Special Saloons

[raceimps]

Does anyone have any info/photos of 70's & 80's special saloons. I am trying to build a website at the moment on this form of racing. My main interest is in Imps but I have a second website for other marques.

www.racingimps.com

www.geocities.com/specialsaloons

The sites are a bit basic at the moment, but hopefully over the coming months more info will be added.

[mickj]

these sites are not basic. they are very interesting.keep up the good work

[Stephen Green]

Have you tried contacting the Kent Messenger newspaper in Kent as they used to sponsor one of the teams and may have some archives they could e-mail you? I think there head office is in Maidstone, but I can't be sure.

[Tony Harman]

Hi Raceimps - welcome to 10/10ths.
What do you want to know about Special Saloons ? I spannered for David Enderby in the 70's & 80's and had a hand in building a few cars. We ran the first 8 port mini, a Sunbeam Stilleto, Singer Chamois, an Imp then the famous Karmann Ghia Tiga, also built another Karmann Ghia for Alan Humberstone - never know what happened to that though. Still plenty of the drivers around (or their sons !)

[mickj]

Tony I have a pic of Doc Enderby's Karmann Ghia. Have you 1 of Alan Humberston's please. Was it on a sports car chassis also. Is David Enderby still around ?
Mickj
Australia

[Chris Griffin]

Wendy Wools was a major sponsor of this championship in the 80's. Does anyone remember the Chevy powered Beetle?

[Chris Griffin]

Two great sites raceimps. I'll stick a link from our site www.csccgb.co.uk

Cheers

[Tony Harman]

Originally posted by mickj
Tony I have a pic of Doc Enderby's Karmann Ghia. Have you 1 of Alan Humberston's please. Was it on a sports car chassis also. Is David Enderby still around ?
Mickj
Australia

Hi Mick - Alan's car was based on a Lola S2000 and David's on a Tiga (so I had to remake all of the panelling for that one !), I never saw Alan's car run, don't really know what happened to it, I think the only picture I have of it was when we rolled it out of the garage late one night, if and when I can find it I can certainly let you have a copy by e-mail.
Yes Enderby is still around, still racing, has just bought a Global Lights car (Yamaha 600cc engine, small one make sports series), still has the Karmann Ghia though not racing it, we have talked about getting it out again but it would need engine rebuild, tyres etc so could be costly just to do a couple of races.

[Tony Harman]

Originally posted by Chris Griffin
Wendy Wools was a major sponsor of this championship in the 80's. Does anyone remember the Chevy powered Beetle?

Yep and before Wendy Wools it was Hitachi and Brush Fusegear, all big championships at the time. Remember those Wendy Wools stickers ? cat with a ball of wool wearing a crash helmet !
The Chevy powered Beetle was Doug Niven, Border Reivers team, there were a couple of them around, Doug's is on Raceimps home page, think it may still be running somewhere.
Other odd cars were the 500cc fiat which had a 1000cc mini engine cut in half so just 2 cylinders, Ginger Marshall's reliant kitten, Ginger is still around too, builds and races the Bowlby Clubmans car. and then there were all the Chevy powered Skoda's, still a few of those around as well.

[Chris Griffin]

Tony...yep Ginger's Kitten was pretty awesome I recall. Pete Hardman also had a lot of success with v quick minis too. Was the Black Brick in this series as well? I remember seeing it several times but I'm sure it couldn't have been with saloons.

[Peter Mallett]

Peter Baldwin was also famous for his mini.

[Chris Griffin]

Maybe I've got this wrong! Don Hardman was a FF1600 stalwart for many years in the Esso championship - and yes Pete it was Peter Baldwin that I was on about...

[raceimps]

Thanks for the replies guys,

At the moment I am trying to scan loads of images and race results from a guy that sent me 5 scrap books full of info on Special Saloon racing from 1980 to 1985, which inlcudes photos and race results, and hopefully I will add these to my sites in the next month, time permitting.

Tony:- I would be grateful if you would be able to send me some photos of the Dave Enderby Karmann Ghia or Imps. Also what kind of of spec engine were you running? I have in my posession a couple of articles from Motoring News on that car but very few pics. It would be great if the Ghia could be raced in anger again. I read in Autosport a couple of months ago that Ginger Marshall still has the Kitten and was waiting for a Historic Specials Series, How good would that be!!

Chris:- I have a few photos of Doug Niven with the V8 Beetle on my site, This car was bought from Mick Hill.

[mickj]

There is a pic of the ex Border Reivers Beetle in yellow livery on Europa Engineering site.
Thanks Tony for the info on David Enderby, lean on him a bit more and get the KG back out on the track.

[Tony Harman]

Originally posted by Chris Griffin
Was the Black Brick in this series as well? I remember seeing it several times but I'm sure it couldn't have been with saloons.

No Black Brick was a mod sports - a Caterham 7 I think ? - but ran at all the same meetings.

[Tony Harman]

Originally posted by mickj
Thanks Tony for the info on David Enderby, lean on him a bit more and get the KG back out on the track.

I have been trying - in fact I want to drive it, the only time I ever got behind the wheel was a victory lap at Snetterton, now I race I would love to see how well it goes. More a question of money really. I think it would be competitive in SEMSEC Lydden or Combe GT meetings.

[Tony Harman]

Raceimps - I do have a few pictures of the Karmann Ghia but I don't have scanner at the moment. When I get one will have to get all my old pics in.
Engine spec - we started off with a 1000cc imp then progressed to a 1300cc BDA then a BDG, I wasn't involved when it went to BDG, too busy getting into grasstrack racing at the time.

[TimD]

Sorry I can't add anything to this thread, but I just wanted to say how great it is to see so much interest in Special Saloons as a category.

I've loved 'em ever since DFVW scared me silly as a kid in the paddock at Donington.

Sadly I understand that DFVW itself has been converted back to being a Lola sports car. Anyone know if the Volkswagen panelwork survived anywhere?

[mickj]

tim
apparently whoever has dfvw chassis has ALL 3 body configurations, decadenet sports car,dfvw and ??. story was in a autosport this time last year.
motor sport had a track test of dfvw yeras ago when colin hawker had it.

[Flagman]

Greatpics - reminds me of the Donington Racing Club's GT series of the early 80's.

IIRC the 'Black Brick' ran in this series against the likes of the DFVW and the Beetle

[Gareth Walker]

I ve seen the Beetle recently run in the Oulton Park Sport/Saloons series but with a smaller less powerfull engine. The car was stripped down and was in Yellow, but was unfortunatly lacking the v8 Chevrolet power!!

[mickj]

Gareth
What motor was fitted?. Its good to see that it is still racing and giving someone "fun" (hard work).
I've just dug out Hot Car Aug 1981 with story on Boss Beetle when owned by Jeff Wilson.In amongst the pile of books was Fast Car Oct 1974 with story on Ian Richardsons Corvair with 7.5 litres of chev.
CCC magazine (in pile) sept 1978 also has a Fiat 500 owned by Peter Day Fitted with 2 cylinder BDA motor.
Has anyone got any others they can share with us.

[mickj]

Skoda GB sponsored John Turner's Skoda-Chev also.

[Tony Harman]

Originally posted by mickj

CCC magazine (in pile) sept 1978 also has a Fiat 500 owned by Peter Day Fitted with 2 cylinder BDA motor.

That's the one ! I knew it had two cylinders, just got the engine make wrong and couldn't remember the driver. Car went very well though. I think Peter experimented with a couple of other odd cars too but not sure what.

[Tomgreen]

micki, check your private messages.