Free Formula 850 Special Saloon (1972)

[mab01uk]

Photos: Stevie Hutton of Surrey New MINI Club (1960's Mini racer pictured is his Dad)

[mab01uk]

Finally found a photo of Robin Brookes dark metallic green, de-seamed ultra lightweight Longman short-stroke 850 Mini, a frequent front runner in the 850 special saloon class in the 1970's.



Lydden 1973. Ken Welch, Robin Brooks (Longman), (Pete sombody) Keith Padmore, Dave Foster. Lydden regulars in 850 Special Saloons.

Robin Brookes Mini in the Paddock at Brands Hatch 17-9-1972
"Robin Brookes and his dad were both butchers and raced in the 850cc free formula special saloons in the early 1970s, their dark green Mini had an ultralight weight de-seamed shell and a special engine built by Richard Longman which was the first short stroke 850 with an 850 block and 970 Cooper S crank thus giving a 846 cc ultra short stroke having the block shaved to the maximum."

Video Here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDbwdKTAozc

[mab01uk]

I sent some colour slides off to 'Cars & Car Conversions' magazine of my older brothers Mini racer back in 1974/5 and this appeared in the February 1975 issue a few weeks later....

[BigWig]

That looks mega. Do you know what happened to the car?

[mk1]

Thanks again MAB.

[ivor badger 3]

Always liked the story of the 850 Mini that was very quick. The other competitors in the class clubbed together and put in a protest. If the protest failed, the protestees had to pay the engine strip and rebuild bill. So they put in the protest and had it rejected as out of time, think it had to be in before scrutineering. So the next week they are waiting in the scrutineering bay with the protest. When stripped it turned out to be 1340cc! So not only was it outside its class, it was also outside the next two.

[Supersonic]

I recall over here in Northern Ireland the Mini racers all clubbed together and asked that Archie Phillips’ Riley Elf be checked for cubic capacity size in the late summer of 1968. Because Archie had such an advantage over his peers the scrutinisers agreed to a cylinder head removal and inspection. The outcome was his car was 100% legal and all the top runners had egg on their face. I seen all the great Irish Mini drivers in action and that includes, Alec Poole, Paddy Hopkirk, Joey Greenan, Jim McClements, Freddy Heaney, Andrew Kane and Eddie Regan. Archie Phillips had raw talent, ability and most of all expertise in setting up his own cars. Many say Archie had the money like Ronnie White to have the best car available. I disagree, both Archie and Ronnie simply had great talent and the likes we will never see again

Alan

[mab01uk]

That looks mega. Do you know what happened to the car?

Yes..sadly we broke it up in the late 1970's to build a Mini Se7en racer (to reduce costs of Special Saloons) using many of the donor parts, we could not use the special saloon shell as we had lightened it with alloy panels way beyond what was allowed in Mini 7 and good secondhand body shells were cheap, we found a replacement completely rust free Cooper Mk1 shell for less than £200 I think! Really wish we still had the 850 Free Formula in the photos though....

[mab01uk]

Found a couple more old photos during a Lock Down sort out.....


The Tow car
The tow car for our 850 Mini racer, a 1964 Mk1 Cortina Estate with Rostyle wheels bought in 1971 off local Surbiton based race team D.J.Bond who sponsored several race Minis in that era, their signwriting was later removed but we kept it in D.J. Bonds team colour scheme of metallic blue and white.



The Race Team 1974
(L to R) My younger brother Steve (Mini 7 Champion 1997), older brother Geoff & myself!

[Rich997]

Hadn't seen the BDA twin until now, quite remarkable.
Right up there with the Colwell twin cam as the most impressive tuning concept.
Also never bored of looking at a row of Amal Monoblocks on a properly sorted 8 port.

Thank you for sharing the images.

[Roadrunner]

Seem to remember that two cylinder ford and some of the club races, sounded as bit odd to me and looked even odder when you saw it

[Galaxie 500]

Hi ,when did you buy DJ Bond cortina estate as I worked for them back in the day .my dad raced mini 7/ free formula sponsored by DJ Bond .were you local to surbiton then ?