Merlyn Mk21

[allenbrown]

Can anyone educate me on Merlyn Mk21s? I think it was a 1971 F3 design but at least one went to the US as a FB car. Gordon Smiley's 1972 Merlyn FB race winner seems to have been a Mk21.

Anyone know how many were built?

Thanks

Allen

[Jeremy Jackson]

Allen,

Mk21 (chassis 394/FB/4)was running in HSCC events in the early 90s. Iwas told it was originally supplied to Race America, and run by someone called Brownley or Brownlee, and later David Pence in SCCA events, but not sure how many years that spanned.

I think Peter Denty may have use this car more recently.

[David McKinney]

Yes, 394 is the car raced by James Denty about ten years ago. Alasdair Southall was running another (ex-Alan Baillie) about the same time and Denis Welch a third (ex-Skeels). Sorry, the Denty car is the only one of the three I have a number for.
And I don't know how many there were in all.
I think the Welch car at least started life in F3 spec, but was running in F2 (or possibly FAt) trim in the 1990s, as were both the others

[allenbrown]

"Brownlee" would be Porter Brownlee (Little Rock, Ark) who won the 1973 MidWest Div FB title in a Merlyn MK21. The year before Brownlee, that same title was claimed by Smiley (Overland Park, Kansas), also in a MK21. Coincidence? Enough to send me back to my SCCA Nationals photocopies.

It turns out that Smiley and his Merlyn had been a close second to Lazier's 71BM in the 1971 series and had won the 1972 series at a canter. Brownlee appears with just 2 pts in 1972 - either he wasn't competitive or he only raced once or twice. The uncompetetive option doesn't sound right as he dominated the 1973 series so maybe he only appeared late in that 1972 season after buying Smiley's car?

Seems to me that there'a strong possibility that Browlee's 394/FB/4 could be the Smiley car.

Anyone in touch with Denty? Anyone know who Race America were or where they were located?

Allen

[Jeremy Jackson]

Originally posted by allenbrown
"... Anyone know who Race America were or where they were located?

Allen

No to the first part Allen, but the notes I made say Dallas for Race America's location. Sorry, should have bolted that in to the previous post.

[Chris Townsend]

Don't think this was the only Merlyn in FB in N. America. David Loring appears in one at Westwood in either 73 or 74.

Chris

[allenbrown]

Originally posted by Chris Townsend
Don't think this was the only Merlyn in FB in N. America. David Loring appears in one at Westwood in either 73 or 74.

Chris

Long way from Westwood to Kansas. Unless you click your heels three times.

I agree there would have been a handful or more of FB Merlyns in North America but the Arkansas/Kansas/Oklahoma area is not exactly a hotbed of single-seater activity and two Mk21s appearing there back-to-back seemed quite a coincidence.

[James Murray]

Allen

James Denty will be at Brands Hatch this weekend. He sold the Merlyn a few years ago to the AA who raced it in Euro f2. They sold it at the H&H Auction at the Stoneleigh show in February, it was painted yellow, for obvious reasons!

[James Murray]

Has anyone tried Clive Hayward. He still has the records for the Formula Fords.

[allenbrown]

Originally posted by James Murray
Has anyone tried Clive Hayward. He still has the records for the Formula Fords.

Good idea. I've just emailed him.

Thanks

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

Allen

Loring places 4th at Westwood with a Merlyn in 74. This seems to be his only appearance in the car that year [though apart from Sanair, Westwood is the only race where I have full runners and riders.] In any case he took over the Villeneuve 74B for a while when Gilles was injured.
It is a long way from Arkansas to Vancouver, but that was a national pro series. Maybe he found the money to run what might have looked like a good car in Smiley's hands, and by being competitive at Westwood - which he clearly was - hoped to fund the rest of the season.

Smiley runs a Merlyn at Brands in early April 74 then switches to Elden in June.

Also lurking at the back of my mind is an SCCA regional in Virginia with a couple of FB Merlyns in it. I think that this team in Little Rock maybe had a couple of cars. As all my personal computers are now non-functional and I'm down to a cybercafe I have no way of checking until next week!

Chris

[Dan Rear]

Chris, dis Smiley start in the Elden in 74. I saw him entered a couple of times, but he non-started. What happened to the car afterwards do you know?

[allenbrown]

Chris

Clive Hayward has emailed me back and distinctly rememebrs Smiley's car as the second Mk21. He's going to look out the records but thinks a few Mk21s were built.

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

Dan

Don't have full results for 1974 UK yet, but Smiley certainly did start some races in the Elden Mk16.

The car went to the USA in 1975 and ran SCCA and a couple of pro races.

Chris

[jjordan]

I will check my records and post back. Race America was the offical US imported of Merlyn cars, after a couple of successful seasons in the Mk 17/Mk 19 Formula Fords the Importer (James Harris, I believe) imported the Mk 21 for Smiley. I worked on this car extensively as I was employeed by Smiley at the time. After a good year in FB the car was returned to the importer where he raced it a couple of times but ran out of interest (he also owned an airport and was into flying) and sold the car to Brownlee I believe(will check my records and get back.) David Loring came back and lived with us in Kansas for several months in 73/74 at which time I believe he arraigned the drive in Atlantic (I am sure it was the same car as I never remember seeing 2 of them together...ever.) Shortly after Loring got the call to drive Gurney's FF.
Believe me when I say that if you were into Road Racing of ANY kind....Kansas was a long ways from ANYWHERE. Go Flatland Flyers.

[allenbrown]

Hello jjordan

What a coincidence you should drop by! Was it just a conincidence?

Clive has been back in touch. Smiley had two different Mk 21s - one sold to M.A.A.C. in August 1971 and raced by Gordon in USA; a second he bought much, much later in 1975 when he was in the UK. This second car was bought as a F3 from Bernard Vermilio and converted to a F Allantic. Clive reckons he crashed this second car.

It would make some sense if the Smiley car went to Brownlee but it would be great if you could confirm this.

Thanks

Allen

[allenbrown]

See what you mean about Kansas. The only other driver in my database with a Kansas home town was one Gordon Gresham. He raced a Formula Junior Lotus 20 between 1964 and 1967.

Allen

[jjordan]

Yes, totally a coincidence...I am very new to this forum, and don't hold a candle to some of the regulars on here, but I find myself reading till my eyes hurt. For a kid from Kansas I was a sponge for news of Road Racing, it was pretty scarce back then, Smiley was like a god to an impressionable young kid/man and I was lucky enough to have worked on several cars with him. Gordon was extremely talented in the cockpit, and out. He had the ability to aline himself with "Money Men", to help him along. The Merlyn factory promised a "factory ride" after Gordons succesful season in the Mk.21, whether Gordon read alot more into it than was there, or our Midwestern niavety wanted to think the best, but after moving to England, and finding that his "factory ride"was more like a factory job at Colchester Racing Developments, Gordon tried to make the best of it with the Elden. James Harris, the Merlyn importer, had a Lotus 47 when i first meet him, the Europa body with the F2 engine/ suspension, very nice car. Just another one of those on the "Wish you had back List!" Not to completely derail the Merlyn thread, while with Gordon we had several Lotus Super Sevens, converted a Lola T70 coupe (ex-David Piper) to road config, the Lotus 47, so many different FF I can'rt even remeber them all(fortunately I wrote most of them down), the Mk21, McRae GM1. Pretty lucky for a kid from Kansas.

[Chris Townsend]

jjordan
Hi and welcome.
I have a few questions about the Loring - Brownlee car. Mainly, was Westwood 1974 Loring's only race with the car or did he go on to a couple more of the early rounds? What motor was he running, a BDA or still a t/c? At Westwood he finished 4th on the same lap as the leader and in front of a lot of good people running BDAs [this was the first season Canada allowed them]. That suggests a BDA as well, but Westwood was a wet race and Loring was quite good...

At 1975 SCCA finals both Brownlee and Mike Winn race Mk21s. This was the source of my concern about there being more than one car in the US. Was the Winn car anything to do with the Brownlee set up. Was this the Smiley car from the UK rebuilt and also exported to the US, or something else again?

Chris

[jjordan]

Sorry all, and the main reason why I write things down. Smiley's car was the first Mk 21 in the states, through Race America which was owned then by Bill Ippilitto. Brownlee bought a new car from Race America, moving up from FF, his being the second. Mike Winn bought the car from Brownlee and entered it in the Runoffs, where Brownle had listed the Merlyn on his entry also, but actually competed in a March. Doesn't solve the mystery for you of the Westwood entry, yet, but let me get through my "log books" this weekend and we will see what I come up with.
Agree with you about Loring, he was brilliant in a totally different way than Smiley, he was EXTREMELY tidy with the car, never scrubbing off speed, and hence his success in FF, I think.
I will keep working on the history of these 2 cars and get back, as I would certainly like to see the Smiley car again.

[Chris Townsend]

The errors you find in race reports!
Don't suppose we'll ever know what sort of March it was that Brownlee used in that SCCA race?

Chris

[jjordan]

Chris:
I apologize for being so slow in getting back ( and I still haven't got through those log books yet....soon I promise) in a conversation with Charlie Williams (noted Midwest engine builder whose shop Smiley ran out of) this past day he reminded me that the first Mk 21 was bought from Ippilitto (Race America) by a shadow corp (M.A.A.C.) for Smiley. At the end of that year Charlie Williams purchased the car with the intent of running it in Atlantic the next year. This the car that Loring drove at Westwood, with the original Twin Cam. He also ran the car in the next 2 races (Gimli and ?) but since they were dry races his performance against the BDA powered cars was what you would expect(and a great dissapointment to all), this combined with the fact that they were underfunded to begin with, shelved their effort that year. The car actually traveled to most of the rest of the races that year in the top of Tim Coopers trailer. As near as Charlie can recall, the car was sold to a club racer in the south where it ran sporadically for the next 3 years. Charlie Williams believes that the car was sold to Canada where he believes that it still resides (as he has gotten some inquiry's about it's past in the last couple of years.)
All of this is complicated by the fact that it was common practice around here to take the ID plate off the cars and throw them in the top of your toolbox (don't ask me why, and now, looking back, it seems extremely silly, but back then they were just last years race cars.)
Loring works for Skip Barber in Massachusetts today and may still have some of those ID plates to this day. I will see if I can contact him to fill in some of the gaps.
Sorry for this rambling but that is the danger of me talking off the top of my head, will refer to the log books I kept (as well as a few calls to old freinds)to fill in the gaps in my memory.

[allenbrown]

Had another email from Clive today. There were five F3 MK21s and two FB MK21s. Gordon's car was 320-FB-71.

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

Allen and jj

Good we now know the chassis numbers of the two real FB Mk21s and pretty much who had them and when in period. Any way we can get a handle on the users of the F3 versions - that way we can nail down the second Smiley car that was built from Vermillio's F3.

Chris

[David Clubine]

We currently own the Merlyn Mk21 Ex Smiley car (chassis 320).
It is in an unrestored state and is complete except for engine and gearbox.
We have owned it since the early 1990's

David Clubine
Britain West Motorsport
519-756-1610
dclubine@sentex.net
Ontario Canada