14 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

John Tojeiro - creator of the Tojeiro chassis line, father of the AC Ace and thereby of the subsequent Cobras (amongst other designs) - passed away peacefully in his sleep last Wednesday evening, at the age of 81. He was admitted to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge just before Christmas, having suffered from Parkinson's Disease for some years. Sadly he subsequently contracted pneumonia, which he was too weak to overcome.

I understand there will be a private family cremation, followed in a few weeks by a memorial service to celebrate his life.

DCN

[wdm]

Sad news. I had the pleasure of speaking with him a couple of years ago, and he struck me as being a great bloke.

Willie

[nick stone]

I remember seeing one of Mr Tojeiro's creations being driven by Frank Cantwell at Teretonga in, I think, 1958 prior to the first Teretonga International and thinking it was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen. Much prettier than a D-type and certainly much more attractive than Archie Scott-Brown's Lister which was at the same meeting. Unfortunately, Mr Cantwell rolled his car during the race and I saw it looking decidedly worse for wear on the back of a truck later.
I wonder whether this car was ever repaired and remains today as a legacy to John Tojeiro's significant contribution to motoring.

Nick

[David McKinney]

The car certainly was repaired, nick - you would have seen it again at Teretonga in 1959 if you'd been there. It continued to race in NZ until at least 1966, and has been back in the UK for the past 15 years

[275 GTB-4]

http://[IMG]http://img111.exs.cx/img111/8946/number361956tojeiroclimax150cw.jpg[/IMG]

Albert Park 2005...Historic Display....1956 Tojeiro Climax

[Carlos Guerra]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
John Tojeiro - creator of the Tojeiro chassis line, father of the AC Ace and thereby of the subsequent Cobras (amongst other designs) - passed away peacefully in his sleep last Wednesday evening, at the age of 81. He was admitted to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge just before Christmas, having suffered from Parkinson's Disease for some years. Sadly he subsequently contracted pneumonia, which he was too weak to overcome.

I understand there will be a private family cremation, followed in a few weeks by a memorial service to celebrate his life.

DCN

Sad news indeed.
John Tojeiro was born at Estoril in Portugal, from a british mother and portuguese father.
She went back to England with John after his father's death soon after.
John never returned to Portugal but one of his cars once raced here in 1958.

Carlos Guerra
Cascais
Portugal

[nick stone]

275 GTB-4, thank you for the wonderful Tojeiro-Climax photograph. The Cantwell car had a Jaguar engine and was slightly larger I think, but it exhibited those same silky, sensuous lines.

Nick

[Andrew Kitson]

Lovely photo.
Is that the colour that Tojeiro's cars would have been in 56/57 before Ecurie Ecosse?

[275 GTB-4]

All done without any smoke or mirrors and a little Samsung digi...I very much doubt that the original paint would have been anywhere near as sparkliing!!

Some more which may be of interest here:

http://forums.atlasf...y=&pagenumber=5

Cheers, Mick

[boekman]

I visited the Moray Motor Museum in Elgin, Scotland in the summer 2003. I found it really nice and would recomend it. They have? at least two Tojeiros, but the Bristol is raced, and not always on display (I was lucky to see it (together with an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato) in the garage below the museum).





Are there any good books about John Tojeiro and his cars, I would like to learn more about this subject?

Fredrik B, Sweden

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by boekman
I visited the Moray Motor Museum in Elgin, Scotland in the summer 2003. I found it really nice and would recomend it. They have? at least two Tojeiros, but the Bristol is raced, and not always on display (I was lucky to see it (together with an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato) in the garage below the museum).





Are there any good books about John Tojeiro and his cars, I would like to learn more about this subject?

Fredrik B, Sweden

Please to excuse my ignorance....but what are we seeing here?? I gather the beautiful green racer is the Bristol (BMW like twin grills)...but is #32 an Aston or a Tojeiro?? Handsome looking car whatever it is ...so thank you for the snaps

[boekman]

Well, as usual, I know nothing...
The green car is certainly a Tojeiro-Bristol.
The blue car do I not know much about, I am possibly wrong in thinking it is a Tojeiro.. I am pretty sure it has a Jaguar engine.
I can post my picture of the red Aston Martin DB4GTZ later (when I am at home).

Fredrik B

[Graham Gauld]

Sorry to be a bore about my books but my biography of John Tojeiro, which has been finished for two years but not published due to lack of interest by the main motoring book publishers, will be published around the end of July all going well.
It is being published by Havelock Publishing - created by my son Lance and you can see more on the web site www.smrh.co.uk
It is a tragedy that John did not live to see it published.

Graham Gauld

[D-Type]

My guess:
The blue car is one of the Ecurie Ecosse Tojeiros, but whether it is Climax, Ford or Buick engined ...
The green car has some sort of Bristol connection with its BMW-style twin nostrils. But as the only open competiton Bristol I know of is the 1955(?) 450, this must be a Tojeiro-Bristol.

[Graham Gauld]

The blue Tojeiro is the totally wrecked Tojeiro-Ford spyder crashed at Brands Hatch in the support race to the BRitish GP of 1964 with Bill Stein at the wheel. It was rebuilt in Scotland. This car was originally the second Tojeiro-Buick built by Ecurie Ecosse and was then changed to a Tojeiro-Ford and then to a Tojeiro-Ford spyder. All of this was done by Stan Sproat at Ecurie Ecosse.

The original Tojeiro-Buick is the car that raced at Goodwood last year with Hugh Chalmers at the wheel.

Graham Gauld