Tag Archives: Kayne

Sunday Morning Lotus Hunting – Prescott

Apologies to readers of the regular Tuesday MG blogs which will return next week. On Sunday I attended the Speed Hill Climb at Prescott in search of a couple of Lotus models for Saturdays Lotus blogs.

On arrival in the paddock I found much more than I bargained for, this GSM Delta Ford will feature in a forthcoming blog thanks to the owner Clive Scott who told me all about the car and his families involvement with it’s manufacture. Clive finished the day forth in a class of 15.

For a moment I thought this Ginetta G12 might be yet another car once owned by David Render, but Nick Stephens told me that this was not the case with his Ford Zetec powered example.

Derek Kessell has owned this Maguire Mini Cooper S for 24 years, it has never been raced and only ever used on hillclimbs. It was originally built with a Mini Clubman estate / station wagon body.

The tyres on Bill Chaplin’s Force Empire DS600 Suzuki show how tricky the conditions at Prescott were on Sunday Morning, full wets on the front and intermediates on the back, notice also a wild array of tweaked aerodynamic appendages that would not look out of place on a Formula One Car which helped Bill claim third fastest time in a class of 12.

Tina Hawkes driving her OMS Hornet Suzuki turned around her third fastest timed run in the lottery morning conditions, seen here, to a fastest time in class in the dry afternoon run.

Last week I received an e-mail from John Biggs owner of the Kayne Special III, above, asking if I could put him in touch with Colin Cooper who built the car. When I met John on Sunday he told me that Colin had come to visit Prescott on Saturday and that they had a long chat about the car.

I know this is not a property blog, BUT, Pardon Hill House just has to be one of the most desirable properties on the planet for any motorsport enthusiast. You can see the Prescott Hill Climb course right in front of you from the benches right outside the back gate. Here’s hoping my lottery numbers come up before it is too late !

In the wake of the successful Lotus 79 in 1978 almost all open wheel cars the following season were built to take advantage of ground effects with varying degrees of success. Future Ferrari and Mclaren F1 driver Stephan Johansson was one of several drivers who started the 1979 with a Chevron B47, quite possibly the one in the photo above, but switched before long to the more successful March chassis on his way to claiming 4th spot in the 1979 British Formula 3 championship. Chris Bentley Jones who drove the car on Sunday claimed third fastest time in class.

Sandra Tomlin, above, managed to avoid the wooden spoon in class and pip her son Oliver with whom she shares the wheel of the Pilbeam MP97 Judd.

I received a tip off last week that a couple of Lotus 51’s would be at Prescott like the won driven by Briony Serrell above, Brioney finished with 5th best time in a class of 13.

Martin Tippet’s Lotus 51 was suffering from electrical issues and he could only manage 8th best time in class.

My thanks to Les Buck who is seen driving his Lotus 61 above, finished forth in class, for tipping me off last week at Brooklands that this event was taking place.

The two rounds of the Midland Hillclimb Championship main event were convincingly dominated by championship leader Trevor Wills driving the #3 OMS CFO6 Powertec SBD seen above.

Finally just as I was leaving a couple of dozen Jaguar XK’s appeared, including this 1956 XK 140, fitted with easy to clean steel wheels, which reminded me that GALPOT regular Geoffrey Horton would soon be getting up to compete in a Concours event in California with his own example of the model.

Further information on the timing results for this event can be found on Roger Warren’s excellent Resultsman website.

Thanks for joining me on this “Sunday Morning Lotus Hunting” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at an extraordinary FIAT 600. Don’t forget to come back now !

Towing and Competing – Kayne Special III

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A couple of weeks ago I was privileged to meet MG Special Builder and Frogeye restorer Colin Cooper. Today I am looking at his third, and final, Kayne Special III.

Colin originally conceived the Kayne Special III as a towing car for his Kayne Special II as seen above at Oulton Park in 1983 and his Killeen K1 which I’ll be looking at next Tuesday.

Photo Copyright Frank Hall 1984.

However since he was taking part in events which allowed a driver multiple entries he decided to see what the Kayne Special III could do. Colin is seen above at Baitings Dam in 1984.

Kayne Special III was designed from scratch to Colin’s own design between 1981 and 1983.The green radiator cowl seen on the Kayne Special III above at Castle Combe like the more substantial safety cage was fitted after Colin sold the car.

Colin cut all of the square section tube chassis members with a hacksaw, no short cuts were taken with angle grinders, tacked all the members together and then had the chassis frame mig welded by a friend.

The 3.5 litre / 215 cui V8 motor came from a Rover SD1 complete with an automatic transmission which was attached to a rear axle sourced from an MG B. Note the steering column needs two universal joints to avoid fouling on the right hand bank of cylinders, this feature resulted in the Kayne Special III being unsuitable for anybody to drive with shoes size 7 1/2 or larger.

Running on 14″ MG B wire wheels at the front and 15″ MG C rear wheels at the rear and with a 0-100 mph capability in the region of 15 secs Colin could tease motorcyclists with his beautifully finished Kayne Special III.

With the automatic transmission Colin could drive the car to within 1 second of the times he achieved with the Kayne Special II. By 1984 Colin had fitted a manual transmission.

Colin sold the Kayne Special III when he retired from competition in 1985 for £2,700. The present owners and drivers of the car are John and Jonathon Biggs.

My thanks to Colin Cooper for sharing his memories and providing his photographs and to Chris Winstanley for allowing me to use Frank Halls photograph.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Towing and Competing’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

MGCC Speed Champion – Kayne Special II

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After selling the original MG J2 with a PB motor Kayne Special, which I looked at last week Colin Cooper started work on Kayne Special II.

Photo Copyright Frank Hall 1981

Colin began with a scrap 1965 MG B found in Cheshire from which he cut out the engine sub frame and added a pair of chassis rails around which he built up the rest of the car with an under slung rear axle featuring a limited slip differential. Kayne Special II ran on specially made bespoke wire wheels.

Photo Copyright Frank Hall 1983

The motor was a 4 cylinder MG B unit which was eventually fitted with an HRG Cross Flow cylinder heads and twin 45 Weber Carbs. Colin notes this car, his favorite, was always totally reliable.

Among many successes were winning the 1981 MG Car Club (MGCC) Speed Championship, 1981 Ellison Trophy at Oulton Park, see Frank Halls top photo, the 1979 Kimber Trophy, 2nd 1983 Kimber Trophy at Baitings Dam, see Frank Halls second photo, named after MG founder Cecil Kimber, and several awards for fastest MG in Sprint and Hill Climb events.

Colin said of Kayne Special II it was “a bit of a shed but it didn’t half go, (it was) timed at 115 mph at Blackpool Sprint.”

The car was eventually sold to a sprinting novice and is thought to have been eventually broken up with many of it’s parts going into a road going MG B.

Colin’s third special, Kayne Special III, seen towing Kayne Special II in the photo above will be the subject of next Tuesdays blog.

My thanks to Colin for sharing his memories and photographs and to Tony Gallagher for putting me in touch with Chris Winstanley who kindly gave me permission to use Frank Hall’s photographs of Colin in action at Oulton Park and Baitings Dam.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘MGCC Speed Champion’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

24 04 12 Added Frank Halls photo’s from Oulton Park and Baitings Dam.

Bump Start Only – Kayne Special

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Following yesterdays blog about Colin Cooper here is the first of 4 blogs on MG powered specials that Colin has built, raced and or owned.

The Kayne name is derived from Kay, and Neil his children. Colin’s first special was built in the ’72 – ’73 off season on an MG J2 chassis thought to be chassis number J4326. The Colin is seen driving the car above on it’s first outing at Loton Park in 1973.

For 1973 Colin ran the Kayne Speacial 1 with a 939 cc / 57 cui 4 cylinder MG PB motor. To save weight car built the car without a starter motor, so it always had to be bump started ! The Kayne Special is seen above at RAF Topcliffe alongside the #28 MG L Type of Maurice Gleeson and the #30 an ex Nigel Musselwhite MG PB belonging to Colin’s friend Trevor Goodwin.

For the 1974 season Colin fitted a Shorrock S/C directly driven off the nose of the crank, the car is seen Curborough Sprint driven by current owner Mike Painter in the early 1980’s with the super charger fitted, you can tell by the single carburetor popping out of the bodywork ahead of the front wheels.

Colin secured many class victories with the Kayne Special before selling it on 1976.

Mike Painter bought the Kayne Special, seen more recently at Loton Park above, soon after Colin sold it.

I’ll be looking at Colin’s second special the Kayne Special II next Tuesday.

My thanks to JMH for the chassis number and Allan Lupton for his comments on The Nostalgia Forum.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Bump Start Only’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

24/04/12 Added chassis number.

Specials & Restorations – Colin Cooper

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A couple of months ago I set out to find who built an MG that will feature in tomorrow’s blog called the ‘Kayne Special’, see below. Thanks to some help from my friends paulg at the MG Car Club Forum, The Nostalgia Forum, Bob Allan and his friend Peter Croft in New Zealand I have learned that the Kayne Special was built by Colin Cooper and a couple of weeks ago Colin invited me to visit him and discuss his pursuit of speed.

Colin Cooper hails from Bolton at 15 he and a school friend purchased an Austin Seven for £2 10s (£2.50) at auction. They drove the car home sans driving licence and between them they built up a special but could not afford to run it and sold it on.

Colin started driving legally when his Dad bought a 1955 Ford Popular in 1958 which was sold the following year. For his 20th Birthday Colins Mum bought him a £75 MG VA 4 seat tourer seen above around 1960 which seeded his affinity for MG’s.

Colin’s interest in cars was primarily a hobby, with a few deals to ease the financial pain, in 1972 he started racing a 1934 MG PA shared with his friend Trevor which is seen above at Kinmel Park near Rhyll in Wales.

Having squirrelled various bits pieces away including an MG J2 chassis and MG PB motor Colin set about building the first, see to top photo, of what would be come three Kayne Specials built between 1973 and 1982. The name is derived from Kay, and Neil his children. Above on the left is the Kayne Special 3 in the middle the Kayne Special 2 and the Killeen K1 built by Tom Killeen in 1953 all 3 of these cars will be looked at in greater detail in the coming weeks Tuesday MG blogs.

In between building and racing his three specials and racing the Kileen K1 Colin acquired, restored, raced and sold numerous fascinating vehicles including a bevy of Lotus 18’s of which the one above, seen at Curborough in 1977 featured some radical bodywork a standard Ford 1500 cc motor with a 4 speed Renault Dauphine gearbox.

Some where around 1978 Colin acquired an Ex Targa Florio Daren Mk 2B one of only 8 Mk 2’s built, seen here at Longridge in Lancashire.

Frank Halls photo above taken in 1985 shows Colin competition career drawing to a close at Blackpool, where he drove a Mallock Mk III, one of many early Mallocks that Colin owned over the years.

Above are some of the trophies Colin won over a span of 15 years in competitive driving, Colin is also a snooker champion, he still uses the same Joe Davis cue he was given on his 13th birthday.

When Colin retired from his professional career he started a Frogeye restoration business called Central England Sports Cars in 1993, soon after setting up a Mr Ogawa seen on the left signed the first of several deals for batches of six restored Frogeye’s to be exported to Japan paying 50% upfront and the balance when the cars were ready for dispatch to the docks. The business declined with the stagnation of the Japanese economy in 1998 and became the Frogeye Spares Company which was sold in 2000 and is still going strong.

Before I left, Colin he asked if I could help track down the black Midget seen in the corner of the CESC workshop above. The car registered WHP 94S is still thought to be on the road, it is a MG Midget identifiable by a Sprite grill 1500 cc motor, rear anti tramp bars Frogeye Windscreen and hood with 9 lift of fasteners. Colin sold the car to a policeman for approximately £2000 and he believes the PC bought it for his sister. Colin would like to get in touch with the current owner if you can help please leave a message below, on my fb page or e-mail me direct infoATpsychoontyres.co.uk please type MIDGET in the subject box.

My thanks to Colin for generously giving me the time to discuss his fascinating story and cars, to paulg at the MGCC Forum, to everyone at The Nostalgia Forum, Bob Allan and Peter Croft who helped me find Colin. Thanks also to Tony Gallagher for putting me in touch with Chris Winstanley who kindly granted permission to use Frank Halls photograph.

Thanks for joining me on this Specials & Restorations edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be taking a look at Colin’s first Kayne Special. Don’t forget to come back now !

24/04/12 Photo of Colin driving the Mallock at Blackpool added.

Wessex Sprint – Castle Combe

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This week I will be catching up with a couple of days activity at Castle Combe, a morning at Mallory Park and a visit to the Bugatti Trust at Prescott.

A couple of weeks ago I took some advice from our Prime Minister, David Cameron, and had great fun doing my bit for the motor racing community by marshaling at the Wessex Sprint, organised by the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club, of which I am a new member and the MG Car Club (SW).

A sprint is an event in which competitors race against the clock on this occasion around a single lap of the Castle Combe Circuit. Here are a few snaps taken during the lunch break and suspension of the competition.

Jeremy Hawk told me his MG J2 above has been in his family since 1953 when it was acquired for the princely sum of £85 some years later it made STD at a sprint at Castle Combe just like it did last week.

This #73 Peugeot 309 GTi was shared by Tom Siebert and Henry Siebert Saunders was completely stripped out and running with plastic side window’s to reduce weight.

Car of the day IMHO, if only because of the sound of it’s 5 cylinder turbocharged motor, was the #75 Audi Quattro shared by Tim Clark and Andy Tanner, wondering if anyone knows if this a genuine works car ? It certainly looked and sounded the part. Andy just beat Tim to win the Modified Limited Production Class.

The Rover V8 powered MGB Kayne Special shared by John and Jonathan Biggs ran in the Sports Libre Class.

Tim Moreton and Dean Robertson shared the ‘Dick’ Terrapin a Kawasaki powered vehicle with a Wharholian paint job.

I do not remember the last time I saw a Royale RP 30 in action, but the first time was around 31 short years ago ! This example driven by Bob and Anne Adams is powered by a Vauxhall 16v motor in place of the Ford Pinto with which it was originally supplied to race in Formula Ford 2000 events. Bob took the Racing Cars over 1600 cc class honours.

Proudly displaying it’s V8 kills from a couple of years ago was the similarly Vauxhall, 4 cylinder, powered but methanol fuelled Pilbeam MP62 chassis #14, built in the late 1980’s, of Kevin Lealan who won the Fastest Time of the Day award.

Running cars one at a time in batches of four meant my fellow start line marshals and I only got a break from the action for lunch, very nice sweet and sour chicken with rice & chips, then again later when the weather turned sunny, the sunlight interfered with the timing beam until the beam receiver was fitted with a shroud and on a couple of occasions when the Castle Combe farmer wanted to cross the track in order to bring in his hay bales.

I would recommend volunteering to be marshal to anyone who is interested in getting involved in motor sport, you will probably have a fun day and get to make a few good friends in the local motor sport community.

Thanks for joining me on this Wessex Sprint edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at this weekends racing at Castle Combe. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

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