My Racing Cars

Formula Ford (Part 1)

In the late 1960s early 1970s Formula Ford was invented as a cheap Formula, which would encourage drivers to engage in single seater racing at least cost. The formula, was to use the Ford 1000 cc engine, and the whole car and engine had to cost no more than £1,000! Formula Junior was already becoming too expensive.

The original idea was that anyone winning a race would have to be prepared to sell his car for £1,000! The general idea being to prevent someone spending a fortune to gain an advantage.  It lasted just a few hours. I wonder what the current drivers would think about having to do that.

Lotus 51 Formula Ford

One of the very first manufacturers  to build a Formula Ford car was Lotus. It was first tested by Stirling Moss, at Brands Hatch on a very wet day, and I was there.

They also did a session with a film camera fitted, and I have a copy of that film, now copied to video. I have watched it hundreds of times, finding the right lines through all the corners of the GP Circuit. I learned a lot about lapping Brands in a single seater, from that film.

At the same time as Moss was publicising the car in the UK, there were other famous drivers doing the same in the USA, Australia etc.

I was racing MINI cooper S's, but I was impressed enough to buy a Lotus 51A Chassis # 51A-FF-40, complete with engine gearbox etc - in full ready to race condition. I then changed to a new Scholar engine, though I later swapped the engine for a new Minister, engine. I think David Minister produced the best FF engines.

The only engine modification allowed was 'blue-printing', making the engine as near as possible, perfect to the 'blue print' specification with the least possible tolerances. For instance you might need 100s of camshafts to find one that is almost  accurate. But if you could find one with the tolerances all 'over' you could machine it back to 'spec'. The car had a Renault gearbox, and being a Lotus, it was beautifully light and a delight to drive.

Lotus 51A Minister Formula Ford

Me in my Formula Ford Lotus 51A.  I just loved pushing around in it, finding its limits.  I did thousands of miles of testing in it. I just loved the sheer joy of  driving it. It was great fun. It was painted «this» blue, and white.

In 1973 I gave Martin Le Fèvre some tests in it and he was quite quick with it. So I entered him in races with the car in 1973. That was my start in Team Management and hiring other drivers to drive for me. I sold my previous self--DIY--built Formula Ford car to Roy Biggs of Gravesend in Kent, he rebuilt it beautifully, but I don't know what became of it after that. I had just been in touch with Design Formula who built the very good Elden Cars, and came to an agreement with them...     ...see my Formula Ford part2 and Formula 3 pages.