Minty - 1964 Aurora Gears Racing /Newtune 1071 Cooper S

[Old English White]

What a fabulous opportunity Pete . You are the man for the job Good luck with the project. It'll be fascinating to learn more about it!

[Pete]

Thanks, you mean Im the perfect anorak! . I’m definately nowhere near an expert on this stuff but I am really interested in it. Not everyone’s cup of tea this history malarky I know but I’ll get down to the recent tin work, paintwork and the rest of the car updates soon when I’ve laid all this stuff out,

[AndyPen]

Fantastic to hear about the car again. John Kelly and I exchanged photos and parts when he had the car and I may still have some. My 1071 is Feb 64 too, and for example he borrowed my oil cooler brackets to make replicas.

[pdb]

Fantastic car. This is going to be very exciting to follow

[Andrew1967]

Cracking car with awesome history Pete.

Looking forward to following this thread and seeing the finished car one day

[Pandora]

I'm looking forward to enjoying this as much as the Unipower Thread.

And any info on the Aurora Gears sports racer- very much my cup of tea, that car!

Trevor Taylor's Son Nick was asking for some info in the Lotus Elite Group on FB the other day, about the Elite his Dad won his class in at Le Mans '61. I'm sure you'll have his details anyway, but if not, he's on there. ATT is always easy to spot in paddock shots and on track with his matching yellow helmet and overalls. Don't think Anita sported a similar set, so not a 'team uniform' so you are maybe spared that expense

Have you got 'Only Here for the Beer'? Gerry M's brilliant autobiography? If not, I'll have a flick through to see what I can find of his time with it. His son, Like Nick Taylor is obviously still around and interested, and may have some records?

Al

[Pete]

Thanks for the comments. I’m in touch with Gregor Marshall, top bloke Al! I’ve got the book and will post up what it says about 110 NNM in that, and have been contacted by two of Anita’s daughters plus Trevor’s son via Facebook when they saw the pictures I posted up. They have informed Anita about the car, as I have, especially as it’s not far from them, and offered to do a ‘big reveal’ once it’s done.

Trevor Taylor’s story itself is an interesting one, a striking character and such a shame there’s no book as yet about him. More on Trevor as we go along but as far as I know he didn’t race 110 NNM, just his own Aurora Morris Cooper S which Anita also drove but unlike 110 NNM it remained unregistered in ‘64. Perhaps Simon Wheatcroft could work out which car he had, based on location, but a long shot and probably not as evident as it was for Rachel’s 129 LNP.

Yes the Aurora BMC was a belting looking car. Mini front subframes front and back,1071 engine, as nice if not nicer than the Landar and completely designed and engineered by Mike Taylor alongside Trevor at the family’s Ace garage in Rotherham. Got some great photos of that, but the most useful one is a colour shot at Goodwood which shows the colour scheme quite well, and how deep that red stripe was, well crimson! I did get an invite to go and see it when it was in the micro car museum in Kent about 15 years ago or so but never made it down there, might have tried harder if I’d known it was for sale!! Love that car and more about it soon.

[Pete]

So I considered repainting the car, sort a few little things out and decided it’d be going back to Aurora Gears Racing colours. James was pretty convinced it was the original shell, holes for the regulator were there etc, but when he showed me the doors I was sold. Such a blessing that they weren’t used during the restoration nearly 20 years ago because I could see clearly they were on the car when ‘found’ and give a great history timeline of the car which was lost during the restoration.

From what I can gather the car was raced in the Forward Trust special saloon championship in the mid 70s so the steel front was removed and it was painted orange (as found). The interior was still Tartan Red.

[Pete]

Here’s the doors untouched so I was keen to see what was under the layers of paint! I didn’t have to look that hard as the Aurora turquoise paint was still on the door shuts, around the lock etc.

[Pete]

Fantastic to hear about the car again. John Kelly and I exchanged photos and parts when he had the car and I may still have some. My 1071 is Feb 64 too, and for example he borrowed my oil cooler brackets to make replicas.

I’d be interested in any photos Andy if you find them! Cheers.

[AndyPen]

Fingers crossed that I know where to find them, but just to say that's a cracking project

[Pete]

Thanks Andy.

So after a rub down and polish up here’s what was hiding under the orange paint... several colour layers down to the Aurora Gears turquoise! Nick reckons it’s a decent quality job, and this gave us something to reference to get an exact colour match as the ICI colour code and in my little Racing Team colours guide book from the period gave us a colour mismatch (way too dark) when we mixed up a sample. Using a camera on the original paint here we got an exact match, well Nick did. The colour was the Aurora Gears factory brand colour and presents much lighter in the old colour photos I have, which is understandable on 56 year old photos.

On top of the turquoise is the Newtune metallic grey (Turenne Grey) which it was repainted in 1965 when Robbie Gordon (customer at Delta Garage where it originally came from coincidentally) bought it and Newtune ran it chiefly for David Wansborough, again in the British Saloon Car Championship (more on Newtune soon) and Gerry Marshall. I’m due to speak to Robbie shortly to see what he remembers but James did touch base with him some years ago and he clearly remembers the car, which he was very fond of. He called it “Super-Mini”!
The next colour on top of that is white and it’s interesting that John Aley was the next owner of the car in 1966, who’s Anglo-Dutch team Minis raced in Cirrus White! I did contact John briefly about the car only recently and he did remember owning it but very sadly passed away before we could speak again.

[Pete]

Here’s the invoice when John Aley sold the car at the end of December 1966, but did he race it during that year or was he just selling it on? Maybe the white paint is just coincidence, but hell of a coincidence!

[Pete]

Talking of the doors,amazingly this fell out of one of them when it fell over in the garage. From what I can make out it looks like it says : ‘5. Sp Saloons’ ..which will be race 5 for Special Saloons and comp number 16. So that’s most likely early 70s though I’m not sure, could be earlier, and must have been stuck in the bottom corner of the door it fell out of since then!

[mk1]

Another great thread Pete, Thanks for sharing it on here.

[steve1071]

What a car, superb Pete.

Was it at Blyton a few years back?

[Pete]

What a car, superb Pete.

Was it at Blyton a few years back?

Yes James brought it a couple of times, here with Anita...

[Pete]

All three racing colour schemes...

[Pete]

Aley colours ..

[steve1071]

Look forward to seeing it. Must be a 'keeper'!