40 replies to this topic

[Paolo]

I have been performing a search for home made formula one cars, and found, quite to my surprise, very little.

Just the usual link to the two Chinese brothers and their scrap metal Ferrari "lookalike".

http://www.assams.in...racing-car.html

Found nothing about specs anyway; and I doubt it actually respects the current rulebook .

Yet I remember reading several times in the past, in Autosprint, letters of people who had made their race legal F1 for the sake of it.

For race legal I mean a F1 that was (at the time) theoretically eligible to race, also if of course it did not have the speed.

Say it could have a 3000 cc production engine, a spaceframe chassis, weight 800 kg etc.

Has anybody pics or recollections of such attempts?

[D-Type]

Depends what you mean by "a Formula 1 car"

There were the converted Formula Junior cars that Frankenheimer used in filming Grand Prix that were "Formula 1 lookalikes"

There were various specials for hillclimbs or for club racing that possibly confirmed to F1 regulations. The Jaguar engined LGS in 1948-51 is an example of the former and the Australian Maybach Special and the FJ/F3 Lotus XX in Kenya that had its engine enlarged to 1.5 litres which complied with the 1961-65 engine limits are examples of the latter .

I am sure that round the world people have made "racing cars" and racing car look-alikes that have been loosely modelled on the current Formula, Formula 2, Formula 3 or Indycar cars and "sports cars" modelled on the current international sports or even modelled on NASCAR cars - "General Lee" in the "Dukes of Hazzard" is a fictional example. These may coincidentally have complied with the current regulations. The Chinese example clearly falls into this category. As formula cars have progressively become more regulated such coincidental compliance will have become rarer.

Then there are the serious amateur-built Grand Prix cars such as the Emeryson, HAR, Cegga and Connew.

Edit: typos

[gbl]

Do you mean something like this German project?

http://www.f1-replicateam-eisleben.de/

[ensign14]

The Gleed-MG.

Cooper F3 car with a supercharged pre-war engine.

Technically an F1 car, entered at Goodwood once (1958?), pics in Autosport, never showed up.

[fines]

Originally posted by Paolo
Just the usual link to the two Chinese brothers and their scrap metal Ferrari "lookalike".

http://www.assams.in...racing-car.html

What Ferrari is that supposed to look like? Are all red cars "Ferrari lookalikes", just because they're red??? Didn't know that, but my trusty (red) Volkswagen will probably be proud to hear the news...

And I seriously doubt this car would even accidentally comply with F1 regulations...

[Barry Boor]

I'm sure you are right, Michael, but good on them for building anything at all, especially if the constituent parts really are old scrap materials.

They know the thing can never race but so what? Having spent 12 years making a 12th scale model of a racing car (carelessly smashed by a thoughtless 'gentleman' at a Silverstone meeting three years ago) I know what pleasure they must have had a) doing it and b) seeing it finished.

And it goes, apparently....

[Rob Miller]

There was a 250F replica with an Alfa engine for sale at Goodwood about 10 years ago. It looked good and was not very expensive.

[David McKinney]

It might have looked "very good" but would never have passed for a 250F (if we're talking about the same car)
Also, it was a commercial venture, not a "homemade F1 car" as suggested by the first post

[Paolo]

Yes, I meant really "home made"..
And made from scratch, not by converting another racecar into F1.
Something assembled by 3 people in a garage, without any chance to actually go at a Grand Prix.

Connew was a well funded top team compared to what I have in mind...


Of course, why limit that to F1.... Indy, F3, Le Mans... anything goes.

[Gregor Marshall]

Originally posted by Paolo
Connew was a well funded top team compared to what I have in mind...

I'm awaiting Barry's comment on that!!
There have been many competition cars built in sheds etc over the years (Bill Blydenstein built one of his cars in his basement flat and only got the room by tunnelling and "building" an extra room in the foundations!! ). Also, I'm sure DCN can tell us a few "cheap" LSR cars built in sheds too.

[scheivlak]

Originally posted by Paolo
Yes, I meant really "home made"..
And made from scratch, not by converting another racecar into F1.
Something assembled by 3 people in a garage, without any chance to actually go at a Grand Prix.

I've forgotten the name but that self built Dutch F1 car from circa 1975 -mentioned somewhere earlier here in TNF- comes to mind....

[ensign14]

Arno.

[fines]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
I'm sure you are right, Michael, but good on them for building anything at all, especially if the constituent parts really are old scrap materials.

They know the thing can never race but so what? Having spent 12 years making a 12th scale model of a racing car (carelessly smashed by a thoughtless 'gentleman' at a Silverstone meeting three years ago) I know what pleasure they must have had a) doing it and b) seeing it finished.

And it goes, apparently....

We're in total agreement about that!

[Milan Fistonic]

This "home-made" McLaren was built by a guy named Russell Keach.

[rdmotorsport]

I have read many things regarded the Connew but a well funded team was never one of them!

Try looking up the infamous Dywa or some Scandanavian lady called Ekstroem claimed to have had built a F1 car although rumours were told the monocoque was wooden!

[ghinzani]

Merzario??

Btw I never heard that the Ekstroem ever left paper, even if there was a wooden moncoque mock-up?

[Miles Fenton]

What about Archie Butterworth's entry constructed as a 4 wheel drive using some Jeep parts. This was in the fifties I believe and ran away from the field for four laps before expiring.
Can anybody confirm this?
Miles.

[fines]

Oh, I believe it retired on the first lap the only time it ever made a starting grid!? Was successful in hill climbs and sprints, though, if I'm not mistaken, and later exported to the USofA.

[britishtrident]

A guy call Brausch Niemann qualified a his own Lotus Seven based car for the 1962 South African GP Powered by a pre Xfo Ford Kent engine he slipped into 21st spot on the grid of 21 car and finished in 10th place

[rdmotorsport]

I am led to believe it left the drawing board(Ekstroem) and a mock up was built but a chap called Murphy an ex Maurer employee was deeply involved with the project if he is around I am sure he could put us to the wise, he did invite me to come and have a look and maybe get involved but never did due to other things at the time.

[ghinzani]

Originally posted by rdmotorsport
I am led to believe it left the drawing board(Ekstroem) and a mock up was built but a chap called Murphy an ex Maurer employee was deeply involved with the project if he is around I am sure he could put us to the wise, he did invite me to come and have a look and maybe get involved but never did due to other things at the time.

Ah thats the same Murphy who ran an F3 car in Germany in 85 and then ran Brian Simpson (race products son of..) in a Reynard F3 in 86 in Britain, taking one win from nowhere and then being subsequently chucked out for a bent engine - think he was Brian Murphy. Paul Cherry was also involved in the Ekstroem adventure was'nt he? and maybe the ex-RAM designer Dave Kelly?

[Tomas Karlsson]

How about this Swedish "Alfa Romeo Monza":

[Bjorn Kjer]

Hmm, how to qualify for a "home-made" ? What about all the garage owners in the earlier years ? You may find some interesting on the thread : F1 entries that never made it , or how about Sacha Gordine ? (He even
had a drawing of a smart transporter).

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by ghinzani


Ah thats the same Murphy who ran an F3 car in Germany in 85 and then ran Brian Simpson (race products son of..) in a Reynard F3 in 86 in Britain, taking one win from nowhere and then being subsequently chucked out for a bent engine - think he was Brian Murphy. Paul Cherry was also involved in the Ekstroem adventure was'nt he? and maybe the ex-RAM designer Dave Kelly?

Wasn't it Chris Murphy, the designer, and Dave Simpson the US F3 racer?

[ensign14]

Yeah, Brian Murphy was in George & Mildred. Wasn't it the jungle juice that caused the DQ of Dave Simpson?

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by ensign14
Yeah, Brian Murphy was in George & Mildred. Wasn't it the jungle juice that caused the DQ of Dave Simpson?

Brian Murphy was also an E-Type racer, or was that Bryan, or Yootha Joyce maybe? The race Simpson won was at Donington, June 86 I think, and he went very well indeed, it may well have been dodgy fuel, Ens.

[ex Rhodie racer]

Originally posted by britishtrident
A guy call Brausch Niemann qualified a his own Lotus Seven based car for the 1962 South African GP Powered by a pre Xfo Ford Kent engine he slipped into 21st spot on the grid of 21 car and finished in 10th place

I´m not sure why you refer to Brauch Niemann´s car as a, "Lotus seven based" car. As far as I am aware (I stand corrected if I am wrong) the car Brauch campaingned in the springbok series was an original Lotus seven entered by Thompson Motors in Pietermaritzburg. Maybe someone can shed a bit more light on this. (PMB boy? Henry´s knee? Heironymus?)

Of course, another fully home built special was Doug Serrurier´s LDS, which bore more than a little resemblance to the Brabham of the time.

[Barry Boor]

Early LDS cars were Cooper T.53 clones.

[ex Rhodie racer]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
Early LDS cars were Cooper T.53 clones.

Very true Barry . Not hard to get your Coopers and your Brabham´s a little confused when you get to my age.

[KWSN - DSM]

I believe that there were an article in Autosport sometime in the 1980ies about an English farmer, who did in fact build and race a F1 car, he qualified it once think of all places at Nurburing.

Was somewhat written up in the English media at the time, but apart from 1 or 2 appearances that was all.

Want to make it sometime between 1965 and 1969, but when ever I get around to wanting to find more details, I can't really find anything which correspond with what I remember as the details of the article.

[britishtrident]

Originally posted by ex Rhodie racer

I´m not sure why you refer to Brauch Niemann´s car as a, "Lotus seven based" car. As far as I am aware (I stand corrected if I am wrong) the car Brauch campaingned in the springbok series was an original Lotus seven entered by Thompson Motors in Pietermaritzburg. Maybe someone can shed a bit more light on this. (PMB boy? Henry´s knee? Heironymus?)

Of course, another fully home built special was Doug Serrurier´s LDS, which bore more than a little resemblance to the Brabham of the time.

From the accounts I have read Niemann narrowed the chassis just enough to get it to qualify as a single seater but still fairly major surgery.

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by ex Rhodie racer

Very true Barry . Not hard to get your Coopers and your Brabham´s a little confused when you get to my age.

Don't beat yourself up, Ex
Only the early ones were Cooper copies. The later ones were indeed Brabham-based

[Geoff E]

Originally posted by britishtrident


From the accounts I have read Niemann narrowed the chassis just enough to get it to qualify as a single seater but still fairly major surgery.

That's what the Lotus 7 Register believes http://tinyurl.com/4pagew

[simonlewisbooks]

Originally posted by Miles Fenton
What about Archie Butterworth's entry constructed as a 4 wheel drive using some Jeep parts. This was in the fifties I believe and ran away from the field for four laps before expiring.
Can anybody confirm this?
Miles.

Here it is - The AJB at Winfield in 1950 with very tall driver/designer/builder on the right.



This car qualifies for a number of 'firsts' I think
-First 4WD "Formula 1" car (I think the Cisitalia predates the 'F1' designation and in any case never raced in a Formula one event?)
-First aircooled F1 car?
-First V8 F1 car?
-The only one with an engine built in Austria?

...I could be wrong on all points so please feel free to correct me

Crashed badly at Shelsley Walsh hillclimb in 1951 or 52, injuring it's creator enough to make him retire from the wheel and build his own engines instead. Later the car was sold to the famous 'camber car' builder and B17 test Pilot Bill Milliken who ran it at Pikes Peak as the "Butterball Special".

[fines]

With regards to another (almost) current thread: first F1 car with coilovers?;)

[ex Rhodie racer]

Originally posted by Geoff E


That's what the Lotus 7 Register believes http://tinyurl.com/4pagew

Thanks for that link Goeff. Very interesting.
BTW, that photo was taken at Westmede. If I remember correctly, Brauch very nearly lost his life that day. He went over the bank at a corner called, "the Draai", which quite literaly means, "the turn" in Afrikaans. As he skidded to a halt he went under a barbed wire fence which very nearly decapitated him.

[D-Type]

Originally posted by KWSN - DSM
I believe that there were an article in Autosport sometime in the 1980ies about an English farmer, who did in fact build and race a F1 car, he qualified it once think of all places at Nurburing.

Was somewhat written up in the English media at the time, but apart from 1 or 2 appearances that was all.

Want to make it sometime between 1965 and 1969, but when ever I get around to wanting to find more details, I can't really find anything which correspond with what I remember as the details of the article.

Could it be Bill Aston in the Aston-Butterworth in 1952? It fits the description but not the dates.
Or Chris Lawrence in his Cooper-Ferrari in 1966. A shoestring effort, but he wasn't a farmer.
Or Brian Hart in a Protos-Ford in the F2 class in the 1967 race. Again not a farmer and although obscure, the Protos wasn't a backyard job.

[KWSN - DSM]

Originally posted by D-Type
Could it be Bill Aston in the Aston-Butterworth in 1952? It fits the description but not the dates.
Or Chris Lawrence in his Cooper-Ferrari in 1966. A shoestring effort, but he wasn't a farmer.
Or Brian Hart in a Protos-Ford in the F2 class in the 1967 race. Again not a farmer and although obscure, the Protos wasn't a backyard job.

I am certain (well almost) that it was not Brian Hart. Got to thinking after posting that I could be wrong on the dates, but recall that he was supposed to be then 'New Lotus" according to the media at the time, which would then rule out Bill Aston, whom I did read up on this afternoon.

The 'Farmer' part is my failing memory, and may not have been Autosport that I read it in either, my younger brother spend the better part of what a racecar would have cost him buying various car and autoracing magazines up through the 1980ies, I am certain though that the article was in English.

Went as far as looking all british constructors up, but still could not find one which matched. So very possible tat Chris Lawrence is a better choice than anyone else. Just seem that I have then mixed the story up with something else, or possibly mixed Lawrence and the Deep-Sanderson debacle up.

If only I had not gotten rid of 18 seasons worth of old Autosports, I could have pulled the magazine and re-read the article.

[Tomas Karlsson]

The whole Nordic Special class that existed in Scandinavia between 1950-1953 was made up of home-made cars. Although they weren't "real" F1 cars, the NS-rules were set to loosely fit the international ones. In 52-53 the big races in Sweden were called F1 and in 1951 Erik Lundgren entered his home-made Ford special for the German GP. He wisely stayed at home though...

[Paolo]

That AJB is fascinating, I found more about it here : http://www.historicr...&orderType=name


" Archie Butterworth

UNITED KINGDOM
Born
19 / 6 / 1912
Died
12 / 2 / 2005

Butterworth was an unconvential but genius inventor who built his first post-war racing car using the engine from a German halftrack.

Archie was an instinctive engineer, born in Co Waterford, Ireland. He moved with his family to England in 1919 and, on leaving school, he joined the Army, serving in the Irish Guards. During this time he built his first car, a dirt track racer, a category that was enjoying some popularity at the time. However before he could race it he was posted to Egypt.

Demobbed in 1937 with no formal qualifications, he worked for a time on the production line at Ford and then in the tool room at Saunders-Roe. His shop steward discovered his lack of a proper apprenticeship and he was transferred upwards to tool design where qualifications were not apparently necessary.

With the outbreak of war, although in a reserved occupation, he rejoined his old unit as a despatch rider. When he reported to collect his motor cycle, he had already switched round all the labels so as to secure the best one for himself, a 500c competition AJS.

During the retreat toward Dunkirk, Archie did not think much of the strafing his group were getting from enemy planes. He got himself up on a ridge over which the planes had to pass as they came out of the valley below. Armed only with a German Luger, he brought a plane down with one well aimed shot.

At the end of WWII he was employment at the Royal Enfield weapons factory. In his spare time Archie had designed a complete Grand Prix car, engine, gearbox, chassis, the lot. But as is often the case, there wasn't enough money in the pot to convert his dream into reality.

Not that he was exactly poor. He had acquired a somewhat ancient 4½ litre Bentley tourer which he modified extensively. He raced it with considerable success and was elected to the British Racing Driver Club.

Without the budget to build a Grand Prix car, Archie decided to build himself a hillclimber instead. The result was the AJB S2. Better known as the AJB Special. He had been impressed with the début of Sydney Allard's 3.7 litre Steyr-engined special car. The Steyr was a V8 air-cooled unit from Austria mainly used in half-tracks. It had an exciting exhaust note and a fair amount of power, both of which fired Archie's imagination. When he discovered that there were two engines complete with transmissions lying around at Chobham, he bought the lot for a tenner.

He proceded to mounted one of the engines, along with it's gearbox, into a stiffened Jeep chassis, complete with leaf-springs and 4WD axles, and tied the lot together with some very clever ideas in the transmission.

Thus he raced his own Steyr-engined AJB chassis successfully in straight-line sprints and in hill climbs. At first it had no brakes and he held the rear wheels with his hands on the tyres. The throttle wires gave off a distinctive noise as they vibrated in the air which led to the installation being dubbed "The Chicago Piano".

Archie was better at designing engines and transmissions than he was chassis and, over the next few seasons, Archie fettled away at the engine. He fitted aluminium cylinder barrels of his own design, raised the capacity and the compression and with a carburettor on each cylinder and alcohol fuel, he raised it's power output from the original 85bhp to 260bhp. This was comparable with a contemporary works Ferrari! And at 4425cc he now had himself a Formula 1 engine.

Not unaware of this, Archie entered the AJB in a major non-championship F1 race, the 1950 International Trophy. And the AJB became the worlds first 4WD F1 car to start a race. However the chassis was a problem and with the driver on the left it did not like turning right. Unfortunately in the race the AJB suffered a crank-shaft bearing failure on the first lap, which was due, it's owner believed, to the chassis flexing and twisting the engine block.

But at a time when racing was still struggling to find its feet again, the brute force of the car and the cheery bravery of the driver were an irresistible combination that captured the public's imagination and he became a firm favourite with the crowds. When Archie cornered on two wheels, you saw the underside of the car, as can be seen in photographs of the time.

The 1950 International Trophy would be the AJB Special's only F1 race, but Archie continued to hillclimb the car, and for 1951 he finally got round to fitting the gearbox he'd designed for his Grand Prix project. An ingeniously compact, multi-clutch device, operated by foot-pedals, one pedal changed up, the other changed down. But at Shelsley Walsh, Archie had a massive shunt, and decide that that was enough. Archie said that it was a terribly dangerous little car that had spent three years trying to kill him!

The AJB Special was rebuilt and sold to the USA for 4WD research. It passed through the hands of chassis-dynamics guru Bill Milliken (later the builder of the "Camber-Car"), who raced it as "The Butterball Special", and it lives on today in a 4WD Museum in Cliftonville, Wisconsin.

With his driving career at an end, Archie now turned his attention to engine design. Grand Prix racing for 1952 and 1953 would be for 2-Litre Formula 2 engines. The AJB was a water-cooled Flat-4 of a modular nature, that could allow the capacity to be altered by changing the cylinder barrels. It featured revolutionary swing inlet valves to allow uninterrupted flow of fuel into the cylinders compared to conventional poppet valves.

Building a 2-Litre version would be no problem, and a suitable project was soon on offer. F3 driver Bill Aston was first to specify the engine. He was in the process of designing and building a pair of conventional front-engined, single-seater cars, one for himself and one for his friend Robin Montgomerie-Charrington. Named the Aston-Butterworth, even though Aston was only a customer of Archie's, both cars were to appear in World Championship races.

With two very prominent bonnet bulges with gave a passing resemblance to a well endowed starlet of the time, the cars were nicknamed 'Sabrina's AJB'. However reliability was to prove a perennial problem. Archie bluntly declared this to be due to a poorly designed engine installation. On one occasion, when well placed, it was refuelled from the wrong churn.

In the end Bill Aston and Archie participated in 4 Grands Prix. The first car, NB-41, was raced in April, 1952 in the Lavant Cup at Goodwood, finishing eighth with Aston at the wheel. In May a second car was made available for Robert Montgomerie-Charrington. He drove it at Chimay in June, where he finished third. A week later the cars were at Monza for the GP dell'Autodromo in which Montgomerie-Charrington finished 12th. One car was raced at Spa in the Belgium GP and it appeared again a few days later at Reims in the Grand Prix de la Marne.

In 1952, the Wolverhampton based Kieft company built a rear-engined AJB powered F2 car. This proved completely hopeless for circuit racing, but in the hands of works driver Michael Christie, it became very successful in hillclimbs.

Aston continued to appear in races throughout the 1953 season but there was never enough money to develop the program properly and when the new F1 regulations came in in 1954 the story of Aston-Butterworth came to an end.

During this time Archie had had a very serious enquiry from Jack Brabham, then still based in Australia, about his gearbox. But he wasn't able to pursue the matter because he was now fully occupied by the engine project. The gearbox would surface again later when Colin Chapman showed an interest, and it now became Archie's principal preoccupation. But it was inevitable that these two highly opinionated characters would never get on, and the association was to end in considerable acrimony.

Archie Butterworth's next motor racing project would be a reprise of his engine design. Now in 1.5-litre form, and with a patented inlet valve system (they looked like miniature French-horns, pivoting on torsion bars), It came to the attention of Frank Nichols' Elva concern (Elva got it's name from the French "elle va", ie "she goes") who installed it in a sportscar for the talented Archie Scott-Brown to drive in British sportscar events during the 1957 season. It was very quick, but as always it's reliability let it down. Ironically it was the conventional exhaust valve system that usually caused the problem. The Elva management eventually became disenchanted, but Archie Butterworth had found a soulmate in the car's driver. Archie Scott-Brown, worthy of a "Chaps" story in his own right, was at least as unusual as his namesake, and had become a great enthusiast for Butterworth's designs.

'The Archies' laid down plans for a season of AJB powered Formula 2 racing, and at the beginning of 1958 a Cooper chassis was acquired, and an entry filed for the Formula 2 class in the Monaco GP. In the end though, the car wasn't ready in time so Archie Scott-Brown went off to drive a works Lister sportscar at Spa instead. Sadly in the race he lost control of the car on a piece of damp track while dicing with Masten Gregory. He crashed into a field at the same spot which claimed Dick Seaman's Mercedes in 1939, the car burst into flames and the luckless Scot passed away the following day from his injuries.

Teamed with Archie Scott-Brown, Archie Butterworth had thought that he may finally realise his AJB Grand Prix project and was planning a purpose designed 2.5-Litre Flat-8 engine, to compliment his highly developed AJB gearbox. But with the demise of his comrade, he completely lost interest in motor sport, and from then on put all his energy into other engineering outlets for his fertile imagination and enthusiastic patent application abilities.

Archie Butterworth was also the Founder of the British Sporting Rifle Club.


HR with input from John Kynoch and Ricardo Davilla"


A genius of sort, it seems, even if I personally don't buy the Luger story... all the place would have been shooting at the Hun, and planes are a bit difficult to bring down with a single Parabellum.

[simonlewisbooks]

I don't buy the story of the AJB having no brakes either.... something has been lost in transcription there!
I also wonder about the claimed power output being "comparable with a contemporary works Ferrari"
Perhaps this is based on Ferrari still running the 3.3 litre 275 in early 1950? But that wasn't a full F1 spec engine, giving away over a litre in available capacity.