Tuning firms

[GORDON STREETER]

I may be wrong on this , but didn't some of the early tuning firms like "Speedwell" make a start around the Suez crisis. When trying to make the cars more fuel efficient, found they were in effect tuning them and getting more power. I was only 9 years old at the time so I cant remember, but seem to think I read about it in the 60s in one of the mags.

[SidewaysFeltham]

Yes Gordon, me being almost geriatric that's correct.

Aquaplane amongst others tried to make Ford Puddlejumpers (E93A) and 100E side valve 1172 engines less thirsty (Mainly by fitting weaker main jets). Mainly, this succeeded in burning out the inlet valves if one trod on the loud pedal too hard!

Speedwell, of course was dear old Graham (Hill).

Then there was Alexander: and a host of others who have mainly now vanished.

This period also spawned a host of economy improvements devices, from weird and wonderful gizmos which went in the fuel feed line (and were nothing other than pressure regulators) and other arcane thingys like a sort of inverted cone which bolted onto the end of the exhaust pipe and was reckoned to jet charge the exhaust stream!

In those days there was no advertising standards authority and weights and measures were more concerned with nicking garages whose petrol pumps dispensed fractions more or less than the correct volume and naughty publicans who gave short measure or watered their beers and spirits!

It was also the hay day of the Mobil Economy run, where "Standard" cars set extraordinary consumption figures.

Finally came the Peco Exhaust Booster; which was simply an expansion box which you fitted onto the -foreshortened - end of your standard exhaust.

It made little difference other than in all probability increasing the back pressure!

However the twin chrome tail pipes looked sexy and it made a nice booming noise!

In my early naivity, I asked a chum who worked as a sheet metal fabricator to make me one: of course, it just had to be even bigger than the Peco and had twin highly polished copper pipes too!

How the poor little narrowbore exhaust on my 998 c.c. Austin A 35 didn't facture and fall off, I don't really know!

I remember parking my "Boy Racer" conveyance outside Bill Basson's place at Purley near Maldon in Essex. Bill who lost an arm racing at Le Mans and was marginally fire damaged too - and scared me to death driving his SWB Land Rover with one good arm and a sort of hook! - was in fact a very kind bloke and asked me to move it in case it put off any of his serious punters; like John Whitmore and better yet, Dan Gurney, since Bill's outfit used to maintain Gurney's Porsche F1 at the time. Once Bill even took me quietly into the workshop to see Gurney's car just after one of the European championship races.

Happy days.............

Luckily, the guidance, kindness and patience of people like Bill, helped me to develop a very keen interest in the technicalities of automotive engineering and of course racing and the juvenile preoccupation with trying to obtain something for nothing in performance terms soon evaporated.

[chunterer]

Lovely, evocative post there Michael, thank you very much!!!

[SidewaysFeltham]

Thanks, Chunters.

They were happier and more relaxed days I think. Most people were more ready to chat and help.

One day, at the right opportunity, I'll tell you about The Tractor Mechanic and Essex Wire Racing team's Astons and le Mans!

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by Michael C Felth

I'll tell you about ........ Essex Wire Racing team's Astons and le Mans!

Please start a thread on that asap, Michael!

[SidewaysFeltham]

OK will do!

[zefarelly]

I have a collection of Rocker Covers and period Ford manifolds etc, I still know very little about some of the names, most of the economy based performance seems to have given way to performance by the mid 60's

Aquaplane, I have a catalogue, rocker cover, Ally head, and SU inlet manifold etc

some others . . . asides the most famous like Cosworth

C&T London
Derrington
Geoff Howe ( manifolds and cams )
Martin ?
Cain (Australian?)

some of these probably just did bolt on goodies ?

[SidewaysFeltham]

Derringtons was founded and run by Vic Derrington, yet another name from the Brooklands days.

Vice also did a certain amount of consulting for some of the major UK manufacturers.

He was also an early pioneer of gasflow in tuning, as of course was Harry Weslake.

Geoff Howe was another "name": can't remember much about him now.

In the good old sixties, all the tuning firms had polished ally rocker covers cast!

Even started on one for my firm. Might still have the rough casts around somewhere??

Problem was after the few pioneers in the late 50s and early sixties, the UK motoring world was awash with both bolt-on goodies and real tuning bits.

With greater regulation on emissions and modifications for road cars under the Construction and Use Regulations and insurance underwriters coming down hard on modified "Standard" cars, the market sort of died.

Additionally, cars as standard became much more efficient and better engineered, thus it was increasingly hard to make any real impact on power and torque without spending zillions.

Ergo nearly all except the dedicated competitions manufacturers vanished.

Seems to have in the main gone back to where it started in the fifties: bolt on goodies like drainpipes for exhausts, pretty blue lights on the wheels and all the automotive cowboy bling!

[zefarelly]

Agreed Michael

although theres still a market for well engineered period parts, I've made some rocker covers and sold them all, likewise other unavailable components

haven't moved into neon lights and polished drain pipes yet though, Demon thieves seem to be doing well, their bling catalogue is thicker than their motorsport one

[SidewaysFeltham]

BTW Zeff; forget this!

C&T were Conversion and Tuning Ltd based in Tulse Hill, south London.

Mainly tuning bits for Saabs, which were so successfully rallied by On The Roof Carlson, the early exponent of left foot braking.

[zac510]

Michael, perhaps slightly off topic, but do you think that F1/2 teams dabbling in road cars like Hill/Brabham/etc did in that era was a business idea and a way to generate some income for the race team or something done with love?

Somewhere along the line people got the idea that F1's existence was to develop road cars but my reading tells me that the F1 teams seemed to dabble with road cars simply because it made for an efficient use of their resources.

[SidewaysFeltham]

In the early days, it was most definitely for extra revenue. In fact when I first set up my automotive business, I asked Brabham for a dealership of his tuning bits, which was granted.

John Cooper made significant extra cash from his work with BMC on the Mini Cooper and s.

That said, John remained a real enthusiast till his sad death. One of my oldest friends is past Chairman of the Mini Cooper (Heritage) Register and knew John very well. He would always turn out for significant register meetings.

THus John's involvement wsas I'm sure some love as well as bucks!


BRM became involved principally because it made intelligent sense to exploit their copious engineering resources. We used BRM Phase 4 cams, for example in our first Twink Atlantic engine.

"Chunky" Chapman was different. Often if not invariably, he became involved in a project, like Lotus Cortina for a combination of money and since he was determined to prove everyone else wrong in an engineering sense!

In JIm Clark's first autobiography, he tells the story of how he was leaving the works at Cheshunt and Chapman took away his works Elite: and presented Jim with the keys to a Ford Anglia!

Considering Clark was planning to drive home to Scotland, he thought Chapman was mad!

Until he realised he was driving a prototype Twin Cam Anglia!

I'm sure Chunky, like most of us, loved a Q car.

Like the Lotus Carlton..................................

I worked for Ford of Europe during the time that the early honeymoon was turning into divorce!

The original Lotus Cortina had a huge problem with the Ford pressed and welded rear axle not being man enough to take the extra strains imposed by Chunk's A Frame location. To Chapman, the diff dumping its oil regularly was of no consequence; but then to Chunky, water peeing into the cockpit of the original Elite was the sort of price one paid to go quickly!

Later on as the RAC lifted the long-standing ban on sponsorship and cars carrying advertising, most teams quickly realised they had to involve themselves in PR.

Selling all sorts of stuff from anoraks to umbrellas became the norm.

Any love was sadly lost long ago - more's the pity.

And as we see now, FI is driven by the sponsors demands and their huge investments, not to mention the personal greed of one dimunitive old man.

[ian.stewart]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

I have a collection of Rocker Covers and period Ford manifolds etc, I still know very little about some of the names, most of the economy based performance seems to have given way to performance by the mid 60's

Aquaplane, I have a catalogue, rocker cover, Ally head, and SU inlet manifold etc

some others . . . asides the most famous like Cosworth

C&T London
Derrington
Geoff Howe ( manifolds and cams )
Martin ?
Cain (Australian?)

some of these probably just did bolt on goodies ?

Geoff Howe, 60s anglia racer of some aclaim, had a workshop just behind the old Biker cafe in West Kinsdown, workshop was in front of his bungalow, Geoff was most notably famous for his exhausts, and his wife, you never went in there a second time and thought "Just a Woman" she was a walking encyclopedia of engine tuning set-ups, give her the spec of your engine, and within seconds she would have a set of jets and tubes for your webbers in a little brown envolope, with the words "try these sonny", and she was 99% correct every time, how the hell she did this I will never know.
When Geoff died his son took over, but I think it was a lost cause and shut down shortly after,
Another couple of names to mull over from the South East London /Nort Kent,
Baldynes,
Super Accessories,
and the late George Bevan,
and another prickely old bugger was Ken Hall?, used to build Trials cars in one of the units behind Newman Cams in Locks Bottom/Farnborough
Ian

[Al Weyman]

In the early days, it was most definitely for extra revenue.

I worked for Roger Nathan Racing and we did a lot of Imp tuning stuff and road conversions, that was definitely to bolster the revenue for the racing projects. I remember if I had a spare hour or two I used to modify a few standard Imp uprights by slicing about 5 mm of one side and brazing it to the other, a set of negative camber uprights in minutes and sold part-ex against your old uprights for about £20 odd back in the 60's, nice little earner (for me as well as I naturally knocked a few out as well ;-). I will always remember I prepared my mate a 1000cc Imp engine running on 45dcoes and a full race cam, bloody undrivable it was under about 3000rpm then it flew, he sold it not long after :-(

Anyone remember the Raymond Mayes (is he any relation to the limp one on Top Gear?) conversions. He may have been behind Aquaplane I'm not sure but a mate had one of his heads, tripple SUs and banana (as we called them back then) exhaust manifolds on his Mk2 Zodiac 6 cylinder, I seem to recollect he may have had an alloy head as well. It seemed to go great back then but in reality would have been trounced by most 1000cc hot hatches of today!

[GORDON STREETER]

Baldynes were at Bromley and later moved to Biggin Hill airport , They used to run an Anglia of their own and I seem to remember them at the last meetings at Crystal Palace .

[SidewaysFeltham]

AL, you take me back to the early days of modding Minis.

We used to modify bottom links (to promote negative camber) by cutting and shutting and arc welding high tensile head bolts in the web of the forging.

I even made a jig for this.

Racing Oil light switches (which invariably used an A35-type indicator lamp! on top of the dash!), were expensive. And I then found that a Bedford truck part which cut in at 30 psi (bearing in mind that in those days on straight mineral oil we used to run the pressure relief valve at circa 75-80 psi!), was ideal and fitted most blocks!

By merely carrying a batch back from our local dealer, filing off the AC part number (cunning, huh?), they changed from 30 bob to £5!

Whilst still at Fords (But I'd already started building up the final racing, tuning and garage biz - As you do), I cheekily phoned Dunlop, in Coventry and somehow managed to be connected to the Sales Director, a charming chap called Mr Yardleigh. End result was a was buying Dunlup 51/2 J steel 13" rims, bare and 4 1/2 J Mini rims at the same price as Ford near enough!

My old mate the late Alan Daykin of Southend Racing Partnership had already commenced AdRad (Alan Daykin Racing and Development) making Cut N Shut wide steel rims, so we branched out into "Safe" wheels by making 5 1/2 Js by simply grinding out the rivets holding the centres to the rims (some were welded as new- couldn't use those) and making big steels rims for the boy racers with the new Dunlop rims.

Happy days.

On tuning firms; yes, I do remember Raymond Mayes as distinct from Mays.

He followed on a long line of people who saw the Mk 1 Zephyr as a handy rally tool: Maurice Gatsonides actually won the Monte one year in one.
Sydney Allard also I seem to recall drove one in the Monte. I will never, ever forgive Gatsonides for designing his speed radar trap (for testing rally cars on stages as they set it up!).

Loads of old names and tuning outfits: Tony Rudd (Ruddspeed) in Worthing, mainly Volvo; they used to make the staid P1800 hackle!;Bill Blydenstein, Vauxhall who built Gerrry Marshall's Droop Snoot Firenzas.

Steve Burton in Ilford Essex, still going and very big now on engineering.

Steve did lots of engine balancing for me in the 60s and 70s.

Glyn Swift, Swiftune a mate of Jon Mowat, the last person to campaign a 1,293 s in Group II amongst hordes of Escorts in the European Touring Car Championship.

Alexander Conversions were mainly Mini and A series BMC.

Jan Oder down in Salisbury, Janspeed; Brown and Geeson in Ilford. Alf Geeson kindly sold me at bottom trade (I used to work with a childhood mate of his at Ford!) a Group II Cooper s exhaust, which used to really annoy the ploddies as it was rather "Crisp" for a road car in 1966!

Superspeed, again in Ilford, Essex, Mike Young and his bro John; Chris Craft used to drive one of their cars.

Ralph Broad in Birmingham, Broadspeed; Ralph used to build and enter the all-conquering Ford Anglia 107E; I re-built one of the actual Ford works cars for a Ford chum; and had the pleasure of driving it at Lydden on its maiden voyage afterwards!

Broadpseed then went on to build the even more spectacular Escort BDA, driven with such success by John Fitzpattrick.

The list is really endless.

I enjoyed that wallow in nostalgia!

[ian.stewart]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

Baldynes were at Bromley and later moved to Biggin Hill airport , They used to run an Anglia of their own and I seem to remember them at the last meetings at Crystal Palace .

I remember that meet, at the time I was looking for an Apprenticeship, and had just had an interveiw with some fella called Norman Abbot in Homerton, only to see him at the end of the meet paint the sleepers pink, exactly the same colour as his escort.

[ian.stewart]

Another question about old tuning firms, Where were Ian Walker Racing based??

[SidewaysFeltham]

From memory, Ian, Kent, somewhere near Brnads, I think.

Ian Walker Racing also from memory, were the independant race entrant and tuning firm who designed a replacement for the original Lotus Cortina's A Bracket rear suspension.

Their concept simply used two radius arms on brackets welded to the axle housing, and leaf springs instead of the c oil spring-dampers. Can't remember if they changed the lightweight ally diff housing??

Ford then adopted this both for Lotus and later on, for the GT Cortina, too.

Ian is now chairman of FI Automotive, an aftermarket parts supplier.

http://www.faiauto.com/test/pedigree.aspx

[Al Weyman]

They were in Finchely North London I believe, I used to use them myself when I had a garage business in Barnet just down the road unless I'm thinking of someone else, didnt they have a tie in with Damon Hill as something reminds me I bumped into him once there but I may have my lines crossed.

[esper]

But refering to the For sixes by Raymond Mays it was THE Raymond Mays of Bourne or??

[SidewaysFeltham]

Nope! The Zephyrs/Zodiacs were converted by one Raymond MAYES: whereas Raymond MAYS, was the man whom with Peter Berthon, built the pre-war ERA and later, the BRMs: Mays also enjoyed a distinguished racing and competition career. BRM were based at Bourne.

Much on the web re MAYS; but sadly, nothing much on MAYES.

[Al Weyman]

Yes it was Mayes, my mistake.

[PeterMorley]

Originally Posted by SidewaysFeltham

Nope! The Zephyrs/Zodiacs were converted by one Raymond MAYES: whereas Raymond MAYS, was the man whom with Peter Berthon, built the pre-war ERA and later, the BRMs: Mays also enjoyed a distinguished racing and competition career. BRM were based at Bourne.

Much on the web re MAYS; but sadly, nothing much on MAYES.

Are you sure?
I've just been reading up on these prior to starting on our Cooper Zephyr rebuild.

Period reports say it was Raymond Mays & Partners of Bourne, Lincolnshire.
e.g. the same Raymond Mays as ERA & BRM.
Apparently Mays tested these developments in his Ford road car while driving to the various GPs BRM were attanding.

Hall & Hall (the BRM people) still work occasionally on these cylinder heads - which I'm sure one of the reports said were developed in the BRM Engine Test Shed which was until recently occupied by Hall & Hall.

[SidewaysFeltham]

Peter:

When this one was first posed, I did an exhaustive web search and no reference came up on the Ford straight six conversions nor did it on Mays.

At first, I also thought it was Mays, but some sites offering converted vehicles attributed the conversions to "Mayes".

Of course, age tends to distort memory and I am, as always, open to correction.

It would be nice to find once and for all some final clarification of this one!