21 replies to this topic

[Fred.R]

Hi guys any photos or stories of these John Joyce creations ? Bowin still exists doing other things now, any one know were the name Bowin came from ? And who some of the characters at the factory were and are they still around, and yes I have seen the wiki site

[Bowinracer]

Are you only interseted in the P4/P4A? I own a P6. Cheers

[ellrosso]

We have a few shots of the Glyn Scott P3 on the oldracephotos.com website - type Bowin into the Advanced Search on the Home Page (Search Phrase) will bring them up plus the P6 and F5000. Cheers, ellrosso

[Ray Bell]

I don't recall where the Bowin name came from, but I certainly spent time talking to John Joyce about his creations...

The P4a, he told me, would have made a good ANF3 car. "The fact that they handle as well as they do on radials shows that they'd be good with racing tyres," he said.

Of course there was no such car for some years, the only one I recall being the brothers Jardine, whose wallpapered car ran around at the back of the field as it would have done were it a Bowin or a Cheetah or an Elfin.

The P6 did have higher powered versions race. Bob Skelton ran a quasi-works entry while Queenslander Bruce Allison had another. They were quickly shaded, however, by the announcement of the P8 which was to be raced by John Leffler.

One of the good John Joyce stories is about that car. Leffler told me he hadn't had a chance to do a decent day's sorting with the car and finally a day arrived when he and Joyce could spend time at the track.

"We were at Oran Park early," Leffo told me, "and John finally drove up in his station wagon. I expected him to emerge from that and unpack a lot of springs and bars and so on."

Deflation was the next emotion to strike the Grace Bros Race Team driver as Joyce walked towards him carrying only a pyrometer. There were no bars and springs, just the pyrometer!

But over the next couple of hours Joyce fiddled with the settings of the suspension so that the rising rate suspension was doing what its designer intended. "I was faster than the car when we started," Leffler said, "but in the end I couldn't keep up with it... it was just magic!"

Joyce also worked on the Matich F5000 cars and Pete Geoghegan's 'Super Falcon' as projects.

[Wirra]

There is another image on the latest Oran Park thread.

[Ray Bell]

Leffler and Skelton in P4as... the Elfin 600 is ??



Glynn Scott's car in its trailer. This is the first P3, the first Bowin raced.



Ian Fergusson's P3 Twin Cam?

[Eshe]

A couple of pics from my archives of John Tuxford's Bowin P4A taken at Oran Park NSW on 06 Feb 1977 and 12 March 1977 respectively. Does anyone know the history of this car both before and after it was in John's hands? I have a hazy memory that it was the ex-Leffler car... John sold it in March 1977 but I have no idea of its whereabouts these days.





Also one of John Smith at Amaroo Park 09 April 1977 in what I think is a P4A. Apologies for the grainy scans - I was using very basic cameras back then but at least it is in colour!

Edited by Eshe, 20 January 2010 - 11:18.

[Ray Bell]

Yes, Smith's in a P4a...

And the other car looks like a P4a too, but I can't work out whose it is.

[Graham Clayton]

Here is an excellent summary of the P4a:

http://www.bowincars...ex.php/Bowin_P4

[petersracing]

Ian Fergusson's P3 Twin Cam?

Ray you ought to know better. That's the Glyn Scott car too. The car raced with the numbers 10 20 and 30 While Glyn had it.

And the picture above it is just the one Ive been looking for to get the exhaust system for the P3 at the right height.

Edited by petersracing, 26 July 2011 - 05:02.

[Ray Bell]

You can just about read the name on the side of the car... I should be hung, drawn and quartered for that error Ian...

It must be that it looked to be green, as Fergusson's car was, that it misled me.

And surely there are better shots around for exhaust height? Or do you mean the one in the trailer?

[petersracing]

And surely there are better shots around for exhaust height? Or do you mean the one in the trailer?

The unusual thing about this car is that it ran the high torque 4 into 2 into 1 that Cosworth optionally specified so you end up with loads more options about the routing than you do in 4 into 1. It also means the whole thing is 5 inches longer. The photo in the trailer is just about the only rear shot I've found. Most people, it seems, photographed single seaters of the era from the pretty painted end not the ugly mechanical one.

Lots of the photos also suggest the tailpipe had a slight upward rake too but I'm not sure.

[Wirra]

..Most people, it seems, photographed single seaters of the era from the pretty painted end not the ugly mechanical one...

Are you calling me some kind of 'backdoor Benny'!

[petersracing]

Are you calling me some kind of 'backdoor Benny'!

As the one excited by the results of your peccadillo I don't care to be more specific.

[SJ Lambert]

This article's got a few of the ugly mechanical end!!

 

Are these any good to you petersracing ?

 

 

Edited by SJ Lambert, 23 June 2014 - 21:18.

[SJ Lambert]

 

 

[SJ Lambert]

 

 

[SJ Lambert]

 

[275 GTB-4]

But over the next couple of hours Joyce fiddled with the settings of the suspension so that the rising rate suspension was doing what its designer intended. "I was faster than the car when we started," Leffler said, "but in the end I couldn't keep up with it... it was just magic!"

I believe that, Leffo still has, to this day, a soft spot for the Bowin's [ergh......whaddya reckon Ray?]

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 23 June 2014 - 12:36.

[petersracing]

 

 

 

Are these any good to you petersracing ?

 

 

 

Thanks for posting that. There must be one of those magazines still in the wild! My wife thinks (not without foundation) that I have cornered the market. The first one was given to me by John Joyce when I acquired the car in 81 and I picked up a spare one at a country sale. The internet has not been kind though and every ebay purchase has been justified with an ever more pathetic justification to the point where I've just had to quit cold turkey. On the plus side I do now have a programme from every race meeting the car participated in.

[Ray Bell]

What do I reckon?

Well, for a start, there'd be no apostrophe in 'Bowins'. Other than that, Leffo had more than his fill of the P8 F5000, but I'm sure he liked the smaller cars.

[SJ Lambert]

Is the P3 about to see any track time?