54 replies to this topic

[aerogi]

Source: AUTOhebdo, April 22nd, 1987

Anyone have more information on this car? It is constructed by a certain H. Spowers, but don't know whether it was successful or not... or even if it ever raced in this configuration. This car was pictured at Silverstone.

[2F-001]

I think it was called the "Prowess" wasn't it? (An anagram of the creator's name).
If it did race it wasn't often, so 'successful' might not be an appropriate term.

[MoMurray]

From the Anatomy and Development of the Formula Ford Race Car by Steve Nickless

"Prowess (GB)
Among the most startling FF designs of all time, the Prowess was designed by Hugo Spowers (Prowess is an anagram of his surname) and unveiled in Oct. '86. Extremely low, the car featured a far-forward, lay-down driving position and an all but fully enclosed cockpit. Side radiators were located up front, alongside the inboard shocks/springs operated by pushrods. Regrettably, the car didn't go very well and volume production was never commenced."

Mo.

[MoMurray]

From the Anatomy and Development of the Formula Ford Race Car by Steve Nickless

"Prowess (GB)
Among the most startling FF designs of all time, the Prowess was designed by Hugo Spowers (Prowess is an anagram of his surname) and unveiled in Oct. '86. Extremely low, the car featured a far-forward, lay-down driving position and an all but fully enclosed cockpit. Side radiators were located up front, alongside the inboard shocks/springs operated by pushrods. Regrettably, the car didn't go very well and volume production was never commenced."

Mo.

Ps The picture in the book is the same car as pictured in the opening post.

[fausto]

I remember it, even the piece on Autosport that introduced the car...the debut was troubled by some troubles, involving even the shoes of the driver, they weren't conforming to the safety rules...must find on Autosport asap!

[René de Boer]

One of my favourite reference books on this subject, "The anatomy and development of the Formula Ford race car" (Steve Nickless, Motorbooks International, 1993) says about this car:

Among the most startling FF designs of all time, the Prowess was designed by Hugo Spowers (Prowess is an anagram of his surname) and unveiled in Oct. '86. Extremely low, the car featured a far-forward, lay-down driving position and an all-but-fully enclosed cockpit. Side radiators were located up front, alongside the inboard shocks/springs operated by pushrods. Regrettably, the car didn't go very well and volume production was never commenced.

[René de Boer]

Sorry, MoMorray pipped me... Probably spent five minutes too long browsing the book, bewildered about all these outrageous Formula Ford designs of days gone by...

[David McKinney]

Here it is in another of its manifestations

[Doug Nye]

Hugo is an ex-Etonian who became a founder member of the celebrated Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club - remember their first bungee-jumps off the Clifton suspension bridge at Bristol? Hugely sensational national news at the time, virtually nobody had heard of bungee-jumping before, though I'm not confident they truly started it. Involved in slithering down the Matterhorn - or was it Mont Blanc? - in a variety of conveyances ranging from a mock-up elephant to a rowing-eight, to a grand-piano, sofa, etc etc.

Hugo subsequently parachuted into a soccer ground and through some screw-up fractured a leg, and then misjudged the length of his bungee cord in a crane-jump and fractured everything else, which cost him a lengthy sojourn in hospital.

Having tunneled his way out he set up Prowess Racing with a fellow ex-Etonian and all-round good bloke named Roland Whitehead, with whom I am still in touch. Most capable all-round boffin, racing sailor and computer wiz who kept his feet squarely on the ground and is a Director today of our Bonhams auction group.

The Prowess FF failed at least in part due to the driver suffering dreadful parallax vision through the multi-curvature screens between him and the outside action. I believe Hugo is today working with a Government grant to perfect a pollution-free city car...he previously headed an anti-smoking motor sporting venture which seems to have conitnued - I think - without him. A real character - compact, argumentative in a most civilised manner and loony as a box of frogs - even looked rather like Asterix the Gaul.

DCN

[fausto]

Originally posted by fausto
.......troubled by some troubles...................

sorry for this badly written post...

[aerogi]

Thanks you all for shedding some light on this car, and for the colour picture. That car looks very nice IMHO.

[RTH]

Wasn't Malcolm Clube also a member of the dangerous sports club..........anyone heard of him lately , another much larger than life character who used to appear everywhere with a motor sporting connection ?

[TFBundy]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
A real character - compact, argumentative in a most civilised manner and loony as a box of frogs - even looked rather like Asterix the Gaul.

He was also very kind and friendly and helpful to me on a couple of occasions - including giving me hints to [mainly right] racing lines round the back of Thruxton the first time I went there.

Originally posted by RTH
Wasn't Malcolm Clube also a member of the dangerous sports club..........anyone heard of him lately , another much larger than life character who used to appear everywhere with a motor sporting connection ?

I haven't seen Clube for about 10 years since a mid 90s Autosport Show, but if it helps, last summer I met in the local Tescos another very dangerous man who told me that Clube and he were off to the TT that week and that they were both just bored with racing that involved more than two wheels.

[Nanni Dietrich]

I've just found an article in an old magazine Rombo, issue March 1988, in wich a red Prowess was tested at Silverstone by Derek Higgins, twice British F.Ford champion: he said the car was very fast, he had obtained at the end of the Club straight the same speed he had signed in his usual car (a Van Diemen?). The greatest problem to drive this car was the sense of claustrophobia the driver suffered due to the close and profiled cockpit.

According to Rombo article, deus-ex-machina of the project was Mr. Amherst Villiers, 60 year-old former designer of the "Bluebird" and member of Team Embassy-G.Hill. Hugo Spowers was the founder and the designer, and was also named as one of the drivers of the Prowess. Team-manager was Lord Howard Gerald Fitzalan, a finance expert.
Test driver of the team was neozealander Rob Wilson, a well known professional driver.

The car seems good, the team seems promising... I have never heard about a race entered by the Prowess.

[ensign14]

He went to the same college as me (nearly 20 years before, mind). That's all I can add...

[David M. Kane]

It may be weird, but I think it's kind of neat...and very bold. I can see where vision would be a problem, but I bet it was quick in a straight line!

[Ross Stonefeld]

I wonder if it wouldn't actually be slightly slower, or at least not faster. It looks like it has more frontal area than a normal Formula Ford.

[KWSN - DSM]

I think I vaguely rember this one.

Outside the topic, but I also recall a McLaren test sometimes in the 1980ies where Alain Prost tested with an exclosed cockpit (does that make it a canopy?), only as a black and white picture and Alain complaining that he felt trapped / enclosed inside.

I think it must have been Autosport I saw it in, we did read a bunch of other magazines, but nothing as specialized as Autosport.

The F-Ford was a bold idea, and te car does look well put together.

[rdmotorsport]

Hugo, ah yes I remember him also I remember the car but never put the two together. I met Hugo in the early eighties at Le mans 24 hours he arrived via Oxbridge and claimed to be a whizz at aero dynamics and to be honest he appeared to know his stuff,however after a double engine change plus a solid gearbox all us lesser mortals were knee deep in cogs and hp90 with hunger and fatigue taking over whilst young Hugo spent his time playing with poly-foam to mould a more streamline pair of rear brake duct coolers!
He was however very charming and good fun,I heard about his frolics with bungee and paragliding etc. minst you did not David Hunt practice such masochistic past times?

Rodney Dodson.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by RTH

Wasn't Malcolm Clube also a member of the dangerous sports club..........anyone heard of him lately...

I saw him at the NEC ten days ago, but by the time I was able to speak to him he'd gorn...

[Alan Cox]

IIRC Hugo wrote a number of articles for Historic Racing by way of a technical analysis of the D-Type Jaguar and the Ferrari Monza. Didn't Prowess Racing also prepare those cars for Robert Brooks in historic racing? Hence the subjects of his article.

[f1steveuk]

I take it "a far forward lay down driving position" means feet forward and BT55 ish??? I drove a prototype called a Borzoi once that looked very very similar, but was controled by a sort of joystick, but that was feet forward. I also drove the first Bluebird Electric which was again similar, but was "head first" or prone, a bit like a very low enclosed motorbike, I hated it (and I ride a Ducati!). Personally I like the look of it, but I bet the distortion through the screen would have been awful.

The first Maki had a bubble screen and Jack Brabham tried it (Monza?) and didn't the wooden Protos start life with a canopy? but none kept them, which speaks volumes!!!

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by f1steveuk

The first Maki had a bubble screen and Jack Brabham tried it (Monza?)...

Did he?!

[f1steveuk]

Yes I see my error Twinny!! "the first Maki had a bubble screen, and Jack Brabham tried one (on a Brabham) at Monza.

OOOppppssss And I write for a living

[Gil Bouffard]

About enclosed cockpits:

They fitted an aerdynamic windscreen to Moss' Vanwall at Monza in 1958 and he like many who later tried streamlining the cockpit area, complained about feeling insecure and the increase in noise level.

Looked a little like a fighter plane canopy except that they cut a hole in it so Stirling could look for oil on the track. The canopy only increased the car's speed by 50 rpm.

[Andrew Kitson]

One of the dangerous sports club members would always be seen in the paddock wearing one bright green sock and one bright pink one! Was that M.Clube? Remember the bungee jumps they did from a crane at the Brands GP ( European '85?) above Bottom Bend? A Citroen 2cv with doors removed was the launch platform hoisted to the top of the crane.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by Andrew Kitson

One of the dangerous sports club members would always be seen in the paddock wearing one bright green sock and one bright pink one!

Erm... fluorescent ones? I used to wear those in the mid-'80s! (Always pink on the right foot.)

[bradbury west]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
Hugo is an ex-Etonian who became a founder member of the celebrated Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club - remember their first bungee-jumps off the Clifton suspension bridge at Bristol? Hugely sensational national news at the time, virtually nobody had heard of bungee-jumping before, though I'm not confident they truly started it. Involved in slithering down the Matterhorn - or was it Mont Blanc? - in a variety of conveyances ranging from a mock-up elephant to a rowing-eight, to a grand-piano, sofa, etc etc.

DCN

Back in those days a friend of mine did the transport, as driver, for their Euro-forays. By all accounts all the stories you may hear about Hugo are likely to be true.

I understood that bungee jumps started off Hackett's Bridge in NZ.,but could be wrong, where it is quite a tourist thing still.

Roger Lund.

[Ian McKean]

Originally posted by Nanni Dietrich
According to Rombo article, deus-ex-machina of the project was Mr. Amherst Villiers, 60 year-old former designer of the "Bluebird" and member of Team Embassy-G.Hill. Hugo Spowers was the founder and the designer, and was also named as one of the drivers of the Prowess. Team-manager was Lord Howard Gerald Fitzalan, a finance expert.
Test driver of the team was neozealander Rob Wilson, a well known professional driver.

Could there be some confusion here between Leo Villa and Amherst Villiers?

[bradbury west]

Originally posted by f1steveuk
and didn't the wooden Protos start life with a canopy? but none kept them, which speaks volumes!!!

IIRC the only success of the Protos in canopied form was at Enna-Pergusa.

RL

[Doug Nye]

Originally posted by Ian McKean


Could there be some confusion here between Leo Villa and Amherst Villiers?

Nope - young Hugo and the elderly Amherst became firm friends, and had much in common.

DCN

[f1steveuk]

Yes indeed, Amherst designed the first prupose built Blue Bird in 1926 around a Napier Lion.

[Doug Nye]

To his dying day Amherst would spit blood about "that bloody man Campbell" who offered him a lift up to London after a day doing 'Bluebird' work at Povey Cross (I assume), and then as he dropped him off told him he was off the job, fired, don't bother to call me again - because he was being replaced by an Italian engineer (Maina?) who would be starting next morning. Over the years I have known rather more people who detested Malcolm Campbell than those who would freely declare they respected or actually liked him.

DCN

[f1steveuk]

To his dying day Amherst would spit blood about "that bloody man Campbell" who offered him a lift up to London after a day doing 'Bluebird' work at Povey Cross (I assume), and then as he dropped him off told him he was off the job, fired, don't bother to call me again - because he was being replaced by an Italian engineer (Maina?) who would be starting next morning. Over the years I have known rather more people who detested Malcolm Campbell than those who would freely declare they respected or actually liked him.

DCN

All the people I have ever met that knew the man were in two camps, and the general qoute was "either the perfect gentleman" (women, wonder why!!??, "or a perfect son of a bitch", no middle ground!

[Gatmo]

There is another photo of said Prowess on my Facebook page "Heroes of FF1600"

Along with plenty more FF1600 imagery from the halcyon days of the 80's and 90's.

From memory, Hugo Spowers also had a stab at Class B F3 in a Ralt and also ran Darren Law in a Mondiale in British Formula Renault in the early 90's.

[Graham Clayton]

Yes I see my error Twinny!! "the first Maki had a bubble screen, and Jack Brabham tried one (on a Brabham) at Monza.

The 1967 Protos Formula 2 had a bubble canopy:



There have been a couple of enclosed cockpits at Indy:

The 1955 Sumar Streamliner: http://oilpressure.w...nclosed-wheels/

The 1955 Keck Streamliner: http://blog.ims.com/...he-streamliner/

[alansart]

The 1967 Protos Formula 2 had a bubble canopy:



There have been a couple of enclosed cockpits at Indy:

The 1955 Sumar Streamliner: http://oilpressure.w...nclosed-wheels/

The 1955 Keck Streamliner: http://blog.ims.com/...he-streamliner/

I believe the Protos also had a wooden chassis.

Edited by alansart, 25 January 2013 - 09:16.

[Tim Murray]

Yes indeed - as seen at Goodwood:

Protos chassis

[nicanary]

Hugo is an ex-Etonian who became a founder member of the celebrated Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club - remember their first bungee-jumps off the Clifton suspension bridge at Bristol? Hugely sensational national news at the time, virtually nobody had heard of bungee-jumping before, though I'm not confident they truly started it. Involved in slithering down the Matterhorn - or was it Mont Blanc? - in a variety of conveyances ranging from a mock-up elephant to a rowing-eight, to a grand-piano, sofa, etc etc.

Hugo subsequently parachuted into a soccer ground and through some screw-up fractured a leg, and then misjudged the length of his bungee cord in a crane-jump and fractured everything else, which cost him a lengthy sojourn in hospital.

Having tunneled his way out he set up Prowess Racing with a fellow ex-Etonian and all-round good bloke named Roland Whitehead, with whom I am still in touch. Most capable all-round boffin, racing sailor and computer wiz who kept his feet squarely on the ground and is a Director today of our Bonhams auction group.

The Prowess FF failed at least in part due to the driver suffering dreadful parallax vision through the multi-curvature screens between him and the outside action. I believe Hugo is today working with a Government grant to perfect a pollution-free city car...he previously headed an anti-smoking motor sporting venture which seems to have conitnued - I think - without him. A real character - compact, argumentative in a most civilised manner and loony as a box of frogs - even looked rather like Asterix the Gaul.

DCN

I was short-listed for a job as General Manager at Prowess Racing many moons ago (I think Richard Sutton may have got the position), and drove to Windlesham a couple of times to be interviewed by Hugo. He came across as very charming, friendly and communicative, but ,as you say, not really the same as the rest of us. The workshops were neat and reasonably organised, but no work was actually being carried out. He showed me a Ferrari 375 (?) they had in for a Dutch museum, and a pretty 166/199MM Coupe, and then casually waved at a pile of bits stacked in the open behind the 'shop which was apparently what was left of Frank Gardner's XK120 (!). The only place where any work was effectively being carried out was the drawing office of the yacht-design section.

Mind you, they were responsible for the restoration of some important cars, like the F1 Cooper for Honda, and the Brooke "Swan car", and one of the Le Mans-winning D-Types (forgotten which one) so someone must have known what he was doing. I recall that sitting outside at the time was a F.Renault single-seater with the name of J.Plato on the body - I'm surprised it was in one piece (!!). A very interesting man, I wondered what had become of him. Still chasing rainbows, by the sound of it.

[Alan Cox]

Hugo still seems to be involved with the urban car mentioned in DCN's early post on this thread all those years ago:
http://www.riversimp...e...3&mode=menu
Some amazing talent on the company's board
http://www.riversimp...d1-ae168dfc10f3
He was also involved with the Morgan LifeCar project a few years ago
http://www.conceptca...ar-Concept.aspx

[P.Dron]

Meandering slightly off-topic, perhaps, here is an amusing anecdote in Paul Kenny's biography of Amherst Villiers, The Man Who Supercharged Bond (an excellent book despite the rather silly title):


"...while at Douglas, Amherst designed his own heavy lift launch vehicle, clustering four Saturn V rockets together. Piers Carlson recalls seeing a drawing Amherst had made of the design, and querying what a small spike alongside the vehicle signified. Amherst replied that it was a representation of the 555ft-tall Washington Memorial, drawn to scale. Piers concluded that, were Amherst's HLLV to take off, it would obliterate not only Cape Canaveral, but most of Florida too. His wife Eleanor recalls Amherst 'was quite disappointed when they rejected it.'"

Edited by P.Dron, 25 January 2013 - 14:02.

[WonderWoman61]

Sorry for the resurrection.

Just out of curiosity, did the Prowess ever actually race?

[Sterzo]

According to this article below, it raced only once, at Brands Hatch, but with no details of which meeting, nor a mention of the result.

 

https://www.pressrea...281616717205651

[WonderWoman61]

According to this article below, it raced only once, at Brands Hatch, but with no details of which meeting, nor a mention of the result.
 
https://www.pressrea...281616717205651

I know, which is a bummer.

[LittleChris]

I thought it ran a few times though just at Brands.

 

There's an FF1600 old boys facebook site so perhaps more info there ?

[E1pix]

According to this article below, it raced only once, at Brands Hatch, but with no details of which meeting, nor a mention of the result.
 
https://www.pressrea...281616717205651

Thanks for the link Sterzo, until that I realized how clueless I am. ;-)

[Lee Nicolle]

According to this article below, it raced only once, at Brands Hatch, but with no details of which meeting, nor a mention of the result.

 

https://www.pressrea...281616717205651

Wierd looking car.Though if it worked it would be no longer weird as everyone else would have cloned it.

[WonderWoman61]

I thought it ran a few times though just at Brands.
 
There's an FF1600 old boys facebook site so perhaps more info there ?

Worth a shot

[Doug Nye]

Hugo Spowers recalls that his little team built two Formula Fords with near-enclosed cockpit canopies in search of low drag/higher speed along the straights.  The first was white, which he raced at Brands Hatch and Silverstone Club, and the second - which was further developed and more advanced - was red.  That Prowess FF remained unraced but was tested extensively by Rob Wilson. During a Silverstone session Derek Higgins "gave it a Trubshaw" (Brian Trubshaw - Concorde test pilot - OK?) to compare against his contemporary works Van Diemen.  Hugo's recollection is that through a radar trap there both the Van Diemen and the Prowess clocked 128mph.  Since there was general acceptance that Van Diemen in winter testing would run an over-sized engine to guarantee customer-attracting lap times (? discuss ?) the Prowess's low-drag form really seemed to be working well since it had a very tired legal-capacity FF engine...with a bent valve...

 

The second car had carefully ducted radiators only about a quarter the size of most FF's.  The car was therefore prone to overheating if held in the assembly area or on the starting grid with engine running - but it worked well at speed and contributed greatly to the car's aerodynamic efficiency.

 

The canopy mouldings never matched the ripple-free transparency of such commercially-produced canopies as those fitted to gliders, much less military fighter planes - but Prowess could never afford better than the wooden-pattern drape mouldings they used.  Apparently their visual clarity was not too bad, considering, but still gave the driver very misleading cues when it came to aiming the car, especially in traffic or when seeking a corner apex.  Weirdly, it seems, one mind-bending effect was to give the impression that the car was much more softly suspended, and riding perhaps more smoothly, than it really was...

 

The Prowess Formula Ford project petered out - essentially for budgetary reasons - as Hugo and his colleagues and small staff became involved with historic racing and restoration.  Both chassis apparently survive, somewhere - derelict.

 

Today his RiverSimple company seems well backed and is working hard on hydrogen-powered alternatives to the deceptive - and in many better-seasoned industry-watchers' opinions - appallingly misleading and costly - obsession with EV .  

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 07 October 2024 - 19:29.

[blackmme]

It’s nearly 40 years ago but I have distinct memories of seeing the car at Brands and thinking it looked brilliant, in exactly the same way as the Brabham BT55 did. 
 

Now my memory is getting very hazy indeed but I think the Prowess might have passed scrutineering but its driver did not because of mismatched plimsolls as his footwear….. 

 

Regards Mike