Ringing out Clubmen's cars

Reprinted from AUTOSPORT 1973
Ian Phillips looks into Clubmen's racing
and the leading cars with the assistance of Derek Bell		  
It was way back in 1965 that Nick Syrrett decided that the BRSCC should run races for all the Lotus 7s, U2s and DRWs which had been infiltrating the club racing scene in the earlier seasons, He called the formula Clubmen's, and the BRSCC ran the first ever championship in 1965. It was some time before the BARC decided that they too would run a championship for the class but not long after they did the very existence of the formula was threatened with the introduction of F100. However, the Clubmen's drivers banded together, formed the Clubmen's Register and with the merging of the two club championships into the Shell national championship the formula pulled itself together and established itself as the major sports car formula in Britain.
Since those troublesome days at the end of 1969 the formula has made a great deal of progress. The class is now known as Clubmen's Super Sports and the new hard working Register secretary Peter Evans laid on a special day at Silverstone in October so that we could get an impression of just how much progress has been made. Five cars were lined up to be tested and one of Britain's leading International sports car drivers, Derek Bell agreed to come up and drive the cars and pass on his comments. This was especially valid because Derek used to race a Lotus 7 in the formula in the early '60s.
Clubmen's cars have always been very individual machines with their own character; the majority are built up by the drivers themselves. However, nowadays, there are a number of the cars which are available over the shelf as kits for the purchaser to build up himself or they can be bought complete. The cars at Silverstone were the championship winning works U2 of Dick Mallock, Noel Stanbury's works prepared Gryphon, Mike Sales' works prepared Haggispeed, Richard Groombridge's self-built Hustler and Barry Foley's one-off St Bruno Roughcutter.
The name of Mallock has been in the club racing scene since 1959 when Arthur Mallock built and raced the first U2. Since that year there has hardly been a season which has passed without one of his creations winning some sort of championship. Arthur is very set in his ways and is still convinced that a front engined car with a solid rear axle is the best layout. Clubmen's of course has to have the engine at the front and must drive the wheels through a maximum of four forward gears. The only other real regulations are that the cockpit must be a minimum width which makes them automatically of two seater size, also to retain its sports car shape, mudguards must be worn at the front and rear. Limited slip diffs are banned but virtually everything else is free.

The Mallock U2 has appeared in many formulae other than Clubmen's. In the early days there were Formula Junior, 1172, F3, F2, FF and F1200 versions. The U2 has undoubtedly been the most popular Clubmen's car and the most successful. The set up is very much family thing. Arthur has now almost retired from racing himself - he had one win and a second in F1200 this year, but his sons Richard and Ray have all started racing with U2s and it was only this year that Ray drove a rear engined car. Arthur does all the design work on the cars while Richard and Ray build up customers cars in the garages joining their house in Northamptonshire.
Arthur was runner up in the very first BRSCC Clubmen's championship in 1965, while Ray was champion in '71 and Richard this year. In fact with the exception of 1967, 1969 and 1970 U2s have always either won the championship outright or taken the big class.
It was Richard's Shell championship winning car, that Derek Bell drove first at Silverstone. "It was the first time I had driven a front engined oar for some time and it's quite different, I'd find myself groping for the gearchange on the right hand side and find myself flicking off switches."
The car was in its championship winning trim with its de Dion rear end, Holbay '73 engine, Lotus Mk 1 Cortina gearbox and Firestone B33 slicks; except for the rear axle, the other major components are virtually standard on Clubmen's cars. Bell found it ". . . the most comfortable. I felt immediately at home in it and it felt very nice. Because it was the first car I drove it was difficult to draw any straight conclusions - I'd like to have driven it again though because it was really good. The only problem I found was that it would understeer going into the corners, which is no bad thing, but halfway round it tended to roll and to lift up a rear wheel which created a rather nasty oversteer. It is difficult to gear for this Club circuit, but I found that the U2 was ideally set. I could take Copse in fourth with no problem and just drop down to third for Becketts and Woodcote. The engine had a lot of steam but I was not too happy under braking but I did not really extend it because I was still feeling my way around. The fact that I was quicker in this car than any of the others obviously indicates that it is very good and it was unfortunate that I did not have time to drive it again and have the chance to really get in the groove with it because it was really very nice."
Richard's car is now up for sale and work is progressing on two models, the Mk 14 and Mk 15 for next year. The Mk 14 will have a live axle with "new and completely original geometry" and the Mk 15 a de Dion. The front suspension geometry will be revised. The rear bodywork will be new, incorporating the mudguards and a rear wing in three sections. The nose will also be revised for greater downthrust.
It has only been in the past couple of years that anybody has come near to making inroads on the U2 stranglehold on production Clubmen's cars. Gryphon Cars was officially created in August 1972, although Andy Diamond, the man behind the company, has been building Clubmen's cars since 1969. In 1969 he won the BARC championship with his 1-litre U2 replica called a Clubmans. In 1970 he started building Gryphons as a part time business in conjunction with his partner and former rapid U2 driver Jo Beavis. As Beamond Engineering they produced cars for Andy himself and Noel Stanbary to drive. The first ever Gryphon was built by Stuart Rolt in the mid-sixties and Andy bought the name from him. Like the first Gryphon all subsequent cars have had independent rear suspension. Andy and his new partner in Gryphon cars, Ted Jarvis, do all the design work and make the majority of the components, including all the fabricated parts. Recently the company moved to a new purpose built factory in St Ives just outside Huntingdon and building Clubmen's cars has become a full time business.

This has come about over the past couple of years. Noel Stanbury ran a car in the 1-litre class and won the Gregor Grant championship while Andy has been running in the 1600 class and was always in the first three places. Noel wanted to move into 1600 in 1972 and have a car run by Andy. A brand new C72 car was designed and built and with it Noel took second place in the championship and numerous lap records despite a late start to the season. This success prompted a number of orders and Andy felt that to do it properly it would have to be a full time business. In 1973 the C73 was designed and built for customers and Stanbury once again drove the works car, and it was this which Derek Bell drove.
"Initially I did not like it as there was a vibration from the rear end which I'm told is probably due to the doughnuts. However once I got used to it I really started to enjoy myself - in fact I did not want to come in at all. The great thing about it is that it handles just like a single seater. I found I could brake quite late and just turn it into the corners. It turned very well and with the power applied just flicked the back out slightly which felt very, very good. I felt much happier in the Gryphon than the others because it was so much like a single seater - I think the gearing was a bit out which meant it was not quite as quick as the U2. I found the brakes to be the biggest problem. If I hit them really hard, like in a single seater, it tends to lock one wheel and when it hits a bump will want to spin. However when I started to apply them more gently it was much better and never gave a hint of wanting to do anything strange. Copse is the only corner worth anything on this circuit and the Gryphon was really excellent through there."
Next year's car the C4A, has already been tested and produced some fairly startling times. Andy has concentrated on aerodynamics, and this combined with a revised front suspension is what Noel Stanbury will be using for the biggest attack on the championship from the works to date.
We had a slight problem in testing the Haggispeed in that Derek did not fit in the car and was unable to do any quick laps. The Haggispeed is in fact one of the nicest looking Clubmen'a cars and is built by one Bob Le Seur who is known to everybody as Haggis. He's been around in racing for as long as Arthur Mallock, not so much as a competitor but in running cars. Haggispeed Racing was formed in 1963 with a Lotus 18 FJ. After that there were Haggispeed Imps for Tony Marsh and Andrew Cowan while the first successful entry into Clubmen's came with Jeremy Lord's BARC l600 cc championship winning U2 in 1969. Haggis built and prepared this car and then for the 1970 season he designed and built his own car known as the Question Mark which Clive Santo had. The following year there was the Haggispeed modified U2 for Stuart Hunter Cox which still holds the Brands GP circuit lap record. In 1972 the Question Mark came back and was run by Haggis for Mike Sales, while the prototype Mk 2 was designed and built. Mike Sales drove it this year and finished seventh in the championship. Although Haggispeed Racing is a part time business, Haggis has found time to build up two further cars for sale and has bits for two more.
When Bell managed to lever himself into the car and do a few cramped laps (Mike Sales is small and the car had been tailored to suit him) he was unable to say a great deal about it. "The rear end seemed to be very nervous but this was probably because the shock absorbers were screwed right up. The car needs to be softer at the back I think. The front end however worked very well and the brakes seemed to be good but I couldn't get too comfortable and did not extend it at all. It is certainly a nicely made and well thought out car though."
Hustler was a new name to appear in Clubman's in 1972. Its designer, builder and owner is Richard Groombridge who in fact has been racing in Clubman's on and off since 1965. He used to drive Centaurs in both 1000 and 1600 cc form. Richard trained in engineering with Ford before moving to Diva during the hey-day of their front engined GT car. When he left Diva he moved out of the car industry and now works as a diesel fuel injection engineer. The racing interest has never waned though and the large garage in his garden is the scene of much activity, Richard does all the chassis aluminium and fibre glass work himself.
The first Hustler appeared last year but a less than powerful bitza engine restricted its performances. However Richard did score four wins and won the TEAC championship.
During last winter the car was completely rebuilt incorporating several of Richard's own ideas on aerodynamics. The engine was swapped for a 72/3 Holbay and this immediately made it more competitive in the big league although the fact that he ran it on intermediate Firestone YB11s was something of a disadvantage, as everyone else was on up-to-date slicks. Nevertheless he competed in just six championship rounds and finished ninth in the table, and his best result was a second to Dick Mallock at Mallory Park.

Derek Bell was very enthusiastic about the car when he drove it. "It felt extremely good. I think it is the best balanced car I drove, all the springs and shock absorbers are perfectly set which made it very, very smooth to drive. It did not have any nasty traits in it at all. I didn't feel as though I was about to lose control at any time which I have done with some of the others. The layout of the car is obviously very good - it's a pity it's on intermediates, with slicks I think I could have gone quite quickly as I felt very at home in it. It is a superb car for a private effort."

Richard has been very encouraged by this season's results and is currently laying down a design for another Hustler which will be a logical development of the present car. He hopes to have it ready my mid-74 and he hopes to build some replicas for sale although he says that with his present limited facilities it will only be a small number.
Barry Foley's name has been well known in the Clubmen's circle for a long time. For a number of years he campaigned a Lotus 7 in 1-litre form with Robin Hall before they bought the Tim Goss championship winning 7X. Barry is of course well known for his Catchpole cartoons in AUTOSPORT and his fertile brain always manages to come up with something different when it comes to Clubman's cars. The 7X sported many different aerodynamic appendages in the two years he had it, but its successor was a new concept in Clubmans. Barry and Robin were in fact the first drivers to have outside sponsorship in the Formula when St Bruno gave them support in 1971. They have been very happy with the results and Barry's current car is called the St Bruno Roughcutter.

The car was designed from scratch during 1972 by Barry in collaboration with a number of top line designers. Maurice Phillippe and John Baldwin in America were both involved in the initial concept. Phillippe in fact was originally going to design the whole car but did not have the time (Phillippe in fact used to race a Lotus 7 in Clubmans). Barry lists a number of other big names as his helpers although apparently some of them did not know it!

St Bruno gave the go-ahead in August last year. The advanced concept specified the use of sophisticated materials such as high carbon chrome moly tubing, carbon fibre, chemical etching, titanium, articulated polar movements of inertia, asymmetric anti-colour resonance due to gyroscopic precession and a phenomena known as "aerodynamic glue ". (It all sounds very complicated doesn't it?) However, to make the design viable in the time available a certain amount of the more extreme ideas were put to one side. The 1974 Roughcutter, whilst having a similar molecular design will incorporate a larger number of these features. The totally stressed chassis is built from square section high carbon steel, while the wishbones and suspension links are in chrome alloy tubing. All the uprights are magnesium. The rear brakes are inboard which is a rare sight on Clubmen's cars. Other sophistication includes a foam filled petrol tank and Graviner fire extinguisher system piped to the drivers compartment and engine bay.
The main impression one gets by looking at the car 5 that it is very small and light. This is borne out by the fact that it weighs well under 800 lb and that the chassis at the front is a mere nine inches high. The entire car was built at Barry's garage in Woodford by himself and Ken Robinson, including the complex aluminium bonnet section, full width nose, windscreen, oil and petrol tanks, wings, etc. In an effort to arrive at the ideal, eight differently shaped nose cones have been built this year, although Barry does admit that they were also built to replace the ones he kept smashing !

Two rather serious crashes kept the car out of the results for most of the season, but towards the end it was really sorted and was probably the fastest Clubman's car. In its last three races it earned pole position and in the final one had a runaway victory. In spite of only finishing in four rounds, the Roughcutter was fifth in the championship.

 Derek Bell stuck well out in the elements when he got in it and, "initially thought it was very nervous but this was probably due to the tyres being cold. The car needs to be driven; if you drive it then it works well but if not it is rather unstable. The braking was magnificent, It appeared that I could go into corners much quicker than with the others especially Woodcote. I could put the power on early and with the balance being right it was really very fast, It's really quite a nice car and obviously a lot of thought and effort has been put into it. It's certainly very different."

What about Clubmen's formula in general ? Bell had this to say "It's a tremendous formula and great fun. I was really enjoying myself especially in the U2 and Gryphon which were comfortable. What else is there that you can spend this sort of money (a ready-to-go 1600 cc car is about £2500) and have so much fun ? In Formula Ford it's so competitive because of all the works cars and engines and really it cannot be too much fun. In Clubmen's you've all got basically the same engine and it's fun and there's nothing to compare with it. The cars are quick, surprisingly quick, I thought, and in fact you could get into quite a little bit of bother with them. For anybody starting racing it's the only thing to do, especially now that they handle which they didn't when I started."