Clubmans - information wanted

[Ray Bell]

Although I'm fairly familiar with the regulations for Clubmans cars in Australia, I'd like to know more about the rules for the various classes in England.

Can anyone fill me in?

In Australia they run without doors, and the passenger seat is no longer required... or space for a passenger, while the engine must be under 1300cc with no more than one cam, but developed as much as you like as long as nothing is welded to the head or block.

Gearboxes must be production based, but are relatively free after that, while they have to have a live rear axle and brake calipers must be no more than two-piston.

As an alternative, there is a 'control' Suzuki 1300cc engine with twin cams and virtually no mods allowed.

Maybe I should look for a photo some time...

[Tony Harman]

Hi Ray
Clubmans racing is very alive and well in the UK
Check out the following sites
http://www.classic-clubmans.com/ for Classic Clubmans - set up a couple of years ago for cars up to 1980 they now have their own championship and strong grids
and
http://www.ksports1600.org.uk/ - the original front engined cars now running with a Rover K series engine.

The old rear engined Clubmans cars have now split away from the Clubmans register and are known as National Supersports.
Clubmans racing is also very popular in Scandanavia.

[Ray Bell]

Thanks for the prompt reply... I will have a good look at these sites and see what else I would like to know.

[Tony Harman]

Glad to help out, I will run a Classic Clubmans in this years championship. If there is anything you want to know just post it here or mail me.

[Marshal]

Is that in place of the Jamun or as well? And what are you running?

[Ray Bell]

This is a fairly typical Australian car, owner-built, Nissan 1200 pushrod engine, not a front runner, laps Lakeside a whisker slower than Jim Clark did in the Tasman Lotus of 1965...

(nice bit of perspective...)

[Ray Bell]

Same owner-builder... later car, still one with the passenger cavity exposed, but intrusion from the rollover stay in that area. Same power unit, but this one has a wing, slightly slower at Lakeside.

[Crash Test]

Good to see you found the website alright Ray

BTW- both of these cars are now on the market... and they are fairly nifty little numbers too.

Bill Sherwood Jr runs several Sports 1300 related websites, do you knwo their URLs?

[Tony Harman]

Oooh Marshall - where dyo pop up from ! - Yeah well all right we've got a new toy for this year, seems the secret's out now and everybody knows.
I've aquired the ex Jan Langdon Haggispeed Mk9b Class A car to run in Classic Clubmans inaugural championship this year. 1700cc steel lump, about 160bhp, damn quick little motor car. I used to run a Haggispeed Mk6 with the HSCC before going to Classic Formula Ford a couple of years ago and got tempted back, they are part of the BARC Classic package and have gone from strength to strength so this year have their own championship. Unfortunatley being BARC no visit to Castle Combe I'm afraid, we're at Thruxton on Easter Monday (1st round). I've still got the Jamun but it will have to be sold, no space and I need the money ! - interested ???.
Nice to see pics of your Aussie cars Ray - look much the same as UK Clubmans - different power units though. Interesting you mentioned a Lotus Tasman - got any more info, we have someone running a F1300 Tasman in the Classic series this year (don't know about the Lotus bit).
Here's a shot of the Haggis prior to testing at Goodwood earlier this year, note inboard front suspension and proper front wings - pretty inovative for 1977 - FFord didn't have inboard susp until 1980's.

[Tony Harman]

Oops !! - don't know what went wrong there - looks OK on my machine - I just brought the image size down to 600 pixels from 1200.
Let's try another one and see what happens

[Marshal]

I'll try to catch up with you at Mallory then (in better circumstances I hope). Glad to see you persisting with the unusual Marques, I didn't think someone who ran a Jamun in FFord would be out with a Mallock. Nice looking car btw.

Have a good season and I'll catch up with you in June

[Tony Harman]

Why do you think I bought a car with mudguards on eh ? Nothing esoteric about Haggispeeds in Clubmans you know - he was almost a manufacturer - built 17 cars in total. There's two other Mk9's being rebuilt in Sweden right now. A lot of early Clubmans cars were almost home brews, Ellova, Roughcutter, etc. but that was the strength of the formula, it's where Mr Chapman and the Lotus 7 came from after the 750 M/C. Actually Haggis and Arthur Mallock were contempories often learning from each other, Haggispeeds had disc brakes and rosejoints whilst the Mallocks were still on Drums and rubber bushes. He is still in the business and very sought after for wing and aerodynamic design.
Be great to see you at Mallory, this time you come to me - you might even get a cup of coffee if you're lucky !

[Ray Bell]

You always take a big Thermos?

Thanks for the pic, it looks nice, but I'm afraid I'm a traditionalist.... I prefer the second seat to be there. Bit of a problem in the world we have today, hey?

The description 'Tasman Lotus' was a shortcut and to overcome lack of knowledge. The car was the lotus 32B, which was essentially a 33 chassis with the 2.5 Climax engine, in other words, a more potent car than the 33 with a lot more torque and a little more power. For the life of me I don't know why it was called the 32B, because it was a really rigid chassis, very well built and a lot more so than the 32, which was a Formula 2 car.

Clark did the unexpected and went through Lakeside's infamous kink (at the end of the main straight) flat, the first quick car to do so, but he missed out on the thousand quid bonus that was on for the first 100mph lap. Now Clubmans do the 100mph lap... 1300 pushrods and front engined!

I really think the 1300s are up against it with all the wing, but I'd have to try it for myself to be sure.

One of the things I've always detested about the pommie cars in the bigger classes has been the slavish use of the Ford lump. I used a Renault 16TS in my car, which was a development of the U2 called the Hustler built by wheel maker Tony Simmons, it weighed about 50lbs less and gave more power and with more reliability, not even needing a steel crank.

Similarly today, while the old Corolla 3K and Datsun 1200 engines are de rigeur, I would plump for a Peugeot 304 engine, which has a marginally shorter stroke (1mm) than the Corolla, has the same size valves as they go out to as standard, better porting and cross flow, and is the same height (the one area where the Renault lost out...). And the bonus with the Pug engine is that it weighs in 30lbs less than the Corolla (again, an alloy block... which incidentally has a cap on the oil gallery to clean it out!), yet its steel crank is heavier by about the same amount than the Corolla's.

They're in short supply here, but I'd bet they're not in your land....

By the way, Peter Boylan, who runs in our stupid GTP category here, used to run a Haggis, and I think it was Neville Grigsby who also had one. They were copies, I think, built in Perth... Peter's migrated to the east.