34 replies to this topic

[RacingCompagniet]

Looking at the starting lists for formula junior races in Sweden 1961 thru 1963, lots of strange car names pop up. Is there anyone out there having any information (period photos, present whereabouts, anything...) on cars such as:
GAS, Gason, Wypp, Gruen, Sell, La Concombre (probably a long green thing...), Wohlin, EBA, Lockus, Joker, Sibre, Spider, Focus, Swebe, Dojores?

[David McKinney]

I'm sure I've seen a Joker and a Focus or two in modern-day historic racing

[Tomas Karlsson]

The Swedes liked the idea of a cheap formula where you could build your own car. But soon understood that the rest of the world bought their cars in England...

GAS and Gason - Based on F3 Cooper with Auto Union engine. Builder: Gustav Andersson.
Gruen - Built by Stig Gruen with VW suspension and Peugeot engine.
Sell - Built by Stig-Åke Säll
Le Concombre - A front-engined car built by Göran Jansson on Fiat parts.
Wohlin - Porsche-driver Egon Wohlin built a car with Porsche andVW parts with Auto-Union engine.
EBA - ?
Lockus - ?
Joker - Porsche and VW parts, DKW engine. Built by P-O Pettersson.
Sibre - sorry..
Spider - Pretty Lotus copy with BMC engine
Focus - cars built by Sportscars in Stockholm. The first with VW suspension and Peugeot engine. Mk III and MkIV was quite successful.
Swebe - Succesful F3-builders Sven Andersson and Bengt Petterson (Ronnies father!) built a FJ with a Renault engine. It was too heavy, so Andersson made a second version based on a F3 Cooper, before he bought a Lola... They later built a couple of F3 cars. Ronnie made his F3-debut in one of them.
Dojores - ???


There were more even less succesful attempts...

[RacingCompagniet]

Originally posted by Tomas Karlsson
The Swedes liked the idea of a cheap formula where you could build your own car. But soon understood that the rest of the world bought their cars in England...

GAS and Gason - Based on F3 Cooper with Auto Union engine. Builder: Gustav Andersson.
Gruen - Built by Stig Gruen with VW suspension and Peugeot engine.
Sell - Built by Stig-Åke Säll
Le Concombre - A front-engined car built by Göran Jansson on Fiat parts.
Wohlin - Porsche-driver Egon Wohlin built a car with Porsche andVW parts with Auto-Union engine.
EBA - ?
Lockus - ?
Joker - Porsche and VW parts, DKW engine. Built by P-O Pettersson.
Sibre - sorry..
Spider - Pretty Lotus copy with BMC engine
Focus - cars built by Sportscars in Stockholm. The first with VW suspension and Peugeot engine. Mk III and MkIV was quite successful.
Swebe - Succesful F3-builders Sven Andersson and Bengt Petterson (Ronnies father!) built a FJ with a Renault engine. It was too heavy, so Andersson made a second version based on a F3 Cooper, before he bought a Lola... They later built a couple of F3 cars. Ronnie made his F3-debut in one of them.
Dojores - ???


There were more even less succesful attempts...

Thanks Thomas,

Very interesting. Could you say something about the "more even less succesful attempts...")

[Tomas Karlsson]

Well there were one Saab special before the factory car, one Mallock-like Fiat-engined car that was finished too late to be competitive , one F3 Effyh with Fiat-engine etc.

[RacingCompagniet]

Thomas,

A Focus, the Joker and a Swebe have all been seen at the Goodwood Revival, so they seem to still exist. Do you know anything about the whereabouts of any of the other cars?

[Tomas Karlsson]

Sorry! I have only seen the Focus MkIII and the Swebe-Cooper.

BTW When were the EBA, Lockus and Dojores entered? Maybe I can identify them...

[RacingCompagniet]

Originally posted by Tomas Karlsson
Sorry! I have only seen the Focus MkIII and the Swebe-Cooper.

BTW When were the EBA, Lockus and Dojores entered? Maybe I can identify them...

Thomas,

The Dojores, apparently Fiat-engined, was enterd at Karlskoga in 1961 to be driven by Stig Jedselius. The EBA and the Lockus were entered at Karlskoga in 1963 by Thord Bodin and Stefan Bjorck.

[Tomas Karlsson]

Ah, now it's a little bit clearer!
I have never seen the name Dojores before, but I wouldn't call me an FJ expert. This one was a front-engined car built by Sven Davidsson with a Fiat engine. I am not sure that it ever raced though.

I don't know anything about the EBA, but there was a HPD that speedwayrider Ove Bodin raced at Skarpnäck in May '63. (HPD = HopPlockade Delar = "bitsa").

Stefan Björk drove the Sibre in '64, if there is some connection...?

[Petterhuse]

Hello bouth of you on this forum. I just want to tell you that I have the Focus MK IV. Tha car var driven by the late Ørjan Atterberg. His father and the company Sportscar in Stockholm made the car in 1961-62. It took part in several races in 62. Atterberg vas killed in the car in Djurgårdsloppet in autum 62. The car has never raced since.

Regards Petter Huse, Norway

[Tomas Karlsson]

The Focus MkIV was built in 1962 and debuted at the season-ending Skarpnäck race in September that year driven by Egon Wohlin. Örjan Atterberg then raced it in ice-races in early 1963, at season-opener at Skarpnäck and then at the fateful Helsinki race May 19th 1963.
According to the motoring press of that time, the same car was repaired and raced by Per-Olof Zetterström for the rest of the '63 season and the whole 1964 season.

[Tomas Karlsson]

Nice that the car still exists!

By the way, Racingcompagniet: You forgot the Condor.

[Steffe Ornerdal]

Any information about Bananen (The Banana) ?
If the Concombre was green, I suppose this one was glorius in Swedish racing colours - yellow.

[Tomas Karlsson]

Sorry, when did "Bananen" appear? It sounds more like a nickname for a front-engined yellow car...

[RacingCompagniet]

Originally posted by Tomas Karlsson
Nice that the car still exists!

By the way, Racingcompagniet: You forgot the Condor.

Thomas,

I did not include the Condor, since that one was built in the UK in a small series (some 4 cars in total?).

[fines]

The Banana (Wagon) won the 1925 Indianapolis 500!

No, seriously! Though I doubt it was built in Sweden, and it was certainly not a Junior...

[RacingCompagniet]

Originally posted by Steffe Ornerdal
Any information about Bananen (The Banana) ?
If the Concombre was green, I suppose this one was glorius in Swedish racing colours - yellow.

Stefan,

I don´t know if the Le Concombre was green. Since Comcombre is French for cucumber, I just assumed it looked like one.

[Steffe Ornerdal]

Tomas,

I do not know anything about "The Banana", the car is only mentioned by Seppo Pitkanen, here: http://www.saunalaht...ula3/Story2.htm

Racingcompagniet,
I'm with you, a car called Cucumber must be green, as a Banana have to be yellow!

About the Condor, is there two different makes? One British with Triumph Herald engine and one Swedish with a Ford 105E?

[RacingCompagniet]

Originally posted by Steffe Ornerdal
Tomas,

I do not know anything about "The Banana", the car is only mentioned by Seppo Pitkanen, here: http://www.saunalaht...ula3/Story2.htm

Racingcompagniet,
I'm with you, a car called Cucumber must be green, as a Banana have to be yellow!

About the Condor, is there two different makes? One British with Triumph Herald engine and one Swedish with a Ford 105E?

Stefan,

Do you have any contact with Seppo Pitkanen? It would be interesting to know where he found the name 'Bananen'. A not so far-fetched thought could also be that a cucumber is not only green, but also long, and so is a banana. Maybe 'Le Concombre' was yellow?

Regarding the Condor, the one which participated in races in Sweden in the 1960s is definitively one of the UK cars, a 105E enginer Condor SIII. That car is still in Sweden and fully restored.

[Tomas Karlsson]

"Le Concombre" was blue and yellow from the start. And it doesn't seem to have had the vegetable name from the beginning. In one article it was called "Carracas"... And in one results list "Stanguellini"...
Jansson took the car for an European tour in 1960 and was said to have raced it in Italy. I haven't seen any results though.
Stefan has a result from Austria on his F2 site, where the car was called "Elliott-Fiat"...

[fines]

Perhaps it was a modified Stanguellini? I recall coming about strange German FJuniors, and in the end finding out they were simply rebodied Stanguellinis!

[Tomas Karlsson]

No, it was a real homemade car, although it was inspired by the Italian car. I think the Stanguellini-name came from the engine tuning. Did they sell tuning parts, maybe?

[HistoryFan]

GAS and Gason - Based on F3 Cooper with Auto Union engine. Builder: Gustav Andersson.

Which engine?

[Bloggsworth]

I remember watching Erik Carlsson manhandling the front-wheel-drive SAAB FJ through Paddock at Brands Hatch - Now that's what you call understeer...

SAAB FJ

Edited by Bloggsworth, 21 August 2010 - 15:18.

[David McKinney]

This thread is about home-builts, not factory-built cars

[Bloggsworth]

This thread is about home-builts, not factory-built cars

It performed like it was built in a shed...

[David McKinney]

At Brands, maybe

At home they could beat Lotus 18s...

[Tomas Karlsson]

Which engine?

I suppose it was the three cylinder two-stroke from Auto Union 1000.

[bradbury west]

I have never seen the name Dojores before, but I wouldn't call me an FJ expert. This one was a front-engined car built by Sven Davidsson with a Fiat engine. I am not sure that it ever raced though.

There is a useful profile of the Dojores Fiat in a recent FJHRA newsletter, a sort of then and now account, by Lars-Goran Sjoberg
Roger Lund

Edited by bradbury west, 22 August 2010 - 23:46.

[BLIXT]

Dear all, 

I m' new on this forum but as i was trying to find some history race of my Swedish Home made 1955 formula junior , I would be gratefull if some people here could help me ! 

 

I bought a BLIXT Fiat Formula Junior, to a Swedish flying museum some years ago . This unic formula according to a newspaper article that I have was built by 3 people from technical school of Helsingborg :

 

Bertil BLIXT engineer , Leif Hagberg who was the pilote (involved into GP 125 mortorbike racing with a 125cm AGUSTA ) and Rejer Lindstrom who take in charge the fine engine préparation. The formula was Mercedes W 196 body inspired , with a FIAT 1100cm  engine,45° inclined able to produce 75/ 80 HP at 7000 RPM using a fine tuning  , incorporaring a very lightweight tubular spaceframe ( 12kg)  and an aluminium body ; The car was completed in 1955, but I do not find if finally the car take part of some racing , as it was expected by  their Creators to participate to 6 formula Junior race in 1956 .

 

If someone has information or racing history about my BLIXT Fiat FJ ,  I will be excited to share informations !

 

Thank you for your help !

[RacingCompagniet]

Your car was built in 1961,  not 1955 (remember, Formula Junior was only introduced in 1958 in Italy and in 1960 in Sweden). Unfortunately, it was finished too late to be deemed to be competitive and there is therefore no record of its ever having been raced. There was an article about it in a Swedish motoring magazine in 1961. It might have appeared at some club race in Sweden in the late 1980s, but there is no record of that either, so it seems to have spent most of its life in that museum, incorrectly labelled as a Fiat racing car from 1955...

[BLIXT]

Thank you for your  information RacingCompagniet, , you are right about the fact that 1955 is incorrect (despite some wrong document from the Svedino 's Automobile and Aviation Museum) , however the Swedish newpapers articles I had , are dated from March 24th 1960, and the formula in photo with his team seems close to be ready and completed .

it is mentionned that Creator 's expectation was to firstly race at Roskild in May 1960. So did they do finally ?

You are mentioning some swedish motoring magazine article dated 1961, is it possible to make me a copy ?  thank you again !  

[rbm]

The MRS SAAB still exists with Christer Larsson, but he has moved up to a Cooper FJ in recent years

 

SAAB HAckåsar'n Formula Junior 1959-60 by PeS-Photo,

[RacingCompagniet]

Sure, I can make a copy for you if you let me have your mail address (you can PM it to me if you don't want to show it here). The article is from the magazine FART (which translates as SPEED, and nothing else…), issue 3, 1961 (at least that is what the hand-scribbled note on my copy says).  Regarding Roskilde in May 1960, the entry list I have seen has 18 entries, none of them this car.

[RacingCompagniet]

Blixt, I have mailed a copy of the article to you. What I have also found is that one of the builders of you car, Leif Hagberg, was entered in the Danish Championship race at Roskilde Ring on October 1, 1961 and that he retired after one lap as a result of an accident.  There is no name given for the car he drove, which might very well indicate that it was a home-built 'special'.