’ll not be blogging them in order for any particular reason but I’ll start with the last one, Prescott Speed Hillclimb which I attended yesterday afternoon, first and post blogs on the Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival on Sunday and the Spring Performance Car Action Day at Castle Combe next Monday.

I got to Prescott yesterday afternoon just in time to have a quick £3.00 bacon sarnie and have a quick look around the paddock before making my way to the top of the hill. The last time I saw a March 792 sporting Philip Morris Marlboro colours for Swedish hot shot Eje Elgh, like the one above belonging to Stuart Ridge, was 25th March 1979 at Silverstone.

The two days had much in common it was close to freezing at Silverstone and only 4º C yesterday, at both events it was absolutely tipping with rain but mercifully there are a few more trees at Prescott which gave a vestigal illusion of shelter from the strong Easterly winds. Above Robert Lancaster-Gaye above heads for a over 2000 cc / 122 cui Road Going class win in his Porsche 996 GT3.

Before I left home I checked the weather and there were severe weather and flood warnings for the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside in which Prescott is located. Andrew Russell could not get below 60 seconds in the Modified Series Production class Hillman Imp powered Ginetta G15.

With a 120 mph capability and 0-60 time of 5 seconds the Westfield iRacer is shockingly quick for a vehicle that is barely audible thanks to it’s two 100 hp electric motors which drive each rear wheel. The iRacer was being demonstrated in racing spec which has a 15 minute battery life. 2/3rds of the battery weight can be saved for hill climb events which, in the UK, rarely last more than a minute per run.

Part of the attraction of going to Prescott was the promise of seeing some big brutal cars with plenty of horsepower, nothing quite prepared me for the two Chevrolet Specials and Jagernought Rover which were built for sand racing in the Channel Isles, thats Gurnsey, Jersey and Alderney in the English Channel. Scot Rayson’s Chevrolet Special above used to be Jaguar powered, it still has the Jaguar running gear but is now powered by a 6.3 litre 384 cui Chevy V8. Spare a thought for the Sand Racers who as I write this are headed back across the English Channel in significantly less than calm waters.

One reason today’s blog was posted a little late is that the intelweb will tell you the driver of the car above is Tricia Davis to add to the confusion the programme tells me that the car is a Reynard 913 which it most certainly is not. The programme tells me Tricia did not take part while a Terry Davis did but also in a Reynard. I believe most of the photo’s on the interweb showing this helmet and ascribing it to Tricia are incorrectly labeled and vice versa for Terry Davis. I further believe that Terry has acquired or at the very least borrowed an OMS 25 for the event. My ears were too wrapped up against the weather to discern if this information was disseminated over the Prescott tanoy. Please correct me below if I have that completely wrong !

As I was walking down the hill during the event one marshal quipped that he had never seen the conditions so bad, fortunately this did not stop Wallace Menzies claiming a Race Cars over 2000 cc / 122 cui class victory in the #4 Cosworth powered Tillicoultry Quarries DJ Firestorm, that’s a Firestorm model manufactured by DJ Race Cars. To the left of the #4 DJ Firestorm Lee Adams can be seen telling a journalist….

how he stormed up Prescott in 43.82 seconds to claim fastest time of the day (FTD) in his giant killing up to 1600 cc / 97.6 cui class GWR Raptor Extreme, seen commencing his final run above.

My thanks to the Prescott press office for a hot off the press copy of the unconfirmed results which not only allowed me to share the information here but also warmed my hands up nicely as I walked back to the car.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Never Seen It As Bad As This !’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be looking at continuing the series of blogs on Colin Coppers specials looking at the Kayne Special III. Don’t forget to come back now !

MGCC Speed Champion – Kayne Special II

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After selling the original MG J2 with a PB motor Kayne Special, which I looked at last week Colin Cooper started work on Kayne Special II.

Photo Copyright Frank Hall 1981

Colin began with a scrap 1965 MG B found in Cheshire from which he cut out the engine sub frame and added a pair of chassis rails around which he built up the rest of the car with an under slung rear axle featuring a limited slip differential. Kayne Special II ran on specially made bespoke wire wheels.

Photo Copyright Frank Hall 1983

The motor was a 4 cylinder MG B unit which was eventually fitted with an HRG Cross Flow cylinder heads and twin 45 Weber Carbs. Colin notes this car, his favorite, was always totally reliable.

Among many successes were winning the 1981 MG Car Club (MGCC) Speed Championship, 1981 Ellison Trophy at Oulton Park, see Frank Halls top photo, the 1979 Kimber Trophy, 2nd 1983 Kimber Trophy at Baitings Dam, see Frank Halls second photo, named after MG founder Cecil Kimber, and several awards for fastest MG in Sprint and Hill Climb events.

Colin said of Kayne Special II it was “a bit of a shed but it didn’t half go, (it was) timed at 115 mph at Blackpool Sprint.”

The car was eventually sold to a sprinting novice and is thought to have been eventually broken up with many of it’s parts going into a road going MG B.

Colin’s third special, Kayne Special III, seen towing Kayne Special II in the photo above will be the subject of next Tuesdays blog.

My thanks to Colin for sharing his memories and photographs and to Tony Gallagher for putting me in touch with Chris Winstanley who kindly gave me permission to use Frank Hall’s photographs of Colin in action at Oulton Park and Baitings Dam.

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

24 04 12 Added Frank Halls photo’s from Oulton Park and Baitings Dam.

Bump Start Only – Kayne Special

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Following yesterdays blog about Colin Cooper here is the first of 4 blogs on MG powered specials that Colin has built, raced and or owned.

The Kayne name is derived from Kay, and Neil his children. Colin’s first special was built in the ’72 – ’73 off season on an MG J2 chassis thought to be chassis number J4326. The Colin is seen driving the car above on it’s first outing at Loton Park in 1973.

For 1973 Colin ran the Kayne Speacial 1 with a 939 cc / 57 cui 4 cylinder MG PB motor. To save weight car built the car without a starter motor, so it always had to be bump started ! The Kayne Special is seen above at RAF Topcliffe alongside the #28 MG L Type of Maurice Gleeson and the #30 an ex Nigel Musselwhite MG PB belonging to Colin’s friend Trevor Goodwin.

For the 1974 season Colin fitted a Shorrock S/C directly driven off the nose of the crank, the car is seen Curborough Sprint driven by current owner Mike Painter in the early 1980’s with the super charger fitted, you can tell by the single carburetor popping out of the bodywork ahead of the front wheels.

Colin secured many class victories with the Kayne Special before selling it on 1976.

Mike Painter bought the Kayne Special, seen more recently at Loton Park above, soon after Colin sold it.

I’ll be looking at Colin’s second special the Kayne Special II next Tuesday.

My thanks to JMH for the chassis number and Allan Lupton for his comments on The Nostalgia Forum.

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

24/04/12 Added chassis number.

Specials & Restorations – Colin Cooper

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A couple of months ago I set out to find who built an MG that will feature in tomorrow’s blog called the ‘Kayne Special’, see below. Thanks to some help from my friends paulg at the MG Car Club Forum, The Nostalgia Forum, Bob Allan and his friend Peter Croft in New Zealand I have learned that the Kayne Special was built by Colin Cooper and a couple of weeks ago Colin invited me to visit him and discuss his pursuit of speed.

Colin Cooper hails from Bolton at 15 he and a school friend purchased an Austin Seven for £2 10s (£2.50) at auction. They drove the car home sans driving licence and between them they built up a special but could not afford to run it and sold it on.

Colin started driving legally when his Dad bought a 1955 Ford Popular in 1958 which was sold the following year. For his 20th Birthday Colins Mum bought him a £75 MG VA 4 seat tourer seen above around 1960 which seeded his affinity for MG’s.

Colin’s interest in cars was primarily a hobby, with a few deals to ease the financial pain, in 1972 he started racing a 1934 MG PA shared with his friend Trevor which is seen above at Kinmel Park near Rhyll in Wales.

Having squirrelled various bits pieces away including an MG J2 chassis and MG PB motor Colin set about building the first, see to top photo, of what would be come three Kayne Specials built between 1973 and 1982. The name is derived from Kay, and Neil his children. Above on the left is the Kayne Special 3 in the middle the Kayne Special 2 and the Killeen K1 built by Tom Killeen in 1953 all 3 of these cars will be looked at in greater detail in the coming weeks Tuesday MG blogs.

In between building and racing his three specials and racing the Kileen K1 Colin acquired, restored, raced and sold numerous fascinating vehicles including a bevy of Lotus 18’s of which the one above, seen at Curborough in 1977 featured some radical bodywork a standard Ford 1500 cc motor with a 4 speed Renault Dauphine gearbox.

Some where around 1978 Colin acquired an Ex Targa Florio Daren Mk 2B one of only 8 Mk 2’s built, seen here at Longridge in Lancashire.

Frank Halls photo above taken in 1985 shows Colin competition career drawing to a close at Blackpool, where he drove a Mallock Mk III, one of many early Mallocks that Colin owned over the years.

Above are some of the trophies Colin won over a span of 15 years in competitive driving, Colin is also a snooker champion, he still uses the same Joe Davis cue he was given on his 13th birthday.

When Colin retired from his professional career he started a Frogeye restoration business called Central England Sports Cars in 1993, soon after setting up a Mr Ogawa seen on the left signed the first of several deals for batches of six restored Frogeye’s to be exported to Japan paying 50% upfront and the balance when the cars were ready for dispatch to the docks. The business declined with the stagnation of the Japanese economy in 1998 and became the Frogeye Spares Company which was sold in 2000 and is still going strong.

Before I left, Colin he asked if I could help track down the black Midget seen in the corner of the CESC workshop above. The car registered WHP 94S is still thought to be on the road, it is a MG Midget identifiable by a Sprite grill 1500 cc motor, rear anti tramp bars Frogeye Windscreen and hood with 9 lift of fasteners. Colin sold the car to a policeman for approximately £2000 and he believes the PC bought it for his sister. Colin would like to get in touch with the current owner if you can help please leave a message below, on my fb page or e-mail me direct infoATpsychoontyres.co.uk please type MIDGET in the subject box.

My thanks to Colin for generously giving me the time to discuss his fascinating story and cars, to paulg at the MGCC Forum, to everyone at The Nostalgia Forum, Bob Allan and Peter Croft who helped me find Colin. Thanks also to Tony Gallagher for putting me in touch with Chris Winstanley who kindly granted permission to use Frank Halls photograph.

Thanks for joining me on this Specials & Restorations edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be taking a look at Colin’s first Kayne Special. Don’t forget to come back now !

24/04/12 Photo of Colin driving the Mallock at Blackpool added.

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

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