Friends:

As you can see, I'm a novice poster here, but I need help with a current project. For an upcoming book, I'm writing the history of every car in the Shelby American Collection in Boulder, Colorado (www.shelbyamericancollection.org). Besides GT40 Mk IV J-7 and Daytona Coupe CSX2299, these include the Willment Coupe, built by John Willment from Shelby American drawings. For possible use in the book, we need good quality photographs of this car from the 1960s. Any information or anecdotes would also be appreciated.

Race record (draft)

1964
Sept. 4 Snetterton Three-Hours Jack Sears #2 1st overall
Oct. 21 Kyalami Nine-Hours, S.A. Jack Sears/Bob Olthoff #8 5th overall (flat tire)
Nov ? McNeille, Rhodesia Bob Olthoff 20 2nd oa, 1st GT

1965
Jan East London, S.A. Bob Olthoff 1st
Jan Killarney, S.A. Bob Olthoff 1st
returned to England
May 1 Tourist Trophy, Oulton Park Frank Gardner #23
7th overall, in first heat, 11th in second (10th overall, lap record)
July 4 Rheims 12 Hour (night) Frank Gardner #25 DNF (engine)
Aug. 5 Brands Hatch, Guards Trophy Jack Sears #101 1st
?? Silverstone Frank Gardner #38 ?result
Aug. 29 Tourist Trophy, Goodwood Bob Olthoff #24 5th overall??

1966
9/17 Oulton Park Brian Muir #57 5th

I've spent hours searching old posts on this forum but have found very little on this car, so anything you can add would be appreciated. Yes, the car did run at Goodwood in 2007, driven by Desire Wilson, but we need photos of it "in the day," as they say.

Another need: photos of or information about the Tommy Hitchcock Cobra, CSX2155, white, raced in the Targa Florio or at the Nuerburgring in 1964.

Thanks,

Frank Barrett
Toad Hall Motorbooks
1235 Pierce St., Lakewood, CO 80214
303/237-0911 (Mountain Time)
fax 303/237-6080
fbarrett@aol.com

Sorry, Frank, but I have nothing "in period". I do have a couple when owned by Amschel Rothschild in the 70s if they may be of interest.

Found a photo of the car as it exists today and a period photo, half way down on the left, on this web page

http://www.imca-slotracing.com/1965-1966-H...OK%20SERIES.htm


and another:

http://willmentcars.com/1961_70/cobra/w_co...ley_stadion.jpg

Schlegelmilch has done a good one in colour, it is in Paul Parker splendid book Sports Car Racing in camera 1960-69.

Jean Damon has a colour one in Michel Bollees Les 12 Heures de Reims

Some more pics about Cobra.... here : http://forums.motorlegend.com/vb/showthrea...?t=31465&page=2

Frank
The Willment Cobra appeared at Goodwood at the Revival meeting last September.
It was driven with gusto by the lady drivers Desire Wilson and Lynn St.James in the 4-hour RAC TT race.
I have a few photos of it.
Your project is of great interest to me, as it's a period of US racing history I'm both fascinated and enthusiastic about. I'd be most interested in seeing/reading the finished article.
Good luck with it.
Rich

I have just recalled these photos by Tim Blackburn which I posted for him on the "...Paddock" thread.

Photos copyright Tim Blackburn

Thank you for the plug Bjorn but the Cobra coupes pictured in my book are Daytonas.

Meanwhile Frank you could approach Ted Walker of Ferret and try the LAT Photo and Sutton websites for the Willment car. Another source could be the front cover of Autosport as I seem to recall a colour shot used sometime in 1965.

As for the white Tommy Hitchcock car at the '64 Ring 1000 clicks, presumably then owned by Tchkotoua, I would try Rainer's website that can be found under Schlegelmilch but I think finding any actual race pics other than possibly at the start could be difficult as Hitchcock crashed it only a few laps into the race if I recall correctly. Good luck.

Meanwhile Frank I note that your business is styled Toad Hall Motorbooks. I associate this name with Michael Keyser who used to race a Porsche 911S entered by Toad Hall Racing at Sebring etc., during the early 1970s.

Any connection?

Try TNFer Graham Gauld..his biog of Jack Sears in released next month. Be a few in there i'll be bound.

Paul (& Others):

Thanks for your helpful replies on the Willment Coupe so far.

No, Toad Hall Motorbooks has no connection with Michael Keyser. I started it in 1978, to sell Porsche and Mercedes-Benz books, when I thought he was no longer using the name, which of course comes from Wind In The Willows. For some years Peter Kitchak in Minneapolis has run Toad Hall Racing, as well.

Frank

Does that mean that the Cobra shown in post 7 is NOT a Daytona ?

Bjorn:

Yes, it's a Willment Coupe, not (strictly speaking) a Daytona Coupe. Instead of being built by Shelby American et al, it was built in John Willment's shop, mostly to Peter Brock's drawings. Both cars are similar in overall layout but different in many details. Both are now in the Shelby American Collection in Boulder, Colorado, and it's fascinating to see them side by side!

Frank

Thanks for that , shows that my eyesight is not that bad , but I honestly didnt know ! Then what about the Ford France white one , was that a loaned Shelby then ? And the A.Mann Cars too ? Just learning

The car when owned by Amschel Rothschild/1978

ISTR an article in one of the magazines, post 2007 Revival, about the car, and a Reader's letter telling how the car was designed and built at willments. Cannot find it at present.
Roger Lund.

Bjorn:

All of the Daytona Coupes were owned by Shelby American. I can't recall them loaning one to Ford of France, but they may well have; in 1967 they did loan GT40 Mk. II P/1015 to FofF (painted white, for Jo Schlesser, Le Mans, DNF, accident with GT40 Mk. IV J-7). Shelby used Alan Mann Racing to enter and manage the Coupes in Europe, but when they were finished racing, they went back to Los Angeles, were stored, then sold off for prices that would make you cry(one of Shelby's crew turned one of the cars down at $800!).

Shelby was so disinterested in the cars then that Alan Mann almost had two of them dumped into the North Sea to avoid seizure, as they were in England on some sort of temporary customs bond. When Shelby found out that it would cost more to dump them than to fly them home, he had them shipped (so I'm told).

Frank

Here you go:-

There might be a prize for someone somewhere....

P.S. I know the date, race and result and apparent ownership at that time...

Gregor, could the owner of the Willment be George Pitt, i believe he bought it off John Willment in 1967. Sorry don,t know the results of the race.

Bobby Olthoff also competed in this car at the Rand GP (Sports Car Race) 0n 12 Dec. 1964. Retired with a burst hose on lap 2.

I have found another letter from C&SC back in 90/91 from Brian B Waite, the chap who designed the car for John Willment.


Roger Lund.

Gregor:

Your photo is interesting. The only time I know of that Muir drove it was at Oulton Park on September 17, 1966, but it was then numbered 57; he finished 5th. Where and when was this photo shot, and what was the result?

The coupe was supposedly raced more than any of the Daytona Coupes, but no one seems to have records, so I'm very interested, not just for the book but for the museum's records.

Regarding the car's provenance:

1964 Roadster chassis CS 2131 bought by John Willment Team
1967 Willment Team disbanded; sold to George Pitt, England; driven on street
early 1970s to Bill Fone, London, rough
1977 to Amschel Rothschild, restored to 1964 configuration, vintage-raced in Europe
1983 to Frank Gallogly, New Jersey
1983? to Dr. Richard Cohen, Little Rock, Ark., painted
198? to George Gillett, Nashville, Tenn. and Vail, Colo.
???? to Rob Dyson (bought at Gillet's bankruptcy sale)
Early 1990s to John Hajduk’s Motorcraft Ltd., Indianapolis
1996 spring, offered for sale for $595,000
1999 to Larry Miller, Salt Lake City, with uncompleted 427 coupe on coil-spring chassis
currently in Shelby American Collection, Boulder, Colorado

Frank

According to George Stauffer's excellent tome on the Daytona Coupes, the Ford France coupe (CSX 2300) ran its first three events (1964 Tour de France, 1965 Daytona and Sebring) when owned by Shelby American, and its next two (1965 Nurburgring and Reims) as an Alan Mann team car with ownership returning to Shelby American, Inc later in '65.

Regarding the Willment car, Stauffer records that, in 1964, Bob Olthoff set an absolute African land speed record of 173 mph without getting out of third gear, as the runway on which the run took place wasn't long enough to allow it to get into fourth! He also confirms that it ran more races than any other Cobra coupe, and also believed it claimed more victories but, on both counts, precise numbers have to be confirmed.

Slightly OT, the Filipinetti coupe (CSX 2602) only ran once as a Filipinetti entry, at Le Mans 1965 driven by Peters Harper and Sutcliffe, where Ford had purchased the entry from Georges Filipinetti.

Got a Schlegelmilch picture of that in my last book Alan.

Somehow it doesn't look right in red.

Frank, i am interested to know more about the uncompleted Willment 427 coupe or will you be saving that info for the book ?

Frank

It's from 16th October 1966 BRSCC meeting at Snetterton. The race was for GT cars with Brian Muir winning , Willie Green 2nd in the Ginetta, John Miles 3rd in a Lotus Elan, Bernard Unett 4th in a Sunbeam Tiger and one Gerry Marshall 5th in a TVR Griffiths. Willie Green set the fasted lap of the race in the Ginetta and it was the 20th October 1966 edition of Motoring News.

I have quite a few of the results from the GT races Dad did that year in the Barnet Motor Company TVR and Lotus Elan and this is the only one that Cobra is in. HTH.

Gregor:

Thanks very much for the newspaper photo and info on the Coupe's October race at Snetterton.

Mr. Horse:

Two photos of the uncompleted 427 Willment Coupe as it now exists appear in another thread on this forum entitled "I visited some Cobras today." I have yet to see it in person.

Frank

Hi Frank,

I have connections to Pete Brock (of BRE fame), who penned the original coupe. Have you been in contact with him yet? He might have some pictures...

That's the car that really facinates me. What if it would have been completed. And how would it have compared to a MkII GT-40. Might have surprised some people.

Chuck

What was the date, or at least the year of this event?

For the date.

Didn't look very far, did I? As it was 1966 I would have thought Willie's Ginetta still had the 997 SCA, which would explain why he was dicing with that hulk, rather than running rings round it as he should have done with a twin cam.

Apparently WILLIAM Green was a works Ginetta driver at the time, Funny really, I always thought Willy was successfull through single seaters but looks like my Dad did more comtemparory stuff than Willy before he became what he did.

As for the Cobra, I think Dad tested the Willment Coupe at Snetterton in 66/67 but I have no proof; maybe Kevin Kivlochan would know?