Spec-R BARN FIND!Rare Geoff Woods Mk1 Hart Escort Special Saloon

[Aysedasi]

Fascinating stuff - I'm looking forward to reading more about the history and restoration!

[davedarave]

Great news and as the CSCC's tame special saloon historian i`ll pass on any photos and race history i can find . This is a very worthy restoration project and we`d be very interested to one day see it race in our series.

[Mike Harte]

Am I right in thinking that those pictures were taken at Mallory?

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Am I right in thinking that those pictures were taken at Mallory?

Got to be Mike

[GWOOD1170]

Would be nice to see CSCC relax the rules and let it run with the open "wing exciting" pipe....

[GCCheddaris]

I remember 1300 Special Saloon Mini racer Phil Winter graduating to a 1300 BDA engined Low Line Escort Mk1 for the opening meeting of the 1977 season at Thruxton . Phil lived in Wimborne which is only a short distance from Cyril Malem's base in Ferndown.Unfortunately Phil's debut in the car didn't go too well , but I am fairly sure that this was the ex Geoff Woods car. Sadly Phil died in a road accident on the Isle of Man while attending the TT Races a few months later .

[davedarave]

photo kindly sent to me by Geoff Werran ,who was a fan of Jim Crawford and got the chance to take this as Jim tried out the Wood Escort at the British GP weekend in July 1975. That's Geoff Wood crouched by the open door . On this occasion Geoff wasnt feeling well enough to race so friend Geoff Friswell took the start only to spin on a wet piece of track on the warm up lap and ripped off the bodywork on one side as reported in Autosport which was a real shame to say the least. Apologies to Geoff Werran for misspelling his name in the photo credit.

[GWOOD1170]

Dont believe this car ever ran a 1300 bda.Great picture from silverstone, both Jim and Geoff F were great guys ,both very talented drivers, we used to see Jim with his atlantic when we went to do dyno testing at Vita's rolling road,good times.GW

[davedarave]

2 more scans of the car . Advert from end of 1974 ,the car didnt sell at that point and Geoff continued with her in 1975. The CCC article from Oct 1974 that featured the class of the supersaloons of the day.

[davedarave]

Originally Posted by GCCheddaris

I remember 1300 Special Saloon Mini racer Phil Winter graduating to a 1300 BDA engined Low Line Escort Mk1 for the opening meeting of the 1977 season at Thruxton . Phil lived in Wimborne which is only a short distance from Cyril Malem's base in Ferndown.Unfortunately Phil's debut in the car didn't go too well , but I am fairly sure that this was the ex Geoff Woods car. Sadly Phil died in a road accident on the Isle of Man while attending the TT Races a few months later .

Can back this up with quote from Autosport's Phil Winter tribute June 1977 "For this season Phil was racing the ex-Geoff Wood former spaceframe lowline Escort which proved to be troublesome with a 1.3 BDA ,so a new 2.0 power unit was substituted"

[GWOOD1170]

how bizzare taking out the 1850 and putting in a weedy 1300, must have been terribly disappointing and peaky should have stuck with a 1300 mini

[celes1]

Originally Posted by davedarave

Great news and as the CSCC's tame special saloon historian i`ll pass on any photos and race history i can find . This is a very worthy restoration project and we`d be very interested to one day see it race in our series.

Nice images that show the rear wing. I noticed Pete of Spec-R was missing this original rear spoiler when the car went to his workshops in Devizes, so he will be pleased to copy the original design from 1974.
It looks as though the rear panel was cut out by Andrew Grover in the late 1970's exposing the rear axle and suspension, so it would be better to put an original Escort moulded panel back in, this will hold the rear lights and fog/rain LCD light unit for circuit racing regs.

[celes1]

Originally Posted by davedarave

Can back this up with quote from Autosport's Phil Winter tribute June 1977 "For this season Phil was racing the ex-Geoff Wood former spaceframe lowline Escort which proved to be troublesome with a 1.3 BDA ,so a new 2.0 power unit was substituted"

The new 2.0 Hart power unit may have actually been the original Hart 1850 that Geoff Woods still retained in his workshop after he sold the Escort and I do remember Andrew Grover saying he had the original 1850 Hart unit upgraded to 1975cc around the late 1977/78 season.

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by celes1

This is the Geoff Woods Escort, showing quite a low line for the day.

I remember Geoff Wood very well and raced against him many times when he raced his Mini at Croft and Rufforth.
The picture shows his car in the paddock at the 1975 British GP at Silverstone and is next to my car, the white Escort. Geoff's car was indeed powered by a Hart 1850cc BDA and we were running a 1787cc BDA. Happy days and it brings back great memories as my daughter was born less than two weeks after that weekend and my eight an a half months pregnant wife was there at the meeting. We lived in a VW camper for three days.

[celes1]

Originally Posted by GCCheddaris

I remember 1300 Special Saloon Mini racer Phil Winter graduating to a 1300 BDA engined Low Line Escort Mk1 for the opening meeting of the 1977 season at Thruxton . Phil lived in Wimborne which is only a short distance from Cyril Malem's base in Ferndown.Unfortunately Phil's debut in the car didn't go too well , but I am fairly sure that this was the ex Geoff Woods car. Sadly Phil died in a road accident on the Isle of Man while attending the TT Races a few months later .

Has anyone got any images of Phil Winter racing this Ex Geoff Woods Escort at this Thruxton meeting or preparing it for the 1977 season.

[SPECR]

Does anyone recognize who may have fabricated this exhaust manifold and system.Does it look familiar to anyone ??
Thank you

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by celes1

Has anyone got any images of Phil Winter racing this Ex Geoff Woods Escort at this Thruxton meeting or preparing it for the 1977 season.

Sorry no photos but have a result sheet from the Esso Uniflo special saloon race at Thruxton on 08.05.77. Phil qualified 5th in 1-35.0 but was a non-starter for the race.

[celes1]

Originally Posted by SPECR

Does anyone recognize who may have fabricated this exhaust manifold and system.Does it look familiar to anyone ??
Thank you

It was certainly made for the car, with long sweeps entering and exiting the chassis. The steel manifold flange to the head was done individually to each down pipe instead of a single flange, this procedure is harder to do by the fabricator but makes life easier to replace or repair individual downpipes and the collector looks pretty standard to some of our GT and single seater race cars. This manifold was made to give more torque.

We used Mike the Pipe, Jeff Howe at West Kingsdown and the last few years Matt at Simpson of Langley (Stainless Steel experts), mainly London and Home Counties boys.
On the end of the silencer Pete, is there an entry plate to service the insides of the unit and how is it attached as Mike the Pipe use to weld small brackets inside to the silencer wall for the fixing of the plate and Howe use to fold over inwards the end of the silencer and drill holes for the end plate to fix too. Matt, well his Dad at Simpson uses Alan Bolts to fix to an internal plate and now we only use stainless steel and the pipes are all detachable slippers.

By the way I have noticed the engine block is painted blue, Hart painted all their blocks blue.

[celes1]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Sorry no photos but have a result sheet from the Esso Uniflo special saloon race at Thruxton on 08.05.77. Phil qualified 5th in 1-35.0 but was a non-starter for the race.

Within two months of this race I believe Phil Winter was killed on the Isle of Man.

During practice did he have a problem with his 1300 BDA engine, which use to be quite reliable in his Special Saloon Mini. He only used this unit to enter the up-to 1300 class, I imagine he was thinking the Escort would be just as quick as the 1840 Hart engine the car came with, no chance.

[morninggents]

The BARC practice results sheets of the time showed cars in race number order with best lap time only and no other info at all such as car make, class, number of laps etc. which we get today. The sheet I have gives car nos 1 - 5 as class A (gleaned from the race result sheet which gives more info). Then car nos 6 - 12 (6 was Tony Sugden on pole, 7 Steve Phillips' Escort, 9 Geoff Janes' Vauxhall, 10 our Escort, 11 Keith Beddoe's Escort, then 12 Phil Winter). The numbers then jump to car nos 16 - 24 with 16 being Martin Pearson's Datsun Cherry, 17 Dave Carvell's Mini etc all being 1300cc Class C cars. Numbers then jump to 29 - 49 which are all Imps and Minis in classes D and E such as Richard Long, Adrian Gamble and David Enderby. The point of this is that it appears Phil was lumped in with the 1300cc - 2500cc class B lot. Are you sure he was running a 1300 cc engine?
I knew Phil fairly well from when he raced his Mini but I don't recall talking to him on that day at Thruxton or even realising he was in an Escort rather than his usual Mini. I think he died very soon after this as he was at the TT racing which has practice usually in last week of May and races in first week of June and I have a feeling he died on 'Mad Sunday', but not 100% sure.

[GCCheddaris]

Unfortunately I don't have any timesheets for that day, 13th March 1977 , but according to the programme Phil Winter was entered in car number 25 , a Ford Escort BDA of 1298 cc . Phil qualified 19th out of 24 , didn't trouble the top ten according to my programme lap chart and I think made a couple of pit stops during the race .

As mentioned in the Autosport tribute , presumably he had upgraded to a 2 litre engine by the May meeting . Poignantly he was entered in the Escort BDA in the Special Saloon car race at the 19th June meeting , this time in the 1301-2500 cc class , the capacity being shown as 1998 cc . Sadly I think Phil died before this meeting took place .

The reason I mentioned that Phil was from Wimborne was because Wimborne is only three or four miles from Cyril Malem's base at Ferndown , and that Cyril might be able to fill in some gaps in the car's history .

[Everilda]

I have the program and results sheets for Thruxton 19.6.1977.

Phil is entered in the Century Oils SS championship, car is recorded as a Ford Escort BDA 1998cc. The practice sheet records him as a Non-starter.

[Neil Duke]

As far as the exhaust is concerned,one of the best guys in that era was Dave,at specialised exhausts.Used to do F1,works bikes,& any race/rally car that could afford him.

[celes1]

Originally Posted by GCCheddaris

Unfortunately I don't have any timesheets for that day, 13th March 1977 , but according to the programme Phil Winter was entered in car number 25 , a Ford Escort BDA of 1298 cc . Phil qualified 19th out of 24 , didn't trouble the top ten according to my programme lap chart and I think made a couple of pit stops during the race .

As mentioned in the Autosport tribute , presumably he had upgraded to a 2 litre engine by the May meeting . Poignantly he was entered in the Escort BDA in the Special Saloon car race at the 19th June meeting , this time in the 1301-2500 cc class , the capacity being shown as 1998 cc . Sadly I think Phil died before this meeting took place .

The reason I mentioned that Phil was from Wimborne was because Wimborne is only three or four miles from Cyril Malem's base at Ferndown , and that Cyril might be able to fill in some gaps in the car's history .

It looks as though Phil Winters purchased the Escort off Geoff Woods with the 1840 Hart engine in, took this engine out and sent it off to be developed and rebuilt at an engine builder, who is unknown at the moment. Then while waiting, Phil may have put his 1300 BDA unit in and entered a race until his Hart engine came back, it's possible ?

From what I can see in the pics, the engine looks to be the original 1840 Hart engine, with the block painted in Hart blue that Geoff Woods used in 1974. So the engine must have come back from the rebuild to 1975cc spec, put back in ready for the later meeting, but Phil was killed before the race. This Escort ended up with the original Hart engine in and sold to the racing driver Andrew Grover who won a few races in it, then 40 years later to Pete at Spec-R.
I wonder what happened to the 1300 BDA unit, did he put it back into the Mini, and if he did, where did that car go to.

Who would have rebuilt the Hart engine to 1975cc spec in 1977, very few could handle that.

[SPECR]

Ive been in contact a few times now with Cyril Malem who built the Geoff Woods spaceframed Mk1 Escort at his workshop and is also coming here to Spec-R to see it for the first time since 73.
I mentioned Phil Winters to him on Monday and he said he cant remember him coming in to the workshop.He said he will have a think as its been over 40 years.
Will keep all posted as and when i here,and thank you all for the history that,s coming through and your time.