25 replies to this topic

[bluetoes591]

Hi, I was wondering if anybody might be able to help me with some information about this car and what year this might be. I think it is the late 50's but I'm really not sure.



This may also be the same car in England without bodywork.



Thanks
Milo

[Don Capps]

That was taken in 1962 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and is the de Villiers Special, a Connaught entered by Pierre de Villiers of Santa Monica. Jack Fairman did some laps in it, but it could scarcely get out of its own way and never came close to showing any real speed, certainly nothing near qualifying speed.

[bluetoes591]

I thought somebody would here would be able to help, but I'm still impressed. Pierre was my grandfather, but I know very little about his racing exploits (or any other parts of his life) so this is exciting information to have.

[David Lawson]

The second photograph is taken in the service road between the paddock and pits at Brands Hatch but I can't help you with any information about why the car was there.

David

[bluetoes591]

I believe they were living over in England at that time. He was quite active in Vintage racing over there. I've forgotten what he drove in that, a small car of some kind. I'd have to ask my dad again.

[Peter Morley]

It is the C-type Connaught (chassis no. C8) - a one-off space frame version of the B-type, using the same 2.5 litre Connaught/Alta engine and pre-selector gearbox but with coil spring suspension at the rear instead of torsion bars.

It was never finished by Connaught and was sold at their closing down auction in 1957 to Paul Emery, who finished it. The 2nd photo is presumably of them testing the car (would be around 1958).

Emery sold the car to Bob Said, who entered it in the 1959 US GP at Sebring, where it failed on the 1st lap.

This is what he had to say about the event:

"Oh, Alec Ulmann owed me," Said recalled of Sebring's organizer, "He damn near killed me in '55 (the ambulance). And besides, my mother had helped out his family in Russia."

When Said wrote Ulmann from Europe saying he wanted to drive in the first U.S. Grand Prix, the reply was, "If you can get a car, you have an entry and starting money."

What Said ended up with was hardly a contender. He made a deal with British car-builder Paul Emery to drive a two-year old Connaught at Sebring. In fact, it was Connaught's unfinished last F1 car. Apparently, the Connaught remained unfinished all through practice, and Said had virtually no time in the car - until race day.

"Emery stayed up all night long and in the morning looked at me with bloodshot eyes and said, 'It's perfect.' I thought, 'Yeah, sure,' but when the flag went down, away this thing went like a rocketship. I remember getting down to the switchbacks off the runway right in amongst everybody. Then a Ferrari spun, and that mixed the field up completely.

"Going down the backstretch, I looked over, and I was eye to eye with (front-row starter) Harry Schell in the Cooper. I'll never forget that. And as we both flew down toward the hairpin, I thought, 'Well, I'm gonna come by ahead of him this one time in my life. And I went by and put the brakes on, and that was the end of it. Damn thing just went straight on. Those brakes never did unlock."

It was modified again (supercharged!) and failed to qualify for the 1962 Indy 500 - presumably after it had been sold to your grandfather.

It is currently owned & driven by Michael Steele.

[David McKinney]

I'm away from my records at the moment
Wasn't the car completed by a bunch of 750MC members? Villiers might have been one of them.
And wasn't Peter Murdoch, who may have been Canadian, involved somewhere in there too?

[conjohn]

Sheldon has the entrant of the Said Connaught as 'Connaught Engineering'. But as the works went out of business in 1957, it can hardly be the same, unless, of course, Emery also bought the 'naming rights' (if such things existed in those days...) and passed them along together with the car.

Another point - the car in the second photo (Brands) has Firestone tires. Wasn't that rather unusual for a British team at the time? or should D-Type's signature be a warning to me here?

[Don Capps]

Thanks, Peter. I was shuttiing down when I noticed the thread last night and couldn't remember the chassis no. off the top of my head, but thought it was 'C8' since it was the last of the litter and that Paul Embry had finished it.

[Peter Morley]

Yes the B-types were numbered B1 to B7

At the auction the C-type was numbered C8 (it is listed in the catalogue as such).

I'm not sure why they did that, given the A-types were numbered from 1 onwards, it should have been C1?

It would be interesting to know how complete it was when sold, I suspect it was pretty close to being finished otherwise it wouldn't have merited a chassis number and been listed as a car.
It doesn't bear much evidence of Emery influence, everything is pretty much Connaught.

As for entering as Connaught engineering - Connaught was a trading name of Continental motors, I don't think people were so bothered about registered trademarks & designs in those days. (e.g. the new Connaught motor co. are the first people to actually register the name!).

Didn't Paul Emery work out of the old Connaught shop, which later became the Emeryson shop? That might have been enough reason for him to enter as Connaught.

[David McKinney]

Just to set my earlier comments straight
It was the B-Type 'Dart' that Peter Murdoch took to Canada in 1960 (though it had also been owned by Paul Emery post-auction)

[Peter Morley]

Originally posted by David McKinney
Just to set my earlier comments straight
It was the B-Type 'Dart' that Peter Murdoch took to Canada in 1960 (though it had also been owned by Paul Emery post-auction)

Known as the Toothpast tube!! C-type was a similar shape.

The Jaguar engined B-type that went to New Zealand for some races 'also' had a toothpaste tube body - is it the same car?

The Jaguar engined car is the one that John Harper raced many years ago with a replica streamliner body (which it never had with a Jag engine), he sold the car to someone in Australia or New Zealand. It was unfortunately burnt out in a workshop fire (together with a Lister Jag), the remains were rebuilt by Harper and it moved to France. I think the toothpaste tube body was still with the car when it was down under, not sure if that survived the fire or not.

[GIGLEUX]

The toothpaste tube was B3 which Connaught bought back from Leslie Marr. It received a Jaguar 3.4 litre engine for racing in New Zeland and after that an Alta-Connaught engine from B1. In fact it seems to me that it appeared for the first time with its strange looking body still unpainted for the BARC Easter meeting at Goodwood with Lewis-Evans.

[GIGLEUX]

In fact Marr raced in NZ with the Jaguar engine and the all envelopping body.

[David McKinney]

Peter's post is slightly confusing, J-M, as the Jag-powered car went to NZ twice
Here is the chronolgy:
1) Marr raced his Connaught (B3) in NZ with Jaguar engine and streamliner bodywork
2) Back in Europe it had a proper F1 engined refitted and the Dart (or "toothpaste tube") body
3) in the 1970s Harper rebuilt it and ran it in historic events with Dart bodywork and Jaguar engine. There was some controversy about this, along the lines that it never ran in this form in period: it should either have had the Dart bodywork and an Alta engine, or the Jaguar engine and streamliner bodywork
4) Harper eventually ran it with streamliner bodywork
5) sold 1984 to Paul Leuch in NZ with both bodies, and he raced it in both forms
6) 1988 burnt out in garage fire in NZ
7) 1989 Harper acquired the bits, rebuilt the car in the UK as a streamliner, and sold it to France. AFAIK it still has streamliner bodywork and a Jaguar engine

[GIGLEUX]

David, thanks for the precisions, but didn't B3 return in South hemisphere with Lewis-Evans and in full F1 guise: toothpaste body and Alta-Connaught engine?

[David McKinney]

I was trying to sort out an apparent misunderstanding about the car's NZ visits in Jaguar-engined form.
But yes, it did race in the form you stated in 1958.

[JB Miltonian]

While looking for something else, I found a different version of the picture of the car at Brands Hatch, in Car & Driver, July 1962, with the following caption:

"Another English Indy Car - Evidently encouraged by Jack Brabham's Indianapolis showing last year, Pierre de Villiers of Stanstead, Essex, England, has filed an entry for the 2 1/2-litre car shown below. The supercharger allowed by this displacement seems to appear only on the entry form. The four-cylinder Alta engine is front mounted, right on the center line. Suspension is by coil springs with de Dion rear axle and unequal front wishbones. No driver has been nominated by owner-builder de Villiers, who was a mechanic at Indianapolis last year. The car was being tested at Brands Hatch when photographed; the smiles indicate considerable optimism for this shoestring operation."

[bluetoes591]

Is it possible for you to post the picture or email it to me? My dad and I would be most interested in seeing it.

[JB Miltonian]

I have sent a copy of the picture via the email address shown on your homepage. This was a very small picture, sorry for the lack of good detail!

Jeff

[Gerr]

The car was offered in R&Ts classifieds, December 1962.

"GP Formula 1 Connaught 2.7-liter (58/59).
As new, no races, absolute concours winner.
Front-engined Alta 2.7.........etc.........
last factory car, C-type,....
Recently tested at Riverside....
Herm C. Schlieske, 7848 W. Manchester,
No. 6, Playa del Rey, Calif. EX 1-2205."



........

[bluetoes591]

Does anybody know what country the car resides in now?

[David McKinney]

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Owner/driver (as mentioned above) is Michael Steele

[Peter Morley]

Originally posted by bluetoes591
Does anybody know what country the car resides in now?

It is looked after by Spencer Longland - of Longland & Hart, based near Sudbury, Suffolk.

The C-type spends most of its time with them (usually having the gearbox changed!) rather than Michael Steele, who owns it.

[Geoff.Harrison]

Just found this topic by accident - the de Villiers Indianapolis Connaught was described in detail in the June 1962 750 Motor Club Bulletin with a pic of the car taken at Brands Hatch April 1962.
A further article on the actual problems at Indianapolis appeared in the January 1963 750 MC Bulletin .

My only interest being as the current owner of the Austin Ulster that Pierre de Villiers owned and raced in the early sixties - I understand that he raced the car at Monza in 1960 at a historic event but to date have not been able to find any info, or pics.
Any one with any info ?

de Villiers did contact me approx 12 years ago wanting to buy the car and take it back to the USA
for vintage racing .

The car is still used for vintage sprints + hillclimbs and is one of the few genuine Ulsters still being used for that purpose .


Geoff., Harrison

[bluetoes591]

My only interest being as the current owner of the Austin Ulster that Pierre de Villiers owned and raced in the early sixties - I understand that he raced the car at Monza in 1960 at a historic event but to date have not been able to find any info, or pics.
Any one with any info ?

Better late than never...

Edited by bluetoes591, 18 February 2011 - 10:11.