14 replies to this topic

[Nanni Dietrich]

Yesterday I've found in my basement on old (not racing) magazine from 1967. There is an article about the 1967 F. 2 season and it is reported Mike Spence in some races drove a Parnell-Ford.
I've never heard before about this car

Can it be real?
Is it something related with Tim Parnell team?

[Vitesse2]

A modified Lotus 33 IIRC

[GIGLEUX]

In 1967 the Reg Parnell Racing modified one of its Lotus 25, R7 to compete in F2 races. The car was fitted with a Cosworth 1600 FVA and a HD5 gearbox. It ran in three races with Mike Spence, finishing 9th at the Silverstone one.

[GIGLEUX]

In fact four races:
-BARC 200, Silverstone 27/03/67: heat one 11th, heat two 10th, overall: 9th
-Barcelona GP 09/04/67: DNS
-Guards Trophy, Mallory Park 14/05/67: heat 1 5th, final retired
-London Trophy, Crystal Palace 29/05/67: heat 1 9th, not qualified for the vfinal.

[Macca]

It's always been said that it was 25/R7...............but look at this photo from Autosport, of Mike Spence at Mallory Park:



While this car is wearing a Lotus 25 nose/cockpit, the front suspension is outboard and the chassis is narrower and more flat-sided than a 25.

It was reported in 'Motor Racing' magazine that Les Redmond was designing a Parnell F2 car in late 1966 - that's all I know.


Paul M

[GIGLEUX]

Paul, I know this photo but R7 had quite a lot of avatars during its lives! It was hired to the MGM in 1966
and after that, if we follow Doug, went to Campbell-Jones and fitted with a Godiva Coventry Climax engine (though I thought for that a BRP was used); then it returned to Parnell and received a FVA engine.
As far as I know the F1/F2 Parnell's project was never realized as such but became a sports car.

[Ian Titchmarsh]

My recollection is that Les Redmond designed a Formula 3 car for Reg Parnell's team. It was called the Saturn, was powered by a BMC engine, and appeared in the Aintree 200 F3 race driven by Alistair Welch, erstwhile successful racer of Lotus 7 and 23. The project lost impetus following Reg's untimely death and was abandoned before the end of the season. Alistair's career fizzled out after that although he was prevailed upon to race Chris Lambert's Brabham BT15 at a winter Brands at the end of 1966.

[Macca]

The report in the Nov. 1966 'Motor Racing' said Redmond was designing F2 & F4 cars which would be built in a factory in Wrexham, the F2 chassis costing £2,000 ex-engine/box. The following month the production story was denied but the new Redmond F2 design was confirmed.

Of the Lotus 25s, R6, R8 and R9 also were used by MGM, R9 possibly only as a static prop after Baghetti crashed it in practise at Siracusa.

The two cars that were definitely fitted with the Godiva C-C owned by Emery were the Shannon and the BRP; R3 had a 4-cylinder 2.7 litre FPF fitted by Parnell for early races in 1966 but apparently reverted to a BRM V8 for Monza.

A friend is going to ask Tim Parnell about all this.........


Paul M

[bradbury west]

Originally posted by GIGLEUX
to Campbell-Jones and fitted with a Godiva Coventry Climax engine

IIRC when I was talking to J C-J some while ago he indicated that the Godiva rebuilds/re-engineering were funded by John Willment, who owned the engines etc at the time.

RL

[bill patterson]

Returning to the Saturn thread - the late Gerry Kinnane purchased a car from the Parnell Equipe for the 1964(?) Formula Libre races in Ireland. This car had Lotus 24/25 suspension and was of semi-monocoque construction, maybe a skinned spaceframe. The car was fitted with a Lotus Twin Cam and was entered as a "GRM". The car was subsequently purchased and raced by Walter Kinnear and was then purchased by Bertie Spring to compete in the Club Specials Class - a N.Ireland version of the 1-litre Monoposto Class in England. Bertie unravelled the history and decided to call the car the "Saturn". Bertie sold the car to Tom Osbourne in Southern Ireland

Is this the car metioned by Ian Titchmarsh or is it a further derivative?

[GIGLEUX]

Looking at the 1966 International Daily Express Trophy (14th of May) programme:
-n°15 Trevor Taylor (Reserve driver J.Markey) Lotus-Climax 2980cc entrant Paul Emery.
Apparently Emery had a Lotus. R7?

[Macca]

I believe the Emery car was a 24, but can't remember where I saw that.

I recently bought from Ferret another photo of the Parnell-FVA at Crystal Palace. Note again how it has ouboard front suspension and that, other than the body section, the proportions look different to and smaller than a 25/33:


copyright Ferret Photographics/Ted Walker

Les Redmond was also mentioned in 'Motor Racing' as the designer of the Parnell 1.5-L F1 car which was approaching completion at the end of 1963, just before Reg's untimely death. Then there is the 3-L tub pictured in MR early in 1968..............

Paul M

[CLR]

Macca is right the nose/cockpit is Lotus 25 as it had the naca ducts to cool the "inboard" shocks, the aero screen was common to Lotus 25, 33 and 35. The use of Lotus 25 bodywork on other Lotii wasnt unknown. I think Lotus used it on a type 49 for at least one race.

But the car has outboard top front wishbones, and not inboard top rockers so it isnt 25,33 or35.

Is it infact a Lotus 41 with GP bodywork ??

Kevin Whittle

[Macca]

You could be right, Kevin - I've done a composite of the two Parnell photos with two of Lotus 41s from about the same angle, and there is a lot of similarity (apart from the roll bars) :



It's definitely a 25/33 body on the Parnell, the shape of the intake as well as the aeroscreen and the NACA ducts is distinctive.

(Graham Hill's 49 'R3' at Silverstone in 1967 after its overnight build used an early aluminium body buck that had been rejected, according to Mike Oliver's book; I don't think a 33 body was ever used.)


Paul M

[Barry Boor]

Going back a bit, I'm trying to find out the chassis number of the T.51 that Henry Taylor drove for Parnell in 1959. AFAICS Doug's Cooper book doesn't show a T.51 being bought by Parnell. F2-7-58 was Tim's usual mount but I can't find out which car Henry drove.