Image FF

[FJB]

Hi

I suppose I had better contribute a bit to this thread as I drove for Image for a couple of exciting years.
The first Image FF2 was finished at 10pm on the Saturday night the day before a Brands championship race, having never been tested. We pushed it, in the dark, under the barrier onto the old Tangmere Aerodrome, past the MOD security man reading his paper who never saw us. We fitted a silencer and I charged round for a bit amongst the old ladies walking their dogs etc on the perimeter track, the steering wheel pulling off the rack at one stage, as in the rush the security bolt had been omitted!
We pushed it back past the security man, the gearbox now cracking loudly as it cooled, but still we were not seen.
After a few laps of practice against the best drivers, we found ourselves in pole position for the main champioship round. On the first lap. works Royale driver Geoff Lees put his wheel in front of my back wheel at Druids and braked, allowing me to ride over the wheel and go up at 45 degrees but fortunately not right over, but damaging the suspension. Caused a bit of a sensation I think.
We had some development problems in the next few months, one memorable occasion when being on the front row at Lydden with the front brakes siezed on unable to pull away but with the rear wheels spinning, and another at Oulton park when the steering column clamp, overtightened, stripped the threads and the steering failed coming out of Knickerbrook. Stopped OK. Gave the works Hawks a wake up call as we were very competitive against them in 1976.
I have all sorts of memories some unpublishable of course, some good soem bad. I will try to attach some photos.
A video here which I ams sure you have found. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2eG4SDEw4A
We won loads of competitive races, and I was leading the BARC championship in 1977 when I was involved in a massive shunt at Silverstone, so I am told, as I lost the memory of that week!

Cheers
FJB

[uj kid]

Hi, when was it that you did a bit of running arround for Alan ? I worked for Image from June 1976 at Tangmere and then carried on when we moved up to the 'Super Shell Building' at Goodwood. After the last of the ff's Alan designed the Navajo, this was a slightly larger version of the Mini moke and was based arround the Austin/Morris 11/1300. It did not go into full production though, I think about 6 were made. I made the 'plug' and mould for the all in one bonnet and the produced the first bonnet from that mould. I know that my reply is a couple of years late, but anyone reading this and who knows Alan and any of the workforce,,, It would be good to hear from. Brian.

[Andersxx11]

Would like to add some info about me owning a Image FF4 car.
I have chassie nr 002 and would really like to get info about initial owner.
Im in the process of making a complete refurbishing of the car and also need all info and input possible.
Would be nice to get some photo showing details of chassie etc.
Recently found one photo of a FF4 in germany.
Attaching that photo!
Best regards and hoping for more inputs.
Anders Öberg
Sweden

[Andy Turnock]

There are some body parts for an Image FF2/3 for sale on Ebay at the moment.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Formula-Ford-Image-FF2b-and-FF3-Cockpit-/271000155699?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3f18de3633
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Formula-Ford-Image-FF2b-and-FF3-Nosecone-and-Mould-/271000156006?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3f18de3766
Must be usefull if you've got one as spares.

[Andersxx11]

Ref: Image parts for sale on Ebay above message.
I contacted the seller and this is about all I got from him concerning Image:

From seller:
I had an FF3 I built in the factory at Goodwood back in early 77 and raced it through til end of 78
Initially it was front rad/wide nose but we changed to the later sharp nose/side rad
The FF2b of 74-76 was perhaps the most numerous model with numbers dropping until I think the FF5 was the last one?
The designer (Alan Langridge) was involved with the Navajo project http://www.ado16.info/navajo.php
Then he went to S. Africa in the late 80's, perhaps the USA in the 90's and appears to now be in France
I don't have any current details but you can read this forum at http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=128817
and see what connection you might find..
Pictures online are very rare from this era![/I][/I][/B]:

Next reply:

No I didn't work for Image, I went to the factory to build up a kit of parts
The cars were sold as ready made or optionally as a kit for less money
I dont have any photos of the works & dont know much after 'my' years with the car
IIRC, a chap called Button (not Jensen!) raced the works FF4 for a while until budget problems arose..
There is so little info available about those 'analog days'!
BB
(Thanks to
- bigbikes929 seller of the Image parts on Ebay.

The search continues!!!
Best regards
Anders Swedish Image Owner.

[Majormallock]

I have just bought a ff as above. Its has been converted to a hillclimb and Sprint car, its ok but been through several hands and shows it. I would like to put it back to a classic ff, but I need pictures of what it looked like, especially the front. Can any one help? Also where on the car will I find the chassis number

[Alan Raine]

Is this the same car?

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=128817

[Majormallock]

Hello Alan,
yes it is. I want to put it back to an ff, infact I have already started. Just that I dont know what the original nose looked like

[Alan Raine]

Have a look here:

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2947162

[John Turner]

Thanks, Alan; threads now merged

[Devinda de Silva]

Hello Everyone,

Would be great if someone could help identify the exact model of this car.

We have two of them here in Sri Lanka. I raced this car till about 9 years ago and now planning a restoration. Extensive 'googling' has brought me to your forum and I'm very excited to finally read about Image..

[fanch]

hello every body

Long time ago, I raced in the International british FF championship in an Image race car that I tented to the factory (Robert Synge manager) from Goodwood.
2 pictures :
Mallory Park


Silverstone :



my blog : http://www.caterham-cars.com/

Francois Hamon
(Brest Brittany)

[fanch]

one picture added :
Mallory Park 1979

[Andersxx11]

I have now raced my Image FF4 for some time and things are now starting to work well.
This weekend I took my first total victory in FF cars from 1963-1980 class.
Its was during the 50 years jubileum for FF on Anderstorp raceway in Sweden.
It is a fast car compared with others chassis from that era.
Its is really easy to drive with superb cornering.
Still looking for the owner history of this car with chassie nr 002.

[JMLB]

This seems to be quite an old thread and this may have been mentioned elsewhere but there is an Image FF5 running in British hillclimbing powered by a 1.0 litre Suzuki engine - chap called Keith Weeks who lives up in Aberdeenshire.

[matteamotorsport3]

Originally Posted by acadvent

I was scanning through the posts on the subject of Image Race Cars as I am keen to try and find an FF2 or FF2B, part of the reason is that when I was very much younger I used to spend all my evenings and weekends working on the cars and trailing them all over the UK to race meetings.

When I first got involved the factory was in an old chicken farm complex at Tangmere near Chichester in Sussex.

I seem to remember the guy in the next unit was Tony Harvey and he ran Gunnar Nilsson when he was racing a Chevron in Formula Atlantic. Gunnar used to call by and we would use him as the weight when doing the set up on the Image as he was much the same weight and size as the then works driver, Frank Bayes.

I am still in frequent contact with Alan Langridge who was Image Race Cars and with Frank Bayes.

There has to be a an Image or two out there somewhere so if anyone has one it would be really good to hear.

These were the heady days of Formula Ford and the Image would often take the fight in the championships of the time to the likes of Derek Warwick, Derek Daley, Bernard Devaney, Rick Morris and I guess Jim Walsh and many others.

I have seen other odd manufacturers surfacing in the Historic and Classic Formula Ford grids so an Image is part of the missing ingredient!

Having read the other postings I cannot recall the factory ever building an FF2000 car even in the days when Robert Singe was involved.

Image did produce one, and only one, Formula Vee car that was exhibited at a show in St Johns Wood, London.

Mark Goddard was going to buy the car to race but i think it was not finished in time so he went a different route. I found all the original conceptual drawings for this car a while ago so it would be good to know where that went too?

So, if you have an Image lurking in the depths of a barn or shed somewhere it would be good to know about it if only to find out where they all went to!

Thanks for reading the post!

Hello from Australia!

i have just found this forum and was looking for some information
i am currently restoring an 1978 image FF3 no. 023. to comply with the class rules the car must be as it was back in 1980 when it was first raced here. the car, somewhere along the way, has been converted to pushrod rear suspension in place of the out board shock that it had originally been running and now, to comply with class rules, the out board suspension must be used. i was wondering if anybody in this forum had and photos and/or drawings of the out board suspension on the FF3. if this is unsuccessful, does anyone know of a way to contact Alan Langridge to acquire any drawings from him.

Thank you in advance.