One-off, owner-driver sports and racing cars

Some of you may have seen my thread on the hstorical research forum looking for help tracing my current project, an unidentified front engined Sportscar, probably a F1200 or Clubmans car.

I  have owned a couple of these before - Pandora / The Mistron, a 1964 mid engined BMC engined Lotus 23 style car, and The Coldwell Mink, a 1964 Clubmans F3 car with a split beam front axle and a fully independant rear end

Pandora paddock 18 5 64 web by alastairbrownuk, on Flickr

Mink Silverstone grid 2 zoom by alastairbrownuk, on Flickr

 This got me thinking, this type of cars must be worth a thread, club level self built & driven racing cars (not modified from others) to celebrate the efforts of the F750 and clubmans races etc who self built cars but never went on to become the next Chapman, Broadley or Bennett. But who called their cars things like 'Overdraft special' etc. (and who never aimed for the levels achieved by the likes of the Connew!)

Of course, we know there are still these guys out there racing today, but many of the classics like Magaloysius, the magnesium bodied monocoque '7' style F1172 really are fading from memory - no one races them at Monaco or practices on a cold wet wednesday at Mallory, so they arent seen, and their values are more Ebay than RM!

Or is it just me that finds this type of car amongst the most interesting? maybe it's 'cause I feel an affinity with the builders - out there in the garage with only my beard and oil stained old jumper to keep me warm  on a cold winters night as I wrestle to get decent power cheaply out of an un willing old saloon car drivetrain.........

here is a quick list in no particular order, taken from one of the many web databases: http://historicraceinfo.webs.com/

Dingo 2 (1200) Peter Bush

Mistron (1200) John Sutton

Dison (1200) Angelo Farina

Wells Forest (1172) Richard Hurdwell

J.M.T. (948) R.J. Fenton

LMC BMC (990) P. Lackington

Tavenor GT (1475) Raymond Nash

Intertech GT (1098) Tony Goodwin (Lord Clydesdale)

Concord GT (1098) A. Pearce

Sheldon GT (998) Ray Watson

Mercury GT (1598) Alan Fowler

JCM Mk3 (1200) John Clarke

Jenoby (1200) Peter Loakman

Deb Mk3 (1200) Sheila Kemp

Claydon (1200) Jonathan Rope

Dino (997) Rod Mansfield (EARC Ltd)

Humbug (997) Barry Foley

Wavendon Wombat (? / 1150+) Arthur Cook / Jacquie Bond-Smith

Pole Special (?) E.J.Reaver / Team Pole

Orva Special (998) John Lancaster

FTB Mk1 (1172) Fred Burbury

Clanford S1 (1172) Peter Clansford

Elova BMC (999) Sid Marler

DCM (997) Joe Corfield / J.Gadd

U.F.O. Spyder (1000) Donald Duplas

A.D. Climax (1098) Peter Bargus

Morris Minnow GT (997) Robin Henderson

Pegasus (997) Chas Bayley

Aquila (1172) Bill Cooper

Juno 1A (1172) Hugh Pain

Wescott Pegasus (1498) S.B. Appleton

Dino Ford (1498) Peter Field

Sportive (1098) Peter Barguss

Gloster Gambit (1498) Peter Watts

Orchard (1498) A. Deacon / P. Barber

Pole (997) Ian Halliday

Westover U2 (1498) G. Lewis

WRA (1098) W.G.Eade

Lawrencson GT (1600) Tony Beeson

JCM Mk3 (998) J.E. Clarke

SWH (998) R. Wilson

Squeg U2 (1000) Cyril Lyford

FTB (1172) Fred Burbury

Harman 3 (1172) Roger Romney -Brown

Jenoby (1200) Peter Loakman

Lomas K (1172) R.H.F. Gibson

Relik (600) M.Kirby

Aftermath (600) Noel Stanbury

Ingham 2 (750) Andrew Ingham

Complexity (750) Richard de la Rue

Whico (750) J.L. White

onabacis (598) R.H. Duffield -Harding

I'll add some more in due course, but anyone got any favourites, or did you race or watch F1172/1200/13 or clubmans?

Al

Sorry, no idea why this has posted twice, but it won't let me delete it

Can a moderator remove one of them

Ta,

Al

By the time I got to see clubmans races in the mid to late 80's most of the overdraft specials had gone but one I used to look out for in Autosport was Barry Foley's St Bruno Roughcutter, seen above driven at Gurston Down with Adrian Lewis at the wheel last year, probably because it was driven by my favorite cartoonist at the time.

While we're awaiting that, I can think of a few:

Gissing Holden (Alan Gissing) - large Clubman type car

IRM Holden - (Ian & Morrie Fergusson) rear-engined open wheeler

Typan - (Gary Moulston) Ford-powered Clubman

WAH - (Bill Hamilton) Datsun-powered Clubman

Krefel -(Peter Krefel) Ford-engine Clubman

Edited by Ray Bell, 10 January 2014 - 13:25.

Manx [Ted Proctor] Rover V8 engined sports car.

The hill-climb cars would need a big post.

If anyone has a pic of Viglielmo Matozzi's VM, then they win the internet.

the lines of the pandora in the first post here by mistron, remind me a lot of the len terry designed, shelby entered king cobra, from the1967 can-am season. [edit] rethinking my post and  looking at the time frames, perhaps len terry was inspired by the pandora ! ! 

group7 in canada

Edited by group7, 10 January 2014 - 00:12.

Richard Groombridge's 1,600cc clubmans:

I give up!

Anyone know a 10 year old hacker who can post a picture in this forum? Or do I have to have special privileges nowadays, is there a secret cabal with "The Knowledge"? I used to do it all the time on both new and old site, now it just throws up a box with a red top which just hangs, you can't OK it, you can't close it, the only way to get rid of it is to refresh the browser, then you lose everything you've typed in!

Edited by Bloggsworth, 10 January 2014 - 21:19.

One of my favourite names was the Nota U2, so named because it's Not a U2. Someone mentioned on the thread in the Historic Research forum a similar named car as TINA Marrow (This Is Not A) Marrow - despite being a pretty close copy.

The Mink was so named as when John Haughton's wife heard what it was costing, she exclaimed in surprise, "I could have a Mink for that!" :-)

I think the WEV F1300 was short for worm's eye view.

while at a vintage event at mosport a few years ago, I spoke to the owner of the canadian special called the Kiki, I asked how he came up with the name. he said said he was building the car in his unheated garage with friends, in one of our frigid canadian winters, and they were stuttering.. C-C-Christ its cold ! thats how they came up with Kiki.

   group7

In Western Australia, Ray Hadlow built the Lowhad, a rear engined sports car with a 2 litre ohc Cortina engine. It was quite successful, and after he retired he leased to it another driver for a year, who promptly went out and won the Western Australian Sports Car Championship in it. Last time I spoke to Ray he still owned it, but said the engine (the original from the late 70s) was fairly clapped and needed a rebuild.

Then there was the Wilmer Ford, another rear-engined sporty like a tiny McLaren, running on 10 inch wheels. I think the builder was Bill Brown. It was a very neat job, a little smaller than a Lotus 23b, and had I think a Cortina engine, but I'm probably wrong. i believe it still exists in the hands of the owner-builder.

Then there was the car I knew as the RE Ford, a clubman car, another one-off.  And John Glasson's Infamous Rambler V8, a rear-engined sports with a 5-litre Rambler driving through a stock VW gearbox. Wally Higgs' Peugeot Sports of about 1961, another rear engined sporty; and the Hurricane V8, an amazing concoction which had a Ford Y-block V8, Peugot front end, and looked like a outsize and very ugly Lotus 7 viewed through an LSD haze. But tough and effective.

John Goss, aided (I believe) by Tony Williams, built the Tornado Ford...

A rear-engined sports car with a Falcon 6 and VW gearbox. 

Two posts so far with cars that don't fit this thread. Ted Proctor built a succession of Manx cars for fun and profit and it seems that Richard Groombriidge built more than one car too.

Oh, so how many Manx Rover V8s were there? I thought there was only one.......silly me.

Mike Barker's Alton Jaguar

http://www.jagweb.co...LTON JAGUAR.JPG

Originally posted by GMACKIE

Oh, so how many Manx Rover V8s were there? I thought there was only one.......silly me.

Not many Manx Rovers at all, of course...

But there were other Manx cars of very similar construction and with the same bodywork, not that this is the vital feature when it comes to this thread. Ted was a constructor who built a number of cars, the thread is about people building one-offs.

I wonder if Morrie Miller and the MJM qualify? 

 Ted was a constructor who built a number of cars, the thread is about people building one-offs.

 

I wonder if Morrie Miller and the MJM qualify? 

Oh, I think a 'repeat offender' i.e. someone who builds multiple unique cars should qualify, as should those who perhaps shared the workload and built a pair in tandem, but not those who farmed the work out to others. I'm thinking home builders mainly

Basically, I'm thinking of anyone who built the chassis (or EXTENSIVELY modified, such as building a car using the suspension  or out of the remains of a damaged chassis etc) for themselves to race, and preferably built the body themselves too.

I had really been thinking about sportscars, but I suppose there will be a few single seaters as well, particularly 500s and Juniors.

Come on chaps, lets see some photos to go with the unusual names!

Al

Reg Price built a Clubmans car called ASTAP based on Lotus 27 suspension around 1970.

Around 1972 he rebuilt it as a turbocharged car possibly the only turbocharged Clubmans car.

,

I'd be very interested in pictures of the car.

Peter

I think the WEV F1300 was short for worm's eye view.

Yes it was.

So, by the sound of things, we can include the Quinton Weaver SHW Clubman?

This was a reincarnation of a car series-built by Barry Sharp. On his own, well, aided by Sarah, Quinton built the car largely to the pattern of the Mawer cars. Barry Sharp, on the other hand, built half a dozen or so and sold them all.

I still reckon that Ted Proctor was out of it. He had a business called Manx Engineering, and while it might have been at his home it was a full-blown racing car factory for a while. 

I hesitate to include the Mark Croudace Clubman, which seldo will well recall. 

One I don't remember the name of was a ridiculous sports car that turned out to an Observed Practice at Warwick Farm short circuit one day. It had a Holden 179 or similar engine in it bolted up to a VW transaxle including the swing axles, the engine was tilted upwards at about 20 degrees and the thing shed a wheel at or near Leger Corner to put us all out of our misery.

I don't think you could call Derek Walker a repeat offender, it just doesn't seem right! how about making him the Patron Saint of self builders? :-)

Edited by Mistron, 10 January 2014 - 16:11.

Yes it was.

Now, that's clearly a much later car than Stan Goldthorps's WEV 750 featured in the 750MC 'design for competition book. were they related, I wonder? The 750 of course would have the 2" box chassis, so was this a Mk2 (or a Mk15......)

Now, that's clearly a much later car than Stan Goldthorps's WEV 750 featured in the 750MC 'design for competition book. were they related, I wonder? The 750 of course would have the 2" box chassis, so was this a Mk2 (or a Mk15......)

WEV-4. It was in a Formula 4 race in the photo. I believe it also raced in Clubmans style races with wheels covered.

Edited by alansart, 10 January 2014 - 22:35.

The WEV was basically a very quick, championship winning F1300 car. It was run in F4 as the regs at the time were very similar and in order to have extra race mileage on the day, Martin Walford could simply remove the cycle guards as he already ran a narrow rear wing.

Which brings me to my main point. As observed above, there are a number of individuals who scratch built a series of one-off specials. The WEV was part of a series of specials built by the Gants (mainly Graham?) in 750, 1300 and currently in FV. To this group you can add the likes of Keith Messer, the Frosts, Bob Simpson, Tony Batten, the Cowleys and Bob Davis, all of whom designed and built technically well sorted and quick bits of kit, some of which is still racing. As to wherever Dick Harvey strictly fits in with his Darvi series would be a moot point as he did build a lot of copy's to order in his back garden garage.

Obviously I have a particular interest in Bob Davis, in that I raced (and still own) one of his F1300 cars - hence my tag. I'll dig out some photos over the weekend and scan them-in. Bob built all of his cars small and very light (there was not much of him in any case), investigating such issues as beam front axles, polar moments of inertia, extreme weight saving along the way. There were about 8 cars in all, some of which currently still exist/ are raced but several are down a Yorkshire pit. Each car was an individual and each very different from its predecessors.

Sadly the art and need to build such specials has largely died out, largely because the infra-structure needed to support the building of specials has been lost with the increasing business acumen of small engineering workshops and garages. Thus the trend since the 80's towards products from the likes of Radical is simply a pragmatic issue of time and cost.

For my own information, is this thread limited to the UK sports racing series such as Clubmans A+B, F750 and F1172/1200/1300 or can it be stretched to include F4 and Monoposto. I'm also sure that there are International equivalents about which I know nothing.

Ken2

Edited by davis2c, 11 January 2014 - 09:08.

 

 

Sadly the art and need to build such specials has largely died out, largely because the infra-structure needed to support the building of specials has been lost with the increasing business acumen of the small engineering and garages and thus the trend since the 80's towards products from the likes of Radical is simply a pragmatic issue of time and cost.

 

Ken2

That is certainly true. I spoke with Bill Needham about building the Coldwell (he of course built a few other Coldwells, including the 3 mini engined GTs, but was a garage proprietor / engineer, so technically may not fit my own list! the Mink having been built for John Haughton) and he described how on more than one ocassion he would call the foundry, describe the part he wanted made over the phone and by the afternoon they had made the patern and he would send 'the boy' round on his bike to collect it and have the part on the car before it was fully cooled! all within a matter of hours. Where would you find your local foundry these days?

Ironically, I've just started a new job in an art college and it seems to be ideally set up for building old racing cars - there's a foundry, a design woodworking shop, a GRP area, the metalworking sculpture workshop even has a tool for fishmouthing tubes!. I recon the jewellery department could knock up a badge too. But out in the 'real world', these facilities are getting hard to find

As to wherever Dick Harvey strictly fits in with his Darvi series would be a moot point as he did build a lot of copy's to order in his back garden garage.

 

Ken2

I certainly think Dick Harvey meets the criteria. I had the pleasure of racing F750 (well making up the numbers) in the late 70's and the likes of Dick and Bob Simpson were an inspiration. As you say Dick operated from the garage from the back of his house (although I think it may have been his mothers) and at one time when the garage was being rebuilt, a few tents in the garden! OK he sold a few of his cars but to me he was what the 750MC was all about. His cars were pretty much self designed and built but always quick and immaculately turned out but I would hardly call it a business.

Edited by alansart, 11 January 2014 - 16:04.

I'll see if this works in Firefox! Yes it does - So it seems that it is IE11 which is the problem.

Richard Groombridge's Hustler:

Edited by Bloggsworth, 11 January 2014 - 16:51.

the 1965 Wilson GT  Ford pre crossflow 1598cc 

not sure this fully qualifies? a one off car designed and built by three blokes in a garage outside Edinburgh

- though the designer did go on to do a few other things - such as the McLaren M8D and others

Edited by bradbury west, 11 January 2014 - 21:39.

Oh, so how many Manx Rover V8s were there? I thought there was only one.......silly me.

Mr Mackie...you should know the rules of these threads by now...someone kicks off an interesting discussion, then last word Louie "chimes in" with his rules...so in future, I suggest you don't jump in until about post 100 when the rules might have been established  

Allan Staniforth and his hillclimb Terrapins. Brilliant
Roger Lund

Edit spelling of Allan

Roger...too slow! You could have owned it!

I saw it for sale in a magazine just the other day

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 11 January 2014 - 22:22.

Reg Price built a Clubmans car called ASTAP based on Lotus 27 suspension around 1970.
 
Around 1972 he rebuilt it as a turbocharged car possibly the only turbocharged Clubmans car.
,
I'd be very interested in pictures of the car.
 
Peter

Surely not eligible under Clubman's rules then prevailing.
Roger Lund

Not sure, it was what Reg told me - apparently he set FTD with it at Lydden on 22/10/77.

Peter

In Western Australia, Ray Hadlow built the Lowhad, a rear engined sports car with a 2 litre ohc Cortina engine. It was quite successful, and after he retired he leased to it another driver for a year, who promptly went out and won the Western Australian Sports Car Championship in it. Last time I spoke to Ray he still owned it, but said the engine (the original from the late 70s) was fairly clapped and needed a rebuild.

 

Then there was the Wilmer Ford, another rear-engined sporty like a tiny McLaren, running on 10 inch wheels. I think the builder was Bill Brown. It was a very neat job, a little smaller than a Lotus 23b, and had I think a Cortina engine, but I'm probably wrong. i believe it still exists in the hands of the owner-builder.

 

Then there was the car I knew as the RE Ford, a clubman car, another one-off.  And John Glasson's Infamous Rambler V8, a rear-engined sports with a 5-litre Rambler driving through a stock VW gearbox. Wally Higgs' Peugeot Sports of about 1961, another rear engined sporty; and the Hurricane V8, an amazing concoction which had a Ford Y-block V8, Peugot front end, and looked like a outsize and very ugly Lotus 7 viewed through an LSD haze. But tough and effective.

Hi Terry. Regarding the Wilmer Ford; It was sold long ago to a bloke who began fitting a Mazda rotary motor. John Gillies bought it in 1980 and completed the work.

        He gained a second place with the car in the '87 WA State Championship and still owns it. Sadly it no longer looks the same, having acquired some new, lighter body panels with revised shape and hard edges. The car has been in pieces for years.

Terrapins were kit cars, were they not?

At least there was a number of them around...

No, not a kit car as such.  You bought the plans and then built the car yourself, modifying it as you saw fit, so I suppose fits the thread theme

Al

You could do that with Farrell Clubmans...

Bob Abbberfield built his own. 

Bob Annear's Holden Special (posted on behalf of Rod Waller)

Edited by RTH, 15 January 2014 - 13:53.

Thanks Richard. A moderator has been informed of the problem you encountered and that these posts should be combined with a pre-existing thread.

Edited by Repco22, 16 January 2014 - 07:55.

     The late Bob Annear was a passionate racer and special builder  who rose to the position of Assistant Superintendent of Engineering with the Western Australian State Shipping Service. While his engineering ability equipped him well for his hobby, the job meant much time at sea, many missed racing meetings and lost time for car development and honing racing skills. Consequently, on completion of 'Pegasus' around 1959, he was disappointed with its performance.  

     Inspiration for the body shape came from the sensation of that period, the Lister Jaguar but Bob opted for a space frame and a six cylinder 'grey' Holden motor with a huge GM diesel supercharger. When the bonnet was first lifted in the Caversham pits to a bunch of bent necks, David Van Dal famously quipped; "The engine drives the blower. What drives the car?" 

     Transmission was via a rear-mounted MGTC gearbox and the rear end was De Dion.

The aluminium body was Bob's first attempt at this work. The wire wheels were also of his making as he couldn't find the offsets he needed. He started with blank rims and even formed the dimples in them to accommodate the spokes' nipples!

      In the second pic above, Bob chases Jack Ayres in his first appearance in the Byfield-Ayres Holden Special.

The latter had a normally aspirated 'grey' motor which performed better and more reliably than Pegasus.

In this event, the '59 state championship, both cars recorded fastest laps of 1 min 45 but while Jack won,

Bob placed third.

     Pegasus was later fitted with a Peugeot motor and independent rear end. Bob eventually moved on to other mechanical challenges like a Renault Dauphine with rear, transverse-mounted Peugeot motor and Pegasus was sold. Its whereabouts is unknown.

Edited by Repco22, 20 January 2014 - 13:05.

I did promise to post a photo of the various cars that Bob Davis built back in the 70's and 80's.

The attached photo was taken at a 750MC meeting at Pembury in September 1991.

From the left are;-

Davis2C - F1300 sports - Driven by Ken Kerr

Davis T5 - F4 - Driven by Phil Williams

Davis T6 - F4 - Driven by Bob Davis

Davis T7 - F1300 sports - Driven by Graham Henly

As far as I'm aware, all still exist, the T7 still giving front end service in F750.

It is fair to say that all of Bob's cars were built as compactly and as light as possible, there is not a lot of Bob in any case. In my case at 185cm, fitting me into the 2C was always a very snug fit. The standard of engineering thought and design for all of his cars was probably on a power of the very best ever seen in these formulas, certainly on a power with the likes of Chapman, Southgate, Mallock et al. Twitchy cars to drive, they needed to be driven at their limits to be effective, but once this lesson had been learnt, they tended to run at the front of the field.

Although I still own the 2C, time and a number of heavy accidents - including the forcible removal of the original front beam axle and installation of independent suspension - has meant its retirement. In any case, the final Ford crossflow screamed around to over 10,000 rpm which meant that even the best Knight Midget box we installed could never cope, even when we limited the revs to 9.7K.

If there is interest, I'll dig out some photo's of the car striped.

Ken2

Hi. What an interesting topic. I could get nostalgic! Does anybody remember the Gopher of Alan McBeath in F1200/1300 or the Tri-One of Mike Brett and John (sorry I forgot his name)? And wasn't Tetranycus Telarius a one-off? As for the Squegon I remember its constructor, Cyril Lyford, proudly showing me the proof of its partial construction of hammered flat oil cans. Oh, yes, those were the days!

Regards to all, especially all old F1200 and 13000 folk eeyore48 aka The Gopher in Team Gopher

I always thought the  Dison  F1200 was a shapely little car, although I never found out much about it, esp the body used for the mould.

 I recall the Claydon as looking brutal but being effective, and David Childs built the Spook, at one time cited as derived from the mk1 DRW, but apparently not  so.

The AD Climax and  Sportive were one and the same, the AD Sportiva Climax, and the Intertech GT was based on Angus Clydesdale's Lola Climax, reverting many years later to, IIRC, the Lola raced by Robert Brooks at the Revival or owned by Lord March, my notes from the builder are elsewhere.  Away from F1200 etc  there was Cedric Brierley's  Victoria Climax sports racer.

Sid Marler's very effective Ellova  clubmans  was based on  Cooper FJ suspension, steering and hubs etc but with a front engined chassis.

Away from F1200 etc you have Trev Taylor's Aurora sports racer, successful in its class and overall, and in Northern hillclimbs the Chapman Mercury spl, and a Cadillac engined device whose name escapes me.

I think this is where we all start trawling through old programmes....

Roger Lund

Edited by bradbury west, 27 January 2014 - 00:12.

Hi. What an interesting topic. I could get nostalgic! Does anybody remember the Gopher of Alan McBeath in F1200/1300 or the Tri-One of Mike Brett and John (sorry I forgot his name)? And wasn't Tetranycus Telarius a one-off? As for the Squegon I remember its constructor, Cyril Lyford, proudly showing me the proof of its partial construction of hammered flat oil cans. Oh, yes, those were the days!

Regards to all, especially all old F1200 and 13000 folk eeyore48 aka The Gopher in Team Gop

Tri-One Mk1 F1200 car built by Mike Brett & my self during 1971, & raced by use both of  in the 1972 F1200 Championship. This was our first attempt (hence TriOne) at deisgning & building a racing car, all our friends said we were mad and

we couldn't build a racing car, we didn't said it would be a good one. The chassis was welded together by the local Blacksmith as we had no welding gear. The photo is of me in my first ever race at Thruxton early in 1972 the rear radiator was soon moved to the front as it over heated. My best result was 7th Silverstone GP circuit in October 72. At the end of 1972 we scrapped all the bodywork and took a hacksaw to the chassis and built Tri-One Mk2.

The Tri-One Mk2 at Brands in 1973

Goodness, doesn't the Tri-one look like Pandora / the Mistron's later body of almost exactly the same period:

rear s stone pit by alastairbrownuk, on Flickr

pit lane by alastairbrownuk, on Flickr

But given the derivation, why wasn't it Tri-two, rather than Tri-one, Mk2?

On the subject of picking names, I laughed when I read in Cedric Celzers book (discussed elsewhere on TNF) that his F100 car was named 'silouette' after a brassiere, the name of which he remembered!

I'm glad to see there are others who enjoy these cars as much as me!

Al

Jim Yardley's Beagles deserve a mention in this thread.  There were 5 in all and Jim still competes in sprints and hillclimbs in Mark 5.  At least one Beagle, I think the Mark 4, was very successful in Clubmans.  The others ran in Monoposto and even F3.  In case anyone thinks the name Beagle had canine origins, Jim once told me that was not the case.  In the 1960s he was an admirer of Dan Gurney and his Eagles.  So, Jim's cars were British Eagles - Beagles!

I'm not sure whether it was intended that this thread should cover pure single seaters but the Monoposto category has been littered with owner driver constructed specials over the years.  I have particular memories of the 1970s and early 80s when I was involved with John and Dave Chambers' Chamox.  Around that time Alan Baillie ran a series of Vikings, there was Geoff Toms' Fubar, David Coombs' Manta(s) that were all original designs, albeit some were clothed in bodywork from a series produced car.  So the Chamox had March 713 bodywork for example and I think one of the Vikings used a March 723 body.

I'll post some pictures when I have a minute. 

We seem to be straying a little off topic. The clue is in the term one-off, I suspect

Does Bloody Mary qualify here?

Roger Lund