Works car found

[spoon.450]

Attached are three pics of the car as it was sold by Alan Bell in October 1975.

[Pete]

Wow, great development, looked in good nik ! Did you get any info about how Alan Bell found it and in what state?

[spoon.450]

We are still talking to Alan, but do have a few more interesting facts to reveal. I will put a post together soon. Still nothing on the RAC rally connection though. I also have an under bonnet photo from the same time but is too large to upload and I'm not sure how to re-size it ! Will look into it !
Dave

[Pete]

[spoon.450]

Thanks Pete

[northern monkey]

Absolutely awesome thread.....such a rich history backed up by good old solid proof and plain hard facts...... excellent there aren't many works motors that have this....keep digging lads....this is superb.

Mick

[Pete]

Dave/Paul. You'll possibly find some details of your car's rally history in this new book :

http://www.photohistoric.com/featured/m ... years.html

The author usually publishes the full entry list and results of these rallies, including registration numbers!

(However I won't be rushing to buy a copy at that price! )

[LMM76C]

(However I won't be rushing to buy a copy at that price! )

I have already.

There is no profit in this sort of publishing: it is entirely a labour of love. It is vital for the publication of the final volume (working title: the beginning) on 1961-65 that this penultimate volume is a reasonable sales success. Without Peter Robinson's efforts we would only have much of this historic data hidden away in a multitude of different attics.

[spoon.450]

Dave/Paul. You'll possibly find some details of your car's rally history in this new book :

http://www.photohistoric.com/featured/m ... years.html

The author usually publishes the full entry list and results of these rallies, including registration numbers!

(However I won't be rushing to buy a copy at that price! )

Thanks for that Pete.....looks an interesting read. Myself, Martin and Paul haven't been doing much on Pauls car research recently, but we do have a few leads to follow and will keep you updated with any new findings. We have nothing on the RAC rally as GMM 51B as yet but will continue researching.

Dave

[spoon.450]

Robert Young has published a photo ( of a photo of Ron Crellin with Paul Easter and Den Green, ex comps. dept. ) of Pauls car in his ex-works and comp. car column of Cooperworld this month (page 42). The photo was taken to Beaulieu by Ron Crellin ( Paddy's co-driver on the Flowers ) along with press photos, rally reports and the cars original rally plate. Seems like we may have missed an opportunity to re-unite GRX 309D with both Paddy and Ron this time but perhaps can make it happen another time. If anyone has Ron's contact details we would love to talk to him now we know he still has a strong interest in the original car.

Regards
Dave

[Luigi64]

Wow what a thread to read. As a relative newbie to these cars it's fascinating,

Also interesting for me as I can relate to all of this in the modern day with works aston martins and also Current formula one cars swapping chassis' permanently and exteremely blurry history of cars being sold.

Can't wait to see and read how this progresses

[LMM76C]

I have today been through Peter Robinson's new book that is referred to earlier. There is no record of the GMM reg no in any of the entry/results tables for MN events 66-69. Not all event lists have reg nos, so that does not mean it didn't run on an MN rally.
There was, of course, only a small band of competitors who did both MN events and Internationals. Most did one or other, not both.
Any more on who the driver was on the alleged 69 RAC appearance?

OT, but the book does have some interesting works reg nos listed, including works cars borrowed by the likes of Fall for some MN events in 66 and 67.

[spoon.450]

Thanks for the info. regarding Peter Robinsons book LMM. Although we have not been doing much research lately we intend to start digging again in the near future as we still have leads to follow up. Also the car will be on show tomorrow ( sunday 31st ) on the British Mini Club stand at their Minifest at Uttoxeter Racecourse. We would love to talk to anyone showing an interest in the car, and it is exactly as it appeared at Blyton in May.
Regards
Dave

[LMM76C]

Wish I'd known earlier. Uttoxeter is within reach.

[spoon.450]

That's a shame Keith, but the car lives close to Ilkeston, which isn't too far from Uttoxeter. You are welcome to visit anytime, just contact me.
Dave

[Pete]

Can't make it tomorrow Dave sadly. Paul's welcome to display it at the Footman & James Classic Car Show in Manchester at the end of September though.

[spoon.450]

Thanks Pete, will give you a call during the week.

[Pete]

Are you taking the car to Castle Combe Rally day Dave? if anyone suggests that your GRX 309D was somehow reshelled into another do try to keep a straight face.
I'm still sticking to my theory that Abingdon did not reshell cars, they disposed of tired ones (like yours) , sent the lads to collect new cars from Longbridge and turned them into new rally cars with the number plates from the tired car stuck on, the Abingdon mechs were hardly going to waste time removing all the worn parts off an old rally car to put on a brand new Cooper S fresh off the production line. Ronnie's car pretty much illustrates that aswell.

Anyway, pull your finger out and find out what it was doing after it left Abingdon!

[spoon.450]

OK Pete, you're right, we do need to keep on with the research, and to be fair we are following leads but perhaps need to push on a bit ! Through the dark nights that is what we will be doing !
We are taking it to Rallyday at Castle Coombe ( thanks for the contact info. ) and hoping to talk to Bill Price amongst others about the car. We have recently been informed that Jonny Organ ( the comps. dept. mechanic ), who we understand was responsible for the car immediately after it leaving Abingdon, sadly passed away in 2012. Jonny was one of the people who may have been able fill in some of our missing gaps.
For Rallyday we intend to " loosely " fit the 970 engine and H4's etc.to the car which it left Abingdon with, and probably lose the later arches and reverse rims that are currently fitted. We have also been offered, thanks to Nick Hunter, the loan of wheels and tyres that are without any doubt from works car JBL 495D on the 66 RAC, coincidently the sister car to GRX 309D on that event.

Cheers
Dave

[Old English White]

Are you taking the car to Castle Combe Rally day Dave? if anyone suggests that your GRX 309D was somehow reshelled into another do try to keep a straight face.
I'm still sticking to my theory that Abingdon did not reshell cars, they disposed of tired ones (like yours) , sent the lads to collect new cars from Longbridge and turned them into new rally cars with the number plates from the tired car stuck on, the Abingdon mechs were hardly going to waste time removing all the worn parts off an old rally car to put on a brand new Cooper S fresh off the production line. Ronnie's car pretty much illustrates that aswell.

Anyway, pull your finger out and find out what it was doing after it left Abingdon!

I think what you say is largely correct Pete. I knew a couple of people who'd bought discarded "shells" from Abingdon at that time and they were rolling shells - more or less complete worn cars but with no engine or ID and a few other bits missing too. A perfect basis for a cheap club rally car and you'd just attach the plates and engine from your own old/crashed Mini . I think it depended on who you were and who you knew! I seem to remember being told that £50 was the going rate. No doubt a few engines went the same way too . Abingdon were said to have an unlimited budget for parts but NOT for new cars, so I'm not sure that complete new cars were used to build up the next incarnation of a "works" registration number (a complete car would have attracted taxes too). I was told that the comps dept could acquire "trimmed shells" from the factory which were fully painted and partly assembled - I'm not sure if this meant with or without subframes - but without engines anyway, and this usually formed the basis of the next incarnation. I suppose the mechanical parts would all be new and hand assembled by the Abingdon mechanics who would have more time to build up a car to the exacting/bespoke standard required. As you say, they wouldn't have messed about cleaning up, checking and repairing worn/used bits. No doubt they could also acquire complete built-up subframes, engines etc straight off the production lines too if required.