British Vita Racing Cooper S.

[Austin Costin]

Do we know how many real Vita cars still exist ?

I know that one of the KDK racers are known of, Vita Min the sprint and also the V8 car, apart from these cars do we know of any other cars still around, Vita D etc ?

Apart from these race cars Vita tuned very few other cars, so I was told by Norman Grimshaw back in 2005.

My car HPE49C was one of the few cars that was Vita tuned and I was wondering how many others, if any, are known.

[graham.codling]

Not mini but a series my next door neighbour had a Austin a 40 tuned by Harry Radcliffe .pipe in mouth sent them to a local cafe as he got on with said car .result it went like stink no plate was !!! Zoe but not pat moss's car .he also time trialed a chain driven Fraser Nash now sadly in a home suffering from Alzheimer's .

[ivor badger 2]

I am quite sure BVRT did a lot more cars than you think. I know of at least one car that was race converted by the customer simply turning up with the car and the cash.

[Pete]

All you have to do is look at the classifieds in the back of some old Motoring News or Autosports to see how many cars ended up with BVRT engines in them. Even as recently as last week I noticed a sprint report that mentions the ex Stirling Moss Ogle even having a 'Harry Ratcliffe' engine in it. Tony Fall had his engines done by them, Alan Staniforth and Geoff Wood obviously (semi works drivers really!), Mike Caulton, Tommy Entwistle, loads of rally drivers like George Hill, John Handley's Ogle, Rupert Jones, Nev Hodkin,very successful hillclimber Chris Cramer, they must have tuned hundreds and hundreds of Minis, not mention all the other stuff.
I even heard a story last year from a good source that some of the Italian Job cars had been up to Littleborough.

[Pandora]

Like all these things, there are racing cars, and those which were tuned by......

I'd imagine it'll be very much like Dowton, will it not? There will be cars they tuned for professional racers (either their own or for customers, they'll have tuned cars or built engines for privateers (which may not then have been reported as widely) and then the 'bread and butter' tuning of road cars for private individuals, the nature of which meant that odd hillclimb and sprint may have been part of their weekend sport, again, BV / HR would be less likely to get much publicity.

Al

[Pete]

I know that one of the KDK racers are known of, Vita Min the sprint and also the V8 car, apart from these cars do we know of any other cars still around, Vita D etc ?

There's at least another two that are not on that list that survive.

[sandman]

Last time I spoke to Whizzo I think he mentioned something about his old car being restored in France... - or was i dreaming??

[ivor badger 2]

What was the tuning firm Whizzo worked for in the early 70s?

[Pete]

Last time I spoke to Whizzo I think he mentioned something about his old car being restored in France... - or was i dreaming??

No it's Somerset! It belongs to a forum member and was at Blyton last year and Shelsley Classic in 2013.

[Pete]

What was the tuning firm Whizzo worked for in the early 70s?

He did do some 'spannering' up at Littleborough. And some work aswell!

[Austin Costin]

Are there any known cars about now ?

As mentioned, when I met up with Norman at bulee in 05 I opened up the conversation with "I have a BVRT tuned car and wondered if you remembered it" on the walk to the car he said to me that "in all honesty you probably dont have a BVRT tuned cooper S as we did'nt really do many, if any, private cars.
When he looked through my history folder and looked through the "many receipts from Vita/BVRT" he said that he really did'nt recall ever having done them, although he also said that he had left employment at Vita around 68 to 71 (dont quote me on the dates) the years that my car was extensively worked on by them, FYI, they completely re shelled my car into a new shell and finished it in Island Blue/White.

[Pete]

Chris Cramer's Vita powered hillclimber...

[surfblue63]

A little of topic, but I thought I'd post this colour snap from the 1964 Targa Florio that I found on the web



It's 3/4 the way down this page

http://www.forum-auto.com/sport-auto/hi ... 79-630.htm

[Pete]

Yes Harry lost a wheel in that race.

[rpb203]

The Chris Cramer hill climber has always looked seriously good, and even better in colour. Have always wanted to build a replica, unfortunately never had the funds! Certainly not possible now with the cost of Mk1's and the 'trick' bits to go with it.

[Pete]

Surviving ex Hannu Mikkola BVRT Mk1 Capri...

[fricsman]

So what did Hannu do with this Capri? Funnily enough, followed an X reg 1.6L into Chester this morning, nicely patinaed (?) but urestored I would say.

[Pete]

So what did Hannu do with this Capri?

Bit of autocross in 1970.

[Pluto]

So

1. 1071 Ratcliffe

2. Buick

3. KDK 320F

4. Sprint Vita Min

Four Vita cars still alive (only one in France, the Sprint, the 1968 8 port was destroyed in 1973 in hillclimb) it's not bad at all!

Cooper Car Co? Zero?

Broadspeed? Zero?

Britax ? Zero?

Alexander? Zero?

Arden? Two? (USA and NZ)

[Jack of all trades]

So

1. 1071 Ratcliffe

2. Buick

3. KDK 320F

4. Sprint Vita Min

Four Vita cars still alive (only one in France, the Sprint, the 1968 8 port was destroyed in 1973 in hillclimb) it's not bad at all!

Cooper Car Co? Zero?

Broadspeed? Zero?

Britax ? Zero?

Alexander? Zero?

Arden? Two? (USA and NZ)

Can of worms springs to mind but here it goes;

CCC

GPH1C sold at Goodwood revival and still in GB
GPH2C in Japan
GPH3C in Japan

Broadspeed

BOP243C in GB
EOP88D in GB
And various Ford cars they started racing from 1966 onwards

Britax is more or less Cooper as they didn't have licence plates very hard to track down
https://imageshack.com/f/g1britaxj

Alexander
572 BCR still around but where??

Now let the fun begin!