OBL45F in Australia

[spoon.450]

I’m loving this history……but am a bit lost. Is it concluded that the Australian car was an Abingdon built Works car or a post Abingdon re shell…?

[lomin]

Hi, just to answer "spoon.450". It is hard to know how other people read a post sometimes.
The shell in Australia is not an Abingdon reshell. It was done post works to replace Paddy Hopkirk circuit of France car that was written off by Phil Cooper.
It has a number of works items, lots of modifications to the body shell for strengthening, and over time some of the works items have gone missing.
I view it as shell number 4, if you take the history as :
#1. mk1 Recce and rally car. WORKS
# 2 mk11 racer. written off first event. WORKS
#3. mk11 Paddy Hopkirk car. WORKS then sold and written off in private hands
#4. mk11. Tom Seal / Russell Brookes RAC car. now in Australia since 73. (sold by Tom)

I believe another similar car carried OBL45F plates in a number of rallies ... making shell #5

My view is that as the RAC car was never written off, then it is the last OBL45F. I welcome comments please.

The works factory ID plate on the Australian car has been on more than one car, and has red paint(works?) under the underbody deadener that covers most of the engine bay currently.
cheers Lindsay Siebler

[VKA305H]

Brilliant thread!

[MrNoo]

So what was the OBL45F that David Potter had? That had a fuel injected Arden 8 port, I certainly know his car carried that registration as I have seen it along with another CRX90B. Seems there are lots of them about!!!

[Pete]

The Phil Short car .

[Nevsmini]

Very interesting, these works cars all have very complicated history. 2 years ago I saw the UK car in N.Ireland but I never took any photos

[Pete]

Very interesting, these works cars all have very complicated history. 2 years ago I saw the UK car in N.Ireland but I never took any photos

The number plates certainly do! This number plate must have been stuck to at least five cars? Not unusual stuff with works rally cars of course. Maybe this final Russel Brookes version was sent to Australia and the logbook stayed here?

[lomin]

Hi, today we paint stripped and lightly sanded some of the Lh rear panel to totally prove that this shell is the Russell Brookes driven obl45f in the 72 RAc
The lower wheel arch was bent up roughly in Australia when it was rallied with 12" minilites and tall ultra grips. great for ground clearance but very heavy wheels to control.
The photo is not quite as clear as looking at it in the flesh, but the hollows, bare metal high points and filler don't lie.

[Pete]

So does it have its original chassis plate for OBL 45F aswell? Great find, these old rally cars do have a habit of turning up!

[lomin]

hi, it does have its original ID plate. (sorry no pic). and no paperwork. In 1973 when it was bought as a tired rally car, it had desirable bits, Arden 8 port and Amals, alloy panels, minilites, etc etc. Some of that ended up in a circuit car, and other bits ??
The paperwork was not needed in Oz, but the parts were. no one knew what would become a huge Historic scene.

[lomin]

The shell in Australia is a UK mark 11, and we are not familiar with it here. I would like people to comment on 3 items that appear standard, but not on Aussie cars, and the trim that's in some areas of the back, what is it off ?. There are a lot of stregthening mods, I will post up some pics soon. cheers
Double bonnet hinges on the firewall. year ?
small bracket near gear lever hole underneath
reinforcing under tunnel seatbelt area
brocade trim. Cooper ? Cooper S ?

[lomin]

The Sporting minis on Facebook kindly put a post up indicating that this Aussie car appears to be the 72RAC Russell Brookes driven obl45F
Roger Platt who drove OBl45f on several occasions , replied that it came to Australia, but !!!!

Below is his post added, then I am not sure that only Tom and Roger know which is the real OBL ? There were a lot of people involved in running two cars. I have added a reply to Roger.on F/B

Lindsay Siebler
Roger Platt and Tom Seal may not be the only ones who know which car is the real OBL45F . Tom built a second car to assist him to compete in many rallies , and generously lent OBL45F to Russell Brookes . The sister car was built in Donisthorpe Hall, Leicestershire and had its debut rally in the 72 Welsh Rally, just before the 72 RAC. In the 72 RAC it competed alongside Russell Brookes (car 64 OBL45F), and it was car 98, reg KUT8E

[lomin]

Hi, we are trying to accurately date the shell, but it has been pointed out to me that the twin bonnet hinges per side are virtually mk111 style, so maybe a late 69. or 70 factory shell. The previous date of around 71 from the FE number may be a bit late. The Phil Cooper rolled car was reshelled roughly between April - Sept 70.
I have started removing parts carefully, and I removed some of the underbody deadener that was added in Australia. The whole seat crossmember has been removed, a plate put across full width and a new crossmember fitted, all the body drain holes (about 8) have small square plates welded over them, and the "fold" in the tunnel just behind where the handbrake cables exit has a plate welded over it. The crossmember had filler added to it to smooth it out from welding, and the whole floor has been primed and repainted blue.
The front floors where your heel would rest also have quite large plates welded. I will add some photos later.
The very rear floor seam has been welded full width underneath , nice welding

On another note on Facebook one of the rally photographers with knowledge of the car has posted a strong comment in support of the OZ car being OBL45F.
I would like to hear from anyone who knows George Paxton, the reported owner for 2 rallies after Phil Cooper
cheers Lindsay

[lomin]

Hi just another f/b post before I add photos.
Roger Platt recently said on f/b that only he and Tom know the true identity of OBL45F

On this earlier post he says that in the 72 RAC , he and Tom were in the replica car,(car 98) and the other car was the works registered one. OBL45F. WHICH IS THE CAR IN AUSTRALIA

All this story I have found seems conclusive to me !

[lomin]

Hi, Simon Wheatcroft has confirmed shell date as Jan 71

I have stripped some paint from LH guard, and body filler is present where the creases are in the very front corner, as per RAC photo.
The Maroon. and red colours were added in Australia.
I will also add a couple of photos of front subframe mods

Bear in mind, this car is a privateer rebuild. Some items are Works, some are someone's interpretation of works style mods, and some will be fixes done or replaced well after it was built. It has done a fair bit of rallying

cheers Lindsay

[winabbey]

That tie rod mount guard seems to have done its job.

IMG_7633 v2.jpg

[lomin]

Hi , its been a while, but busy work wise, lockdowns etc. The shell is mostly stripped and I am chemically stripping paint.A few more surprises. whilst the shell has been welded and strengthened in a few places, it surprised me how many corner joins have fatigued and cracked. But rust wise there is none really, amazing when I see what you have to do to recover cars in UK. I have been trying to find more history, but at this point I believe after it was sold in UK and before coming to Oz, it did a rally in Uk (Chepstow Marshes). 72 or 73 , and the 4 Amals stuck on full throttle after a jump and the car crashed into a Dyke. the damage is unknown to me.
I have realised on stripping paint that it has had at least 5 colours,, 2 blues, magenta in Australia then 2 lots of red.
I am waiting on our Australian "works" guru to look at the car, and identify some components.
But a "works" item I found, and in good condition is a Mitchell mount, the special gearshift remote mount.

[Pete]

Another pic popped up on antisocial media

[lomin]

Hi, just a minor update from Australia. We have had a very long covid lockdown, but a fair bit has been accomplished. The shell has been stripped, sandblasted and sent to an excellent panel shop. So far the roof has been straightened, cracks, splits, holes etc tig welded up and the joins of the quick roof addition it had have been rewelded. The floor has been cleaned up, but as its a rally car that did a fair bit of work, the patina of rallying will still show underneath. Both original front guards and front panel were very poor and quite thin, so the TOTAL replacement parts is 2 guards/wings and front panel and battery box was just too thin and quite damaged.Heritage panels were very correct for this mk11 No rust replacement at all.So far I have procured some missing items such as 4-1/2" and 5-1/2" magnesium minilites, arden alloy head and Amals, The blue original colour has been spectro analysed to be equivalant to BMW Santorini Blue, which must be very much like the Mark Forster MK1 hilclimb car. Subframes, hydro bags etc etc, a lot of parts are able to be refurbished and reused. The full set of Alloy panels are coming along nicely too... I also have 12" x 7" genuine minilites, but not sure where they will be used !!! Would love to see more photos, keep them coming Pete and others OH, and back seat front area has been temporarily removed so that the floor that is fully seam welded could be reshaped to where it should be.There is a tiny bit of the blue showing just under where the speedo sits, saved from the sandblaster for colour matching. Cheers Lindsay

[Old English White]

Good progress. Looks as if the roof from a Mk1 (smaller rear screen) was used in the repair- whenever that was done!