JC Bamford

JCB famous producers of entrepreneur machines ,was in racing in the seventies I believe. They took over Pipers 3 axle ex Woolfe ex Shelby /Mann/ Ford , ex Scarab 2 axle transporter and sponsored Harley Cluxton/GTC at Le Mans in 77 and 78(?). I seem to remember them being involved in 2 litre sports cars as well and historic racing with Maserati 250F1 and T61. Also the name Richard Bamford pops up in my memory Am I right , and could you please tell me more ?

Hello Bjorn,
My memory is hazy but I think of Anthony Bamford - I don't remember Richard. JCB were, I think, based in Staffordshire, UK making road digging and other equipment. I think the term 'JCB' is still used here for a digger with cab and front scoop, usually yellow; the brand/company name entered the language in the same way as Hoover etc.

I have happy memories of their sponsorship of the historic single seater series in the early/mid 1970s, often at Silverstone. The racing was good and the cars exquisite: Maseratis, BRM, Aston Martin, Listers etc......Willie Green, Neil Corner.... I assume that the Bamfords' interest in historic racing led them into the other sponsorship/entrant arrangements you mention. John Fellowes might know as he and his brother were involved in the JCB historic series.
John

Thanks John , JCB is still in the earthmoving field ,with a then as now innovative front / back and combi loaders etc.
And yes it was Anthony I meant. Seniorslip.
In those days I still had Autosport , allways looking for the results of the races then , with the good old names of cars and the scraps of Corner and Green etc.

I could be way off track here, but I recall JCB racing in the '60s in Group 7, specifically with a Lotus 30/40, I could be so wrong, but maybe it is not my memory playing tricks with me!

I probably saw it at one of the Brands August bank Holiday meetings

In 1945 Joseph Cyril Bamford made a farm trailer out of war surplus steel using a second hand welder, having sold the trailer for a profit he built another, the rest is history! Anthony is his son.

They have also built (with a good deal of input from Ricardo Engineering) the fastest Diesel engined vehicle ever - The JCB Dieselmax using two JCB engines and driven by Wing Commander Andy Green to 328.767mph.

I believe Sir Anthony Bamford retains a large collection of classic sports and racing cars on his estate in Staffordshire.

My most vivid memory of JCB is the yellow Chevron B8 that they sponsored in the late 60's, which was one of the quickest around. I saw it at the fateful Tourist Trophy at Oulton in 1969, driven by Paul Vestey, (Lord Vestey?). I seem to remember a colour pic of it on the Targa Florio in the centre of Motorsport, it having won it's class and finished well up the field.
This car re-appeared beautifully restored at the HSCC Silverstone Finals meeting in October 2006 driven by Andrew Newall of Derby, resplendent in it's yellow JCB livery, and entered in the programme by J.C.Bamford Excavators. I don't know what has subsequently become of it.
I also recall a JCB yellow Ferrari 512M around some time ago.

Originally posted by Giraffe
I also recall a JCB yellow Ferrari 512M around some time ago.

Willie Green at the 1972 Interserie race, Silverstone (sorry for the quality of the photos )





Rob

A John Bamford used to race Chevrons; am I right in presuming he was part of the JCB dynasty? Also, was it not Brown and Enever who regularily campaigned the JCB Chevron B8?

In 1969 the JCB B8 was driven by Enever,Brown ,Bamford and Baker all over EU for WC and NWC sports races.
I do not find the JCB as entrants in the following 70's except that the "John Bamford " raced 2 litres for WRA(Worcestershire Rac. Ass.). Perhaps they went only historics then ?

JCB still race the B8 along with many other cars and Sir Anthony still has one of the best collections of Historic Race cars in UK.Gelscoe who are one of the best preppers in the business run most of the cars.

Sir Anthony has delighted historic race fans for more years than I care to remember with his entries of myriad gems from the '30s through to relatively modern times. He is probably best known as the entrant of Willie Green in, amongst others, one of the 250F Piccolos, Jaguar 'D', GT40, Delage, Lister-Chev, etc etc etc. Latterly Frank Sytner was his principal driver but now his son, Joe, is a regular racer in the Gentlemen Drivers series as well as at the Goodwood Revival in the ex-Maranello Concessionaires 1963 TT-winning GTO.

Originally posted by Bjørn Kjer
Also the name Richard Bamford pops up in my memory

Bjorn you were probably thinking of Richard Bond who raced the JCB Ferrari Daytona at Le Mans in the early 70s.

The JCB Historic Series was started in 1970 and catered for sports and racing cars of the 1950s in three classes: sports racing cars under 2 litres; sports racing cars over 2 litres and historic racing cars (as defined by the VSCC). It was the first high profile championship for old cars and the majority of the races were at big "modern" meetings.

The mixture of sports and racing cars caused a certain amount of comment as they didn't race together in period as a norm.

Prior to the JCB series 1950s sports racing cars ran under what was called "The Griffiths Formula" but races were relatively few and far between and I recall the excitement of the AMOC Holland Trophy in its early days which catered for these cars. The JCB series put paid to that and the Holland Trophy then became a race for road sports cars of the 1950s.

The JCB series was responsible for the importation of many exciting cars from America such as Maserati Birdcages and a huge number of Listers and quite a few Ferraris. It also seemed strange i.e. not quite cricket that JCB would set out to win their own series with Willie Green and the yellow Maserati T61. They also carried advertising!

All in all quite a turning point for UK historic racing.

Originally posted by Bjørn Kjer
JCB famous producers of entrepreneur machines ,was in racing in the seventies I believe. They took over Pipers 3 axle ex Woolfe ex Shelby /Mann/ Ford , ex Scarab 2 axle transporter and sponsored Harley Cluxton/GTC at Le Mans in 77 and 78(?). I seem to remember them being involved in 2 litre sports cars as well and historic racing with Maserati 250F1 and T61. Also the name Richard Bamford pops up in my memory Am I right , and could you please tell me more ?

Back in the late 80's, I paid a couple of business visits to the JCB works and admired the advanced desing of the spotless premises and the lovely scenery of the estate, along with the unusual, at that time, attention to the details, such small winter gardens facing production lines, or a display of some actual 4-cyl vintage Ferrari engines sitting here and there as sculptures. The entrance gate was a display of noble British horseless carriages wearing JCB I, JCB II... plates!

Originally posted by simonlewisbooks


Bjorn you were probably thinking of Richard Bond who raced the JCB Ferrari Daytona at Le Mans in the early 70s.

The irrepressable Bondini - he is a not only a mate but a living proof that you can party every day - just dont try and have a sensible conversation with him after 8pm.....
Happy New Year

Any new infos on JCB , please ? Or links to their story perhaps ?

They have also built (with a good deal of input from Ricardo Engineering) the fastest Diesel engined vehicle ever - The JCB Dieselmax using two JCB engines and driven by Wing Commander Andy Green to 328.767mph.

I believe Sir Anthony Bamford retains a large collection of classic sports and racing cars on his estate in Staffordshire.

Ricardo did indeed 'tune' the engines. Mostly by dry-sumping, some crank & piston mods, different turbos then boosting the fuel pressure. Apart from that it was surprisingly standard, which was the intention.

It did achieve 328.767mph, but the following day achieved 350.092mph over the measured mile.

There was power to spare but the vehicle was tyre limited & already over that limit.

The car was actually designed by the Visioneering company in Coventry.

In 1945 Joseph Cyril Bamford made a farm trailer out of war surplus steel using a second hand welder, having sold the trailer for a profit he built another, the rest is history! Anthony is his son.

One day a trailer customer said he wished he could to buy two trailers but he couldn't afford it. JC (the father) asked why two. The customer said he was in the excavation bussiness and he owned a backhoe and a loader, and no matter which he had on the trailer the job always required the other. This gave JC the idea to marry a backhoe with the digger in the back with a loader bucket in the front - kind of a swiss army knife sort of thing. Thus JC invented the TLB (tractor, loader backhoe) which became the most used piece of construction equipment in the world. He made so much money, his son could buy his title and engage in his hobby of racing and historic cars.

It was said that there was a 50's Grand Prix Ferrari (or similar) in the drawing office at JCB to remind the workers what to aspire to.... Don't know if it is apocryphal, but i like the idea.

his son could buy his title

Probably libellous

Looking at Peter Brown's record in racing sports cars.com it would appear he had the backing of JCB as early as 1968 when he was sharing an MGB in Europe with Tony Fall.

 

Also curious to note that the JCB entered #88 B8 for the Nurburgring 1000kms in June 1969 was blue with a white stripe, would any body know if this was a different car to the B8 #CH-BDE-78 which carries the JCB colours these days ?

The father in law of Jeff Bloxham the photographer was part of the crew on the Le Mans B8  adventure , 

I don't know for certain, Ralph, but I strongly suspect that the two JCB Chevron B8s you refer to are different cars. Sir Anthony Bamford does turn over cars from time to time and his collection is not set in stone

Thanks Edward and Alan I'll see if I can track down Mr Bloxam on another popular interface

This page on the ORC site indicates that the original JCB B8 was chassis CH-DBE-78:

Chevron B8 [CH-DBE-78] (Chris Appleby): A bright yellow B8 bought for 1969 by the Bamford family, sponsored by JCB Excavators Ltd and raced by Pete Brown and Roger Enever in long-distance events, notably the Targa Florio and Le Mans. This car was sold to Bosco O'Brien for 1970 and was one of four B8s appearing regularly in Mondello Parks sports/GT races during 1970. Sold back to England to Graham Lynch for 1971 and raced in northern club racing.