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Great pic of OBL Pete, I hadn't seen that one before. Thanks for posting. Cheers Brian

Is this a different OBL 45F though ?......Different sumpguard.......bonnet strap in a different position...????.....quicklift brackets are visible though....

Even though the above shot shows the central bonnet strap, when you look at the TDF car the plug for the lamps is in a different spot.

Good old interweb - bet they never thoughback in the day when they were ringing the fakes but its all coming out

Pad

I may have got this wrong so please correct me. OBL led a pretty chequered life both at the works and afterwards. The above photos were with Roger Platt driving although Tom Seal was the co driver on the Welsh,no 46. I doubt whether that shell ran again although no 82 on the RAC looks pretty rough (RAC before Welsh? When Tom Seal had it the car was blue, pretty patriotic then its been red white and blue. I have the auction spec from the 2008. Classic Car Auctions Centaur!!?? It was on split Webers then but with 8 Port head and cam included. Anyone know where it has been since? Did we not see it on one of those car restorations programmes? Fascinating, why I love ex works minis especially mark 2s Cheers. Brian

VKA305H wrote:I may have got this wrong so please correct me. OBL led a pretty chequered life both at the works and afterwards. The above photos were with Roger Platt driving although Tom Seal was the co driver on the Welsh,no 46. I doubt whether that shell ran again although no 82 on the RAC looks pretty rough (RAC before Welsh? When Tom Seal had it the car was blue, pretty patriotic then its been red white and blue. I have the auction spec from the 2008. Classic Car Auctions Centaur!!?? It was on split Webers then but with 8 Port head and cam included. Anyone know where it has been since? Did we not see it on one of those car restorations programmes? Fascinating, why I love ex works minis especially mark 2s Cheers.
Brian

Pretty much tells its story here :
https://handh.co.uk/buy/1967-austin-mini-cooper-s/6866


Did we see it on Car SOS in the back of Ronnie Whites garage on the Sebring Sprite edition ?

Tom came on here and told the OBL story from his side a while back, I'll see if I can find it!

billycooper wrote: Did we see it on Car SOS in the back of Ronnie Whites garage on the Sebring Sprite edition ?

Yep, on some rather awful looking wolfrace style wheels

spoon.450 wrote:Is this a different OBL 45F though ?......Different sumpguard.......bonnet strap in a different position...????.....quicklift brackets are visible though....

This is what Tom Seal had to say previously on here :

I would like to know who took this photo because I would like to see them,this photo is 43 years old,1973 Welsh and the stage we rolled on was Hafren I think. When preparing the car we were in Group 5 class and this meant we had to have dual line master cylinder which split the braking front and rear, so having bought a brand new one from AP Racing, who were in Leamington Spa in those days, off we went to the Welsh. About 6 miles into the stage, Roger said the front brakes were pumping up we kept going until we were doing a 3 times over barrel roll, we got out of the stage and this when the photo was taken, to find one front brake disc was missing 1/4 of its face, the pads had filled the gap and over we went. When I returned the master cylinder to AP they stripped it and told me a cirlip had broken and this was what caused it to pump up, hands in the air, bad luck no offer of compensation. I then had the shell repaired and did the Scottish that same year, broke 3 hydrolastic units, and finally the RAC with Roger. Sold the car in '74 marriage and children took the money instead. The body shell did have a hard life. Tom Seal.

That was bad luck regarding the brakes.
So... is there an OBL 45F out there at the moment....and if so, how much of it is from the original car ?
Pics anyone ????

Talking of OBL 45F, there was also the Mk1 recce car that wore the number..



and the works entry for Tony Fall/Mike Wood for the '68 Gulf London which is pictured here I think at Oulton Park, I'm not sure without checking that this was even documented in the Bill Price book?



Wasn't there a circuit racer entered with this number on aswell?

Going back to the parts on Ebay, I did ask the seller if there were any more to come and he did reply that there weren't. He did give me the full story of his dad's car which he says got totalled at Crystal Palacein the early 70s (Mini 7).

I don't think that's Oulton Park. It's not p*ssing down and the car would have been muddy just getting across the paddock field on arrival. It may be before the start at Manchester Airport hotel.
Fall was competitive on SS1 Oulton. Maybe the rain helped:
Ake Andersson, Scania Vabis 911 Clean
Bengt Soderstrom, works Escort TC 14
Bjorn Waldegaard, Scania Vabis 911 20 (half spin)
Ove Andersson, works Escort TC 23
Tony Fall, works Cooper S 25

See MCF Works cars database too.

From the MotorSport archive (1968 Gulf London).

"The only car from Abingdon was a Cooper S (OBL 45F) entered in the groups 5 and 6 category and driven by Tony Fall and Mike Wood. This had a limited slip differential and "something special" under the bonnet. We never discovered what that special something was, for the engine compartment did not appear to be opened even during scrutineering. However, the car retired on the second stage when the differential failed and broke the sump."

Some grainy footage from Oulton in '68. OBL appears a few times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8dA2CaOfXI

Also some footage from '67, can't make out the reg on the Works car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwzzeDpfC1c

surfblue63 wrote:Some grainy footage from Oulton in '68. OBL appears a few times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8dA2CaOfXI

Also some footage from '67, can't make out the reg on the Works car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwzzeDpfC1c

GRX5D in 67.

SMOKE GREY wrote:


GRX5D in 67.

Yes it got stuffed didn't it?

Another great shot of post Abingdon OBL 45F on the '72 RAC courtesy of Roger Platt (foreground) and Tom Seal in the fetching hat..

Pete wrote:From the MotorSport archive (1968 Gulf London).
However, the car retired on the second stage when the differential failed and broke the sump."

Perhaps technically correct (in that no time card may have been handed in at the finish of SS2 - the first forest stage) and all that a reporter would have known. For historical record, it was still running after SS2 Dyfnant.

Lots of 'new' photos turning up on Facebook, came across quite a few just this week of works cars post Abingdon and lots of people who aren''t backed up, want to talk about them and who were around at the time, often the owners. Quite refreshing!

OBL 46F with Roger Jones in Wales, mid 70s..




Ronnie McCartney with another works number on his car, doesn't look much like the Acropolis car though. Apparently ended up wrecked and literally buried!