Hello

Any information about the Piper GT Lotus Ford ?
How much are build ? Pictures ? Any car survived ?

Good question, will be interesting to see what the answers are - I think officially there four.
I know the current owner of Piper Cars, Tony Claydon, he used to race a ModSports TVR and Lotus Elan as well as a Piper:- http://www.piperracingcars.co.uk/

It was claimed at one of the Crystal Palace sprints in the 90s that 3 remained in existence and were all there. I'm not sure where the Lotus bit of the title comes from. I know Bill Quine (Manx Racing Developments) built a correct pre-Xflow Kent pushrod for one of them some years ago. Lionel Cole (co-driver to Graham Watton Cortina in 60's rallies) and Bournemouth both ring bells as linked to it.

Did the original not have a Lotus twin-cam engine?

By giraffe138

The 1969 Piper GTR 1300cc of Tim Slack & Mark Wright pictured at the Masters event at Donington in April last year.

Nice but the original question was about the Piper GT not the GTR - different beasts!

In recent seasons I have seen Chris Atkinson campaigning his Red 1966 1600cc Piper GT, and also Anthony Goddard in his burgundy 1965 example. I presume these are two of the existing cars referred to earlier?

Chris Atkinson was at the Spa 6H last week, competing in the Historic Sports Car club series :


Copyright Luc Ghys

The thread search for informations over the closed ( mid - engined ) GT Versions
How much build ? ( 3 ? )
Any survived ? Who ?
Pictures ?

"The thread search for informations over the closed ( mid - engined ) GT Versions"

I'm certainly not an expert on Pipers, but as far as I know the only "closed mid-engined GT version" of the Piper was the GTR. There is an article with lots of pictures in Classic & Sportscar April 2005 detailing the #134 GTR pictured above, owned by Tim Slack.

I thought the Piper GT was shaped more like the GTZ Alfa in the background but tubbier.

I also recall them having the engine infront of the driver, and gullwing doors?!?!

Yes - this is what I understand to be the Piper GT
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&am...mp;aq=f&oq=
(from memory, it looks rather nicer in the 'flesh').

The astonishingly low - and quite rarely seen - GTR is, as Stephen says, a rather different machine altogether.
Even having seen pictures before, the first time saw one for real, I was still amazed at how low it looked when one is standing next to it.

Is there actually any connection between the somewhat Lotus 23-like sports racer, pictured above with Chris Atkinson, and the other Pipers discussed here? I'd never linked them in my mind - thinking of them as different marques - although I confess to not knowing a great deal about any of them.

No - I meen not the Front engined Piper GT
Look at the Piper Clup Webside, You can see a picture from a yellow, mid engined Sportscar. That looks like the car
from Chris Atkinson - but with a roof !

All very confusing - I suspect plenty of Piper (front-engined) GT's were made as, down here in Kent, I have seen quite a few over the years. The GTR's production (including the replicas) is pretty well documented but a hard-topped 23B / Merlin lookalike ?? ...never heard of it.

Incidentally Pipers were made in the Kent countryside a mile or so down the lane from my current home - having moved into Dan Gurney's AAR Eagle factory after the operation had flown home...

I've seen this Piper GTR out at Masters events several times over the last few years.

http://themastersseries.com/imageLibrary/WSRM_5052.jpg

This was taken at Donington in April 2008.

It appears to be the Tim Slack car and only managed 1 lap in qualifying.

http://www.tsl-timing.com/special/2008/81691.pdf

It did better in the race, finishing 7th, one ahead of me!

Roger

For a potted history with pictures of different types: http://www.thepiperclub.org.uk/3.html

Was Chris Barber, the jazz musician associated with the GTR? I recall an entry for Kirkistown in the late 1960s but the car did not arrive and Chris shared a local MG Midget.
Simon Thomas

Is this what you are looking for?

According to the website the closed coupe mid-engined sports racers were a development of the open cars and pre-dated the GTR.

There was a series for GTs which the closed coupe would have been ideal (I think sponsored by STP?)

Yes !! That´s the cars i looking for !!
Huw miuch are build ?
Any survived ?
Any other pictures ?
Any informations about racing results , engines ...

The Piper Club site seems to imply that there were THREE GTs. The first a hard top conversion to one of the open cars and then the next two built specifically as coupes.

The club should have some more photos that were taken at the same time!

Hello

Now it´s clear what cars are search !
How much are build ( 2 or 3 ? )
Have one of the cars survived - and when - who are it ?
Any results and more pictures from the Piper GT ?

regards Karl

Another shot taken at the same time..

Who are the two cars today ???

A rather nice photo of Bobby Bell at Crystal Palace 1967
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Piper-GT-Bobby-Bell-...=item1e61a9b8d0