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[mariner]

I found this for sale on the Hall and Hall website. It may be old hat to many here but while I have heard of the Martin V-8 being used in the Pearce F1 project a Lotus 35/Martin is news to me as an F1 car.

 

https://hallandhall....35-Martin-F1-21

 

Did it ever start an F1 race in period please?

[Tim Murray]

This car was discussed in several earlier threads relating to Ted Martin and his engines. Here’s the most relevant one:

Martin engines (merged)

These two posts from Macca, who has done a lot of research on the Martin-engined cars, explain the car’s history very nicely:

The Lucas-Martin was a modded Lotus 35 Formula 2 which came third at Mallory in the rain on Boxing Day 1966 driven by Roy Pike, and was then entered for the Race of Champions driven by Piers Courage. It was quite slow in practise and then bent a rocker while the engine was being warmed-up on race morning and non-started. Courage then crashed it while testing at Snetterton, and Lucas seized the excuse to drop it to concentrate on manufacturing F3 Titans; it was said to have been written-off but was offered for sale by J. A. Pearce Motors (ironically) about a year later.

From the thread in the 'other place':-

posted by me:-
"The Martin engine saga is another one of my interests, which I am trying get the definitive story on. The new biog of Piers Courage has some info in it, also there was an article in Motor Racing mag in early 1967 and one in Classic Cars in 1990 IIRC about Ted Martin. It seems Lucas had a spare 35 and Ted Martin was looking for a test-bed for the first 3L engine. It raced once in a F.Libre race at Mallory Park on Boxing Day 1966 where Roy Pike came third, non-started at Brands either due to a bent rocker or due to being tow-started with cold oil (it was bitter that day - I was there!) and snapping the cambelt, and then was crashed by Courage testing at Snetterton and caught fire. It was said to have been written-off, but in the Autosport of March 8th 1968 it is offered for sale for £3475, by J.A. Pearce Motors ironically.

Another Motor Racing article, in early 1968, says that Lucas wanted to concentrate on his F3 Titans, so the crash gave him the reason to abandon the F1."


posted by you!!!:-

"In the current Formula Junior Racing Assoc magazine is an obituary for John Romanes of Edinburgh. Seems this Scottish gentleman raced a Lotus 35. It was powered by a Martin engine, that was later removed to fit a 2 litre Climax and raced at Ingleston. The obit writer Andrew Fletcher also drove the same 35 on occasions at Croft and Ingleston.
At Croft the rear suspension broke and the car ended up inverted.
John was so upset at this he cut the Lotus 35 up when he got home."

In the Piers Courage biog there is actually a lot of detail; Piers took part in the 1965-66 Temporada series and crashed c/n 19 twice, first a minor ding, then a bigger one. When the European season started, Lucas Engineering were running the works Lotus F3 team with 41s (and Courage did a couple of F2 races in a works 44), so the 35 wasn't repaired. Lucas was getting his engines dyno'd at Ted Martin's at Haddenham, so they put a V8 in the 35 presumably at Ted's request at the end of 1966.

After the non-start at the RoC at Brands, Courage shunted it again at Snetterton. By this time Lucas were building their own Titan cars, having fallen out with Lotus when Chapman took half the winners' bonus from the 1966 F3 season, and also it seems there were disagreements with Ted Martin about reliability of the F1 engine, so they got rid of the damaged F1 car which was a distraction, and it was sold by J.A.Pearce a year later.

I would think it might be a good idea to talk to Charles Lucas (brother of 'Loti' Irwin on TNF) and to Ted Martin, and of course to David Beard's cousin Oz Timms, for the finer details.


Paul M