'Big Banger' Can-Am & sportscars in the UK

[chunterer]

The 'Remembering Easter weekends' thread (and the John Jordan thread with the McLaren pic) led me to recall Thundersports and a particular beast once campaigned by the late John Foulston and John Bridley - a Can-Am Lola T530 with a huge Chevy V8 installed.

It was always a car to look out for a, a bit of a crowd pleaser because of it's size, noise and latent pace! I'd imagine a bit of a handful though.

There were many cars of this 'genre' imported into the UK for various reasons. If we also include 'Historic' ex Can-Am cars that were entered in Historic GT's as well as Thundersports and possibly Interserie examples then there must have been a fair few examples of these fabulous cars over here at various times.

Does anyone have any particular information or favourites that they'd like to share?

[Nordic]

I can remember the Foulston CanAm Lola, I think it was joined by at least one other Lola in Thundersports and a March as well, the name Burke - ratcliffe seems to ring a bell, but as that the name you often see on lorry taillifts I may be wrong and its something like that!

CanAm Lola

While I agree the big lola was very impresive, I always thought it was using a sledge hammer to crack a nut and cheered whenever a smaller 2 litre Lola or Chevron gave it a hard time.

James Weaver Chevron

[Alan Raine]

John Foulston also ran a McLaren M8F in the Historic Sports Cars.

[chunterer]

Yes Nordic, later on there were 3 or 4 of these beasts up the front of Thundersports along with a monumentally quick Tiga (with a turbo engine?)driven by Will Hoy and Creighton Brown.

Foulston's Lola wasn't as much in evidence towards Thundersports latter days and some more modern Can-Am's came into it.

You mention a March which I think Needell and Piper ran with Texas colours after many years with the B36.

I think Ian Flux had a crack with something similar maybe in the Burke-Ratcliffe thing. There was also James Wallis who stepped up from a Chevron to a Can- Am car as well, he wasn't a bad driver come to think of it. Not sure who drove what and who theeir teammates were though.

Other projectiles that spring to mind were a Frisbee which might have been Bill Shepherd's?

Also Alan yeah I remember the M8F - huge wide body that made the massive tyres look skinny! Had some good scraps with Ted Williams Lola and Mike Wheatley's BRM before they too got hold of Mclaren's IIRC...

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Also Alan yeah I remember the M8F - huge wide body that made the massive tyres look skinny! Had some good scraps with Ted Williams Lola and Mike Wheatley's BRM before they too got hold of Mclaren's IIRC...

And the noise on the first lap was unreal!

[Speedy norm]

From what I have been told Fouldston made a lot of money out of promoting his own series - Atlantic Computer leasing He would buy up redundant Can-Am cars from the states & sell them over here at a huge mark up. Still that's business & good luck to him. Fom memory the cars were:
Foulston M8C/D
Brindley M8E
Ted Williams March 707 - now onwed by Peter Schleifer
Mike Wheatly BRM - Now with J Kalish - spelling?
Jim Wallis, Chris Chiles Chris Aylet M8Es
John Hunt Lola T222

A later 8.4 litre M8F was campaigned by Robert Horne in supersports events (there was a 5 litre limit on the domestic series)and later Charles Agg took over 2 such cars His father's company of course, Trojan built the customer Mclarens in the 60-70.
A great series and thanks to Foulston for bringing them to these shores.

[Alan Raine]

I wonder where racing would be if Foulston was still alive. He certainly raced and owned some stunning cars and of course owned Brands as well.

After he died things did go a little pear shaped when Nicola Foulston took over the running of Brands.

[ascarmarshal]

Originally Posted by Alan Raine

I wonder where racing would be if Foulston was still alive. He certainly raced and owned some stunning cars and of course owned Brands as well.

After he died things did go a little pear shaped when Nicola Foulston took over the running of Brands.

To be fair to Nicola, she was young and in shock when she took over Brands. She did a lot of good during her ownership of BHL which was undone by Octagon

[Nordic]

Originally Posted by Speedy norm

Fom memory the cars were:
Foulston M8C/D
Brindley M8E
Ted Williams March 707 - now onwed by Peter Schleifer
Mike Wheatly BRM - Now with J Kalish - spelling?
Jim Wallis, Chris Chiles Chris Aylet M8Es
John Hunt Lola T222

The Lola T222 was raced by Gerry Marshall as well,
David Franklin raced a very quick M6B.
Plenty of my favorite, the Lola T70 spyder ran as well, Nigel Hulme being the most proflic I think

Happy days indeed!

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by ascarmarshal

To be fair to Nicola, she was young and in shock when she took over Brands. She did a lot of good during her ownership of BHL which was undone by Octagon

I am not sure everone will agree with you, but I think she had good intentions.

[Steve Holmes]

Originally Posted by Speedy norm

From what I have been told Fouldston made a lot of money out of promoting his own series - Atlantic Computer leasing He would buy up redundant Can-Am cars from the states & sell them over here at a huge mark up. Still that's business & good luck to him. Fom memory the cars were:
Foulston M8C/D
Brindley M8E
Ted Williams March 707 - now onwed by Peter Schleifer
Mike Wheatly BRM - Now with J Kalish - spelling?
Jim Wallis, Chris Chiles Chris Aylet M8Es
John Hunt Lola T222

A later 8.4 litre M8F was campaigned by Robert Horne in supersports events (there was a 5 litre limit on the domestic series)and later Charles Agg took over 2 such cars His father's company of course, Trojan built the customer Mclarens in the 60-70.
A great series and thanks to Foulston for bringing them to these shores.

Foulston also owned a magnificent Lola T260, in L&M colours, with the giant front spoiler mounted way out front. I think this might have been the car Jackie Stewart campaigned throughout the 1971 Can-Am season, but someone else might know better. I think Carl Haas had a couple of them. Mike Wilds drove it in the UK. This car was sold back to the USA a few years ago. Not suprisingly, the Americans were very happy to have it back.

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by Steve Holmes

Foulston also owned a magnificent Lola T260, in L&M colours, with the giant front spoiler mounted way out front. I think this might have been the car Jackie Stewart campaigned throughout the 1971 Can-Am season, but someone else might know better.

Yes it was. I would have loved to have seen that on the UK tracks.

[glyn parham]

Here is one of the Lola T260 in Foulstons hands


this is Keegan punting John Morrison off


Foulston again

[Alan Raine]

I hadn't realised John Foulston had raced the Lola. I guess the regulations wouldn't have allowed him to use the wings pushed way out at the front and back.

I remember seeing David Hobbs F5000 Lola in the mid 70's when they were pushing the wings further and further back on the cars. The driver behind could almost reach out and touch them!

Anybody got any photos?

[R59]

Did someone mention John Jordan? - that was a M8E, and I know his mechanic (Dave Finnigan) still has the setup book for it, and what's more, has John's old M6 which he will restore at some stage (like John's BRM F1 cars that he now owns).

The last thing I remember Chris Chiles driving, before he went off sailing?, was that monsterous March 707/717 in the International Supersports just a few years ago - what a thing of beauty.
When they replaced it's tub, I asked for the old one to make a spaceframe replica for road use. Due to it's rarity, that was refused!! Just like the 13 M8's that were produced, and 25 of them were on the grid at Road America!! I can see Charlie Agg's point!

Rob.

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by racing59

Did someone mention John Jordan?

Rob, Look at the John Jordan thread

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally Posted by Alan Raine

I remember seeing David Hobbs F5000 Lola in the mid 70's when they were pushing the wings further and further back on the cars. The driver behind could almost reach out and touch them!

Anybody got any photos?

Not of Hobbs' car but one here from a 1973 'Autosport' of Regga's T330.

[Alan Raine]

Cheers Andrew. They were getting a bit extreme weren't they. They started doing the same thing with the Can Am cars, especially the Lola T260.

[stuart05]

I have great memories, and some good photos, from Snetterton in 1987.
John Foulston was banging in sub 59 second laps all morning and lined up in his T530 alongside the older bodied Burke Ratcliffe T530 (with Ian Flux on board I think?). Behind them were the Camelot March 817 (Robin Smith & 'Stingbrace'), Richard Pipers March 827 and a Frisbee (with a mere 5000cc engine against the 5700cc cars.)
The noise at the rolling start as they came out of the proper Russell chicane was amazing. In the race, Foulston dropped his car at The Bombhole early on and the Smith / 'Stingbrace' car eventually won.
Be great to see these cars out again - don't suppose they're allowed in Britsports?

[Dan Rear]

From memory the Foulston T530 was re-bodied to appear more like the VDS version from about 1981, which was faster than the standard. I recall Gordon Kirby calling the T530 "pachydermal" (sorry for spelling) when it first appeared, which generated quite a bit of comment in AS. OTOH, wasn't the Piper car an 847 not an 827, the former being based on the 82C Indycar tub.

[jonners]

I watched Thundersports on many occasions all those years ago and of course the Foulston/Brindley car really sticks in the memory.

I remember watching at Druids and noticing that Brindley was lifting off later and getting power on sooner than Foulston had been and I thought that Brindley was very much the quicker driver.

But I never knew much about him and still don't. He must have had some sort of racing pedigree to be in the car in the first place but it's always been one of those unanswered questions.

Anyone know more about him??

[Dan Rear]

V experienced and quick club racer of the 70s/80s. He raced a wide range of cars,
FF2000s to F1s, many Sports Cars inc the 1st Tiga S2000, Historics and many many saloons. As I recall he was in the rag-trade in London, I wonder if he's still around or racing, his name hasn't popped up for a while.

[chunterer]

What a top thread this has become, great stuff guys!!

I always thought Brindley was a fine pedaller, I know he's done loads of stuff but other than the T530 the only other things I can definitely recall is him driving a Williams FWO8 in early Thoroughbred GP races (another then Foulston owned car?) and then alongside Alan Minshaw in Group A Golf's in mid 80's?

I'd just like to go back a bit to Glyn's pics. Wonder if gfm has seen that shunt on here yet? and is that the then Birrane owned C100 that Keegan's doing the shunting with?

Also I think that Dan Rear's right, the March was an 847 - the Blue and red Texas homecare sponsored one? It would be intersting to hear from those who recall either the Thundersports cars or the earlier Historic GT version going around Thruxton, as I regret to say I only ever saw one Thundersports race there. Mostly saw them at Silverstone i think.

David Piper entered his 917 in the Supersports events at Silverstone, he had David Franklin in it supporting F3000 ('87??) which attracted a lot of the Historic GT entrants but he had a job keeping up with the M8's! There was a 512 Ferrari there (yellow) and TWO F3L's in the pits at that meeting as well but only one of them ran!!

[Dan Rear]

chunt, yeah that was the Birrane C100, thats knocking gfm off, if you'll forgive the pun! Haven't seen John around here much these days, funnily enough in an old AS I'm reading now, there's an article on FSVees, which he's much quoted in.

I first recall Brindley in Prodsaloon Mazdas in 1975-76, he went S2000 for a few years after that.

Back on T/Sports, I think the best year was the first, 1983. Loads of variety, the odd Group C, older Group 5-6s, S2000s, some Clubmans, Saloons even, plus the various hybrids, eg the Lola Mazda and Lola VW. It was like nothing before on the National scene, since I guess the early 70s MN Series.

[Alan Raine]

Possibly not a big banger but John Travis built this car called a BRD for Thundersports.



I'm not sure what engine he ran in it. It was later used in Sprints by the late Les Edmunds who put a Rover V8 in it. He got FTD at the Brighton Speed Trials in it so it was still quick. Unfortunately it was destroyed in a huge accident at Aintree.