J what? mk-iv parts

Mike
In my opinion, after looking at the pics, this is not an original chassis. Several people have made replica MK-IV chassis. As far as title goes you can't own something that someone else does and the ownership of all of the original chassis and the 2 unnumbered spare chassis are known. If it's real JWhat? should be easily able to prove it.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Is this where we should start an off topic thread on who can name cars that more exist today than were originally built, like the Lola T70 etc?
grin.gif


Another example is that I have chassis 231 of a Lotus 51 in the garage but the Lotus books says they only made 214! Howver talking with Peter Denty and Simon Hadfield, neither were concerned as allegedly good old Colin used to let unrecorded chassis out the back door. It has full FIA papers so to me is not a concern. This can happen time and again with lots of race cars.

However wouldn't have a clue about J cars!

Malcolm

[ March 10, 2003: Message edited by: Malcolm M ]
 
Jim

The reason I assumed it was an original chassis is based on the assumption that
a true honeycomb tub was prohibitively
expensive. If this is not a true honeycomb
tub then presumably the vintage racing officials would notice and decline entry.

If "several" people have made authentic
looking MK IV tubs (honeycomb), then it
must not be as costly as lead to believe.

When do you think the body panels came from?
Is there someone else with a set of molds besides yourself?

MikeD
 
Mike
There is a car that someone posted a pic of that was a "MK-IV" with a chevy engine. It had a replica tub. At one time someone tried to pass it off as real tub "J13" The tub was not honeycomb and there never was J13. J7, which was crashed at LeMans was restored with honeycomb and that was a very fine restoration that I'm willing to bet wasn't for free. The tubs of J1, J2, and J3 differ from the tubs of J4, J5, J6, J7, J8, J9, J10 and the two spare tubs that were numbered in later years. (Not by Ford J11, J12). It wouldn't be hard to make a replica MK-IV tub. I think it would be hard to make a composit honeycomb one that was exactly correct. Remember the Brunswick aerospace corp charged Ford $250,000 in 1967 for each tub. To prevent fake cars from racing in FIA vintage events (Some vintage races don't care and allow replicas) the FIA issues FIA papers to cars that they have inspected and believe to be real. Lee Holman is working with the FIA to certify the GT40s that wish to race in FIA events. I'm working with Lee in providing information on the J Cars. Their requirements are very strict. I don't think the wildwood brakes on JWhat's car would be acceptable to them. On one level who cares? As I've said I have great respect for any one who builds and enjoys any of these cars real or replica. If JWhat can prove this is J1 I be the first to admit it but up until now nothing convinces me that it is.
 
Jim

If this is an original chassis...then I assume it cannot be a replication since no one ever replicated the J car chassis.

Granted, the lack of a clean title is an issue, however I don't see how you can deny that this is a "real" car (not a replica).

MikeD
 
As I previously stated " I am Racing this car in vintage events". Some vintage clubs are very anal about real and newly produced vintage race cars, therefore it MUST BE J1.We all know that 1 and 2 are gone, (the owner of J7 will dispute that and says he has parts).We built a tub and until someone else comes up with "the real J1" I will be racing it. All of the suspension bits and wheels are original. Many a race car has been rebuilt with less( I know of a Mckee that was rebuilt from the roll bar). Is it the original tub, no. Will I try to sell it as the real thing ,no. Is it a real Mk4? What is your definition? As the owner of a Mclaren you know there are more cars now than were ever built. Which one do you own?
Bill
 
JWhat
I own MK-IV chassis J6. It was driven to 4th overall at LeMans by Bruce McLaren and Mark Donohue. (Driven by McLaren not a McLaren) I too have heard that the owner of J7 is claiming to own the remains of J1. The facts as I believe them are that Holman and Moody, at Fords behest destroyed J1 and J2 as after Miles crash they felt J1's single rivet chassis was unsafe. Ford maintained title to J1 and gave title of J2 to Holman and Moody as well as any J car spares they had. Years later Lee Holman loaned the clamshell nose of J1 to Rick Nagel to display in his museam.
Lee told me that he loaned the nose for use in a museam which Nagel never opened and instead sold the nose to the owner of J7 who hung it in the Museam in Bolder. Nagel also claimed to have other remains of J1. Lee believes he didn't and that he(Lee) still ownes the nose of J1. You are very correct about many of the cars racing in vintage events. There are many that have been built up from very little and several are replicas that the owners of the real cars have built putting their real cars away so that if they crash they won't damage the real car. As you aren't pretending that your car is anything but what it is you're being more forthright than others who race and pretend.
Once again I think you've built a nice car and think it's great that you're enjoying it.
 
The MK-IV I was talking about was the one that Les Lindley crashed historic racing. Charlie told me he sold Les a corner to fix the car with, and he said it was not damaged as bad as people first thought. This conversation was in the early eighty's.I haven't been involved in gt40 things since that time so i'm 30 years out of touch.The MK-II I had was assembled in L.A. by a English guy in his 70's I guess.He had a shop in the signal hill area of Long Beach , ca. that he restored english sports cars in.I met him at Laidlaw's Harley shop in L.A. He was looking to buy Harley's in the $2500 range, then he would export them to either Austrailia or England. He would trade them for english sports cars that he would restore and market.When I went to his shop he had a small building next door full of gt40 parts and the tubs for three gt40's that he had made in his shop.About four months later I went back to his shop to find out what if I could get a new tub since mine was bent like a parallelogram and the place was empty. The next door business said he had died of a heart attack and his daughter shipped all his stuff back to England where she lived. I sent several letters to the address I was given but all were returned undeliverable.I sold the car to pipeline worker from Alaska who lived in Garden Grove, ca.I don't remember his name. I may have one picture of the tub left in my stuff so i'll look for it and post if I find it.

relentless
 
Interesting story, relentless !

So did this English fellow build replicas or was he restoring cars ?
Remember his name ?
Why was it bent ?
Was i badly put together or was it due to it´s former? life ?
If you care to answer, as i find it most interesting...
That pic would be great...
wink.gif
 
Relentless
The car that Les crashed is the one I now own. (J6) J6 was given to Foyt by Ford at Ford Racing's Man of the year dinner in 1967. At that time everyone thought J6 was the winner rather than the McLaren/Donohue car. Foyt sold J6 to Les who sold it to Peter Lavonos from whom I bought it. Great story on your car. Those were the days.
Jim
 
While I had a dig at Howard earlier today about old posts being dredged up, this thread is an example of good info that can be found, unfortunately a forum upgrade some years ago prevents you from going directly as most members previous posts on the search are/were closed off at something like 500 posts, so if you know someone with a lot of posts you wont find what they posted years ago....the trick is to simply check the members list for those with early join dates and low post counts, check the thread titles for items of interest and go from there... happy reading, if nothing else it might save a few repetitive questions.
 
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D. Nye

Lifetime Supporter
Thanks Jac for posting this I really enjoyed the read. In all by research on this site I never came across this.

Don
 
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