20 replies to this topic

[nca]

Having been directed to the Bill Henderson Gallery, from the thread on the Rest, I have been intrigued by the various 'Specials' that he photographed, both at the Rest and at Bo'ness.

There are shots of a Martini TT Special, which is a rather skimpy machine, a Fisher Jaguar and a Wolf Special.

There are two apparently identical shots of shots of the DeHavilland ATN Special, which appears to have been a bit of a beast.

It was based on a Bugatti Chassis mated to a Lincoln Zephyr V12 engine and Lincoln front suspension. The donor car was a Lincoln that suffered war damage.

In a later version it would seem that the driver,Tom Dryver, inverted the engine. 

 

Were such specials common place on the hillclimb and sprint scene in the '50s & '60s, and what results did they achieve?

Presumably they were not limited to the Scottish scene.

Were their designers / drivers frustrated by a shortage of off the peg race cars. 

 

I am intrigued and cannot think of a better place to pose these questions.

 

nca

 

[Vitesse2]

Bear in mind that in the late 1940s there was very little circuit racing going on in Britain, so sprints, hillclimbs and trials were the lifeblood of the sport in the country at the time. It was still incredibly difficult to get permission even to use redundant airfields, let alone active ones, for racing, as they were still under the control of various government departments and often on land which had been commandeered from several different owners, all of whom had to give permission. Those government departments were also very obstructive. See - for example - Peter Hull's description of the difficulties encountered in the run-up to the second Gransden Lodge meeting in 1947 in his history of the VSCC or the failure of the Balado Bridge project in Graham Gauld's 'Scottish Motor Racing and Drivers'. At the beginning of 1950 we only had two permanent circuits in operation - Silverstone and Goodwood - both of which would have been rather a long way to travel from Scotland just to do a couple of five-lap handicaps! At least two early race meetings - Gransden Lodge in 1946 and the bike races at RAF Long Kesh in 1945  - and the Elstree sprint at Easter 1946 appear to have been solely on the authority of the station commanders who, had they asked the relevant ministries for permission, would almost certainly have been refused. According to Motor Sport the Air Ministry stated that the release of both Elstree and Gransden Lodge had been 'a mistake'.

 

Factor in austerity, severe fuel rationing - which didn't finally end until 1950 - the near-impossibility of importing a new racing car from Europe due to taxes (even if you had the money!) and building your own sprint/hillclimb special from readily-available war surplus bits was probably the most attractive proposition if you wanted any sort of motor sport. Not that there were many new racing cars being built for sale anyway, even in Europe. Your choice was basically a Maserati, a Ferrari, a Cisitalia or a Gordini. And later maybe a Veritas. Or you could put your trust in Tony Lago ...

[Rupertlt1]

Shortage of tyres - RAC did not permit retreads? Pool petrol?

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 27 November 2020 - 18:25.

[Doug Nye]

And the money to afford some fun. The money...

 

For those who had the capability, build-it-yourself was the only attainable path to motoring competition.

 

DCN

[nca]

My thanks to vitesse2, RTL & DCN for their prompt replies.

 

I understand the points they make about the then current restrictions on motorsport in the immediate post war years.

My interest is in the numbers of Specials that emerged in those years. How ingenious were they, and how successful were they.

 

The De Havilland, as described by Bill Henderson, was a true mongrel, the handling of which was inadequate for the power of the V12.

The photo in Hendreson's gallery does suggest a brute where the handling was concerned, and it was far from elegant.

Did the literature of the time report on the make up of the individual cars, and were they successful?

 

BH's Bo'ness gallery has a introductory photo showing a device with apparently no bodywork, and chain final drive. 

Do we know anything about this device?

 

nca 

 

[Ray Bell]

Far-flung colonies of the Empire had even more problems with money and importing things...

 

So Australia and New Zealand both fostered Specials, which were an important part of our racing until the 'Garagistes' got cracking in the very late fifties. Some were very professional, like the Tornado which almost beat the Ferrari and 250F at Bathurst for our Grand Prix in 1958, and went like a jet at Longford, some were very much at the other end of the scale.

 

The late Graham Howard, for a while a member here and one of the more accurate writers about our motor sporting history, reckoned that the modern day Sports Sedans were, in fact, the modern day Australian Specials. They represented the owner's way of seeing how to build a car in that class, often using components because they had them or were familiar with them, just as the builders of that multitude of Australian Specials of the thirties, forties and fifties comprised such components joined together in the hope that they would be successful.

[Bikr7549]

The post war austerity resulted in the 750 Motor Club? A friend gave me a book on design of these cars by the club, a very, very interesting read. Chapman, Broadley, Mallock and others got their start there.

[fivestar]

There was a very good book named Specials by John Bolster first published in September 1949 and reprinted by Foulis in October 1971.

You may be able to find a copy by contacting  G.T.Foulis.

[Lee Nicolle]

Far-flung colonies of the Empire had even more problems with money and importing things...

 

So Australia and New Zealand both fostered Specials, which were an important part of our racing until the 'Garagistes' got cracking in the very late fifties. Some were very professional, like the Tornado which almost beat the Ferrari and 250F at Bathurst for our Grand Prix in 1958, and went like a jet at Longford, some were very much at the other end of the scale.

 

The late Graham Howard, for a while a member here and one of the more accurate writers about our motor sporting history, reckoned that the modern day Sports Sedans were, in fact, the modern day Australian Specials. They represented the owner's way of seeing how to build a car in that class, often using components because they had them or were familiar with them, just as the builders of that multitude of Australian Specials of the thirties, forties and fifties comprised such components joined together in the hope that they would be successful.

No doubting Sports Sedans were true Aussie Specials. Most of the cars I raced against were very much one ofs most often built at home usually on a severe budget.

These days not as much though still plenty of very individual cars around. And some have been around for decades, as have been the pro built cars such as the Ricciardello K&A Alfa.

[Vitesse2]

There was a very good book named Specials by John Bolster first published in September 1949 and reprinted by Foulis in October 1971.

You may be able to find a copy by contacting  G.T.Foulis.

GT Foulis was subsumed into Haynes many years ago and has long ceased to exist as a separate entity. Or even as an imprint of Haynes. The company was finally dissolved just last month, a few weeks before what would have been its 92nd anniversary.

 

The 1971 edition - in the short-lived Foulis Motoring Classics series - was a straight reprint of the 1952 third (revised) edition. Most of those probably went to public libraries to replace worn-out earlier copies. All editions are now very hard to find, with the going price being £35 and up ... quite a lot of money for such a slim volume!

[Stephen W]

Specials were the lifeblood of Speed Events (hillclimbs & sprinting) being commonplace between the wars and immediately after WW2 when there was a lot of military surplus available costing very little. They were a cheap way to get a powerful competition car although some of these were actually road registered and driven to events. Many were just a home-built frame chassis with an engine bolted in and precious little in the way of bodywork. Others like the Batten Specials were well built sports cars. 

[Vitesse2]

The post war austerity resulted in the 750 Motor Club? A friend gave me a book on design of these cars by the club, a very, very interesting read. Chapman, Broadley, Mallock and others got their start there.

The 750MC was actually formed just before the war, in early 1939. Most of the then members were based around the fringes of south London - the NW Kent, NE Surrey kind of area - and they did continue to meet on a social basis, usually at an hotel in Coulsdon (with the occasional unofficial competition during what were described as 'picnics') until fuel rationing really bit in 1941. They also met at least once at The Ely on Hartford Bridge Flats, adjacent to what was then RAF Blackbushe. You can find brief reports of these in contemporary issues of Motor Sport; Bill Boddy was one of the founder members, along with Holly Birkett and Leslie Ballamy.

[Lee Nicolle]

Specials were the lifeblood of Speed Events (hillclimbs & sprinting) being commonplace between the wars and immediately after WW2 when there was a lot of military surplus available costing very little. They were a cheap way to get a powerful competition car although some of these were actually road registered and driven to events. Many were just a home-built frame chassis with an engine bolted in and precious little in the way of bodywork. Others like the Batten Specials were well built sports cars. 

I guess that here in Oz the Eldred Norman twin V8 on truck wheels was a classic war surplus

[bradbury west]

To help specials builders in the 1950s at least, there was the London Special Builders Group, meeting monthly, which spawned or helped many a well know name. There would be others of similar ilk elsewhere around the country, I am sure.

Roger Lund

[Ray Bell]

I wonder if Malcolm Oastler's hillclimb car would count as a Special?

 

https://motorsport.o...ntain-with-ease

 

https://www.macleaya...nt-cooperabung/

 

As successful as some of the Reynards he helped design.

[fuzzi]

In my eyes it is an Extra-Special.

[sabrejet]

I wonder if Malcolm Oastler's hillclimb car would count as a Special?

 

https://motorsport.o...ntain-with-ease

 

https://www.macleaya...nt-cooperabung/

 

As successful as some of the Reynards he helped design.

 

It's an OMS 28 surely? Or am I looking at the wrong photo?

[GazChed]

Malcolm Oastler's car is indeed an OMS 28 powered by a turbocharged Hayabusa engine. I think it was supplied as a kit by SBD in the UK and Malcolm built it himself. He has possibly developed it over the years (the Australian wings appear much larger than their UK counterparts) but I don't think he designed it.

[Stephen W]

Malcolm Oastler's car is indeed an OMS 28 powered by a turbocharged Hayabusa engine. I think it was supplied as a kit by SBD in the UK and Malcolm built it himself. He has possibly developed it over the years (the Australian wings appear much larger than their UK counterparts) but I don't think he designed it.

 

SBD would of course only have supplied the bits for the engine. Steve Owen (Mr OMS) would have built the chassis and shipped it out as a roller.

[GazChed]

I thought the same thing but the impression I got from their website was that they had put together a package including the OMS chassis. I could be wrong of course, it's not unknown !

[Stephen W]

I thought the same thing but the impression I got from their website was that they had put together a package including the OMS chassis. I could be wrong of course, it's not unknown !

 

Many competitors buy rolling chassis from manufacturers. All Oastler had to do was specify the engine he was going to fit and Steve Owen would have provided a car ready to slot in the engine. This cannot be considered a "special".