To answer the question about the de Joux Mixi, believed to not have been finished, probably involved in a deal when Alec acquired the Renault 5 Turbo (mid engine rally car) from Chris Barnes.
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To answer the question about the de Joux Mixi, believed to not have been finished, probably involved in a deal when Alec acquired the Renault 5 Turbo (mid engine rally car) from Chris Barnes.
Hi Steve, I ran it for 2 seasons in the 0-2 litre class which was a bit of a mis-match but it still managed to turn a few heads. I have only a few photo's tucked away somewhere, but will try to find them. I did actually meet George Bevan when I picked up my bits from him in 1978 (George knew my friend John Homewood well and built his engines for him) and he kindly let me take a photo of him in his workshop. (see below.)
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Hey, great photo! Boy he really knew how to make one of those Imps run hard. And whats more, his cars were absolutely gorgeous!
So after you'd raced your car for two seasons, what happened to it then?
Thanks for that info, its great to be able to join the dots on the histories of these cars. Did you race anything after you sold the car?
I did eventually import a Ginetta G15 into NZ in 2000. Most Ginettas were Ford powered but the G15 is Imp powered and has good performance due to it's low weight of 560 Kg. Mine is a 1973. I have competed at Hawkswood and Gebbies pass hillclimbs plus track days and the odd grasskhana, but nothing serious. I guess I can sneak a photo in this thread as it is Imp powered.
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Thats awesome! I bet its fun the drive.
There are some good OSCA threads on here:
http://www.theroaringseason.com/show...-b-w-or-colour
http://www.theroaringseason.com/show...nd-Whereabouts
http://www.theroaringseason.com/show...A-40th-Reunion
Fantastic! Thanks for all the links. It certainly brings back a lot of very happy memories. I can almost smell the Avgas.......
Now here are a couple of photo's from the UK in the 1970's of an aluminium bodied, space-framed mini countryman built and raced by a guy called Ginger Marshall. It was actually powered by an Imp engine mated to a Mini 'box - ingenious! It was quicker than all the other BMC powered Minis and was a match for the Imps which by then were dominating the up to 1000cc categories.
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The countryman was not quite as bonkers though as the 850cc 2 cylinder BDA powered Fiat 500 (Bambina) affectionately known as "Mighty Mouse" which was raced in the UK in the 70's by Peter Day. I saw it race at Brands in 1978 and it sounded like a 4 cylinder that was down on 2 cylinders, but it could fly!.
Ask and you will receive.
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I'll have to dig out the newspaper page that had the photo of Peter Batten crashing.
Amazing sequence of photos Milan. What a mess! Is this the same Stuart Lush who now races historic F5000s?
Wow! Those are wild! I love British Super Saloons, some of the wildest, most creative saloon cars raced in that series. Good to see many are now being restored and used again.
Re the Mini Countryman, why did they build a Countryman over a normal Mini? Also, why a Mini at all, why not an Imp?
The same person, and the flames were scary.
Here's the front page of the Auckland Star dated Monday October 15, 1973. It's become rather discoloured but you should be able to see the severity of the damage to Peter's car.
Note also that he shared the front page with the announcement of Jackie Stewart's retirement.
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Hi Milan,
Thats great adding off photos on the 2 incidents I mentioned.
Now, heres a biggy,-have you got the pic showing Jim Boyd at Baypark trying to slow down Barry Phillips Team Cambridge Mini by dropping it into low when he ran out of brakes-lot of wheel spinning and the fence................,once again, right in front of me.
A bit of a handfull I would imagine...Wodonga car
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...o/IMG_0750.jpg
Would I be correct in assuming thats a Chev in this-red rocker covers, dizzy at the back. AMCO72 would love the size of this radiator-solves all mini cooling problems. Great pic Ellis, where die you pick this up from? The J rail behind looks severely under powed next to it.
Rover V8 transversely mounted in a Clubman without the firewall being cut!
http://reocities.com/MotorCity/facto...ku/rover12.jpg
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Period mid/late 60's racing Mini engine bay
Some info for you following Imp wagons posting
1 George Bevans Imps wont the BTCC 3 years on the trot with Bill McGovern 70 71 72 ( i think without checking!)
2 George built my fathers Imp engines 75-82 and many other local racer engines but he also had some German and Scandanavian customers too
3 John Homewood original used Ian Carter built engines he didnt use Bevan engines till 77/8 season when he was then running the Davrian floor pan Imp which he had specially built for 76 or 77 season
I know John had 2 steel shell Imps the 2nd car i was told was now in Ireland
4 Ginger Marshall used the Mini traveller chassis for the LWB over the Mini
His first car was steel shell with Mini A series circa 75/6
he later had a Space frame traveller mini built and he then fitted the Imp engine to the mini gearbox circa 78/9
This car later went Hillclimbing
His last car was a space frame Reliant Kitten shaped car and he then had his own alloy engine block cast up and Imp head fitted to it
He still retains the car but has recently been racing Clubmans sport racer
George Bevan died around 97 ish
Last year i was racing FFord at Brands and in Parc Ferme a bloke came up and spoke to me- It was Georges son Peter and he and his son had built a replica Gp 2 Imp and it has been running at a couple of demo events
Here is Johns second steel bodied Imp with a Rawlson fibreglass front. This car replaced the written-off Kent Messenger Imp
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And here is the Davrian based Imp which John nicknamed the "plastic pig"
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Here is a link to more information on the Imps forever site: http://www.imps4ever.info/racing/rac...-homewood.html
I remember the Blue yellow Rawlson bodied car ( i was 10/11 yrs old)
Plastic pig was written off by the 3rd owner dicing with my father at Lydden in 1979
What happened to George Bevans Imps? Do any still survive?
I sure do, here are a few:
Plastic pig with it's transporter
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In this shot John is surveying some damage to the side of the Imp. This was inflicted by the Mini obscured behind the Imp. This mini was Peter Baldwins 1300 BDA powered version which had just been beaten by John's 998 Imp. Apparently, he was so annoyed, he punted John on the slowing-down lap!
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And here is a 1973 shot of the old and new George Bevan imps, the one on the right is the triple championship winning car which was sold to Les Nash and the twin headlight car on the left is the replacement for it, which never enjoyed the same success. From memory it was destroyed in a crash during the season.
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In theory the triple championship winning car survives somewhere, but no-one, including the Bevan family know where it might be, which is why the Bevan family built a "continuation" replica to commemorate the original hat-trick winning Imp. I believe it was sold recently to a collector in Scotland for a very significant amount of money. Continuation is the term given because it was built by the same family, even though George Bevan was already dead by then. It is a similar story with the original Fraser Imps, which went to Teneriffe and then seem to have disappeared into the mists of time - a pity really.
I remember a real fast Mini at Ruapuna & Levels driven by Lin Neilson , anyone have pics or more info ? Mid 70,s maybe
Thanks
Cheers
Tony
A shame the original championship winning car is away in hiding. Would be nice if it someday surfaced again. Of course, all these cars, no matter how significant, went through a period in later life where they were effectively worth little money, many were broken up to build new cars, some just scrapped.
Not sure where the heck I picked these up from, possibly Frank de Jongs excellent website.
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The 289 Lefoe Imp from Albury /Wodonga
I think I may have posted pics of this before ...but I like it.
Pic credit unknown
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...o/IMG_0755.jpg
Lafoe was possibly the worlds bravest man, building and driving that thing!
Has anyone thought of including Barry Vuyk's BDA Imp in this thread which he ran in Osca. I think it was a Stiletto. It was very neatly built car which went well but not for long in the Series before he sold it. I believe it went into Rally Cross and then downhill from there and may be around still. Any ideas or photos? Barry is still in Dunedin I think. I have the 5 speed gear set out of the Hewland trans axle in my garage somewhere.
Murray Cockburn lives in Queenstown and in his early Oamaru days he ran a mini - was it the Brink mini??
Still the same character he was.
Also for many years Brian Houston in Dunedin owned the London Sydney Marathon Mini in its original form as well as an important Rally Cross mini. Great historic cars. Chris Read-Arrowtown.