The 'new' J-cars

[Kirby Schrader]

Are any of you aware of the 7 J-cars that Ken Thompson is/was building?

I'm _not_ knowledgeable about these cars by any means.

In any case, when Mike, Jack and I visited his shop back in 2007, he had many, many parts available sitting on the shelf; all of which were 7 in quantity.

If you went to Road America and wandered back behind where Olthoff's was situated, the first rolling chassis was sitting there. Apparently for sale. $70K.

I heard Ken was getting tired of the whole project though, but I don't know any details. Who ordered them in the first place? Who is still expecting to get one, etc. etc.

Just wondering....

Kirby

 

[Jac Mac]

I'm amazed with all you folk at Road America that there were not more pics of these cars & some other interesting tech stuff etc taken. I had a nice surprise in yesterdays emails when a Kiwi friend who was there sent a bunch of stuff that include pics of these cars , chassis, etc.

 

[Jack Houpe]

I'm amazed with all you folk at Road America that there were not more pics of these cars & some other interesting tech stuff etc taken. I had a nice surprise in yesterdays emails when a Kiwi friend who was there sent a bunch of stuff that include pics of these cars , chassis, etc.

PM me your email address and I will start the download process. One of our crew lost his camera which had many, many pictures on it at RA.

 

[Kirby Schrader]

Well, my excuse is that I was busy doing a lot of other stuff and I relied on those with cameras to do the pictures!

Honestly, my main goal was to get my car on the track for the first time and I focused on that. You don't go to Road America with a car and not drive it on the track! Or, at least, that was my thinking process.

I did go and look twice at the J-car chassis sitting there though... Amazing work by Ken. As I understand it, even the honeycombed sandwiched chassis parts are made the 'right way'.

Mike Drew took a lot of pictures of various cars including the ones only partially there in various stages of rebuild. Maybe he can share some more pics with the forum.

Kirby

I'm amazed with all you folk at Road America that there were not more pics of these cars & some other interesting tech stuff etc taken. I had a nice surprise in yesterdays emails when a Kiwi friend who was there sent a bunch of stuff that include pics of these cars , chassis, etc.

 

[Chuck]

SInce I am not in the market, did not pay close attention to the details, but did chat with Fran Kress about the continuation Mark IV. As I recall, their were about a dozen built originally, and the plan is to build about seven more to make it an even twenty. They will be sold as complete cars including 427 engine, although they will be aluminum rather than iron block, one of the few changes from the original.

Kar Kraft built the original cars, and apparenty the company and/or the rights to the car have been acquired so that these are true continuation series cars.

There was an original Mark IV, which we looked over closely. (I was amazed that it was being driven on the track, such a rare car). The continuation car looked identical, just 45 years newer, albeit I am no expert.

If any one has better info, chime in. I could well be wrong on some of these details. Regardless, it was a very impressive sight to see.

The price: mucho dinero. Most have already been pre sold.

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Fran Kress's "J" car J13 was the roller there. The cars are done to the correct design and with a T44 as original. A very complex chassis build.

 

[Evan]

It was very neat to see J car open. I will post some pics of the weekend soon. I took a lot of 1031/1048. I was in love with that car!

 

[Chuck]

Here are few detail pics just found. Note that the car is designated J-13 and Kar Kraft appears as the manufacturer. The view through the glass is a view of the top of the dash. Wish I had taken more.

 

[Chuck]

Just for comparision, some shots of J-1.

 

[SouthernGT40]

I was at Road America and have some shots of Kenny's chassis. I was under the impression talking to the guys with the red car that it was a replica?

 

[SouthernGT40]

A few more.

 

[Chuck]

I was told that the red Mark IV was an original - and it did look it. Told it was J-1. Should have photographed the manufacturer's plate. Darn . . . .

 

[Grady]

See if these help you do your comparison of new and older cars. These are the real deals.

pic 40-09 shows molds and spares, in the foreground is the John Wilment Daytona Coupe.
I'm still confused as to where the J cars ended and the MKIV cars began. From what I've seen there were 12 cars (MKIVs) built, and two had the tops removed for CanAm racing. Interesting reading, but it is rare to see any of the cars in numbers. They were differently built and seemed a more robust chassis.
There were two of the Daytonas here of the 5 or 6 made. Bob Olthoff told me all were different.
Grady

 

[Evan]

Well Bill is on this forum so you can talk to him more. From the information I have collected the Red MKIV or "J-1" it was a destroyed chassis and then was rebuilt in '92 or so and was completed in 2002. It has all the right stuff. It is the only MKIV that was not built by Kar Kraft themselves.

Towards Grady, the J cars are MKIV's. J is the serial number or how we can identify what the car accomplished in its day. There were two types of Daytona coupes, some were built with a "California" roof line which was more flat. The other roof line was rounded. I could mix up which was which but that is how some were different then others. Alan Mann racing had a couple of Coupes to race in Europe, which he accomplished winning the Manufactures championship July 4th 1965! In some images of the # 5 and 6 car that entered LeMans in 1964, you can tell that they both have different roof lines and one windshield is more slanted than the other.

 

[Mike Trusty]

The Wilment Coupe that is pictures above had a greater rake in the windshild as mentioned by Evan. It also had two different rear decks during it life as well as two different nose shapes. Both were attempts to improve the aerodynamics of the car. The Wilment was the winningest coupe of them all and was never considered a "Shelby" coupe. Dennis will need to verify this but most of its success was in the the hands of Bob Olthoff(Dennis's father) and Jack Sears. Its entire racing history was accomplished all over Europe and the African continent.

I am very familiar with this car, in fact I know every nut and bolt of it. I restored it to its pressent condition. Except in general appearance it is completely different from the six "Shelby" coupes. Again, I know because during the restoration process I was given complete access to one of the six.

I notice that SPF has just annouced that they now only have a Shelby CSX9000 continuation series Daytona Coupe available. The "old" Brock coupe is no more. Unlike the GT40 that they reproduce that is a very good copy of the original, the coupe looks like a coupe only as long as you are 20 or 30 feet away. It leans much more to creature comfort than originality which is probably a good thing. If you think that an original style GT40 is uncomforable, you should go to lunch in a real coupe. My ears are still ringing.

 

[Evan]

Mike when I was at Road America I was amazed by the color of you GT40. By any chance could you give me the name of it? Im doing a Fixie bike and that could be a color choice of mine. Thanks a bunch!

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Mike when I was at Road America I was amazed by the color of you GT40. By any chance could you give me the name of it? Im doing a Fixie bike and that could be a color choice of mine. Thanks a bunch!

I understand it is 1966 Ford "Emberglo" as used on Mustangs and Thunderbirds.

 

[Kirby Schrader]

Emberglow it is. And it was used on the Galaxies and Fairlanes also. Probably could have been ordered with any Ford in those days?

Back in my high school days, a friend had a Fairlane that color and the father of another guy had a 4 door Galaxie the same color.

As Mike has indicated, he's rather partial to the color. His Pantera is the same color!

I understand it is 1966 Ford "Emberglo" as used on Mustangs and Thunderbirds.

 

[Jim Glickenhaus]

Firstly the original MK-IV's and J Cars chassis plates clearly read manufactured by Ford.

The idea of "continuation cars" being anything but replicas is silly.

What original J Car was running around?

 

[Jim Glickenhaus]

Well Bill is on this forum so you can talk to him more. From the information I have collected the Red MKIV or "J-1" it was a destroyed chassis and then was rebuilt in '92 or so and was completed in 2002. It has all the right stuff. It is the only MKIV that was not built by Kar Kraft themselves.

Towards Grady, the J cars are MKIV's. J is the serial number or how we can identify what the car accomplished in its day. There were two types of Daytona coupes, some were built with a "California" roof line which was more flat. The other roof line was rounded. I could mix up which was which but that is how some were different then others. Alan Mann racing had a couple of Coupes to race in Europe, which he accomplished winning the Manufactures championship July 4th 1965! In some images of the # 5 and 6 car that entered LeMans in 1964, you can tell that they both have different roof lines and one windshield is more slanted than the other.

Bill's car is not built on the chassis remains of J1. The chassis remains of J1 were completely destroyed and shredded. A few parts of J1 survive. The Bolder Museum is building a replica of J1 with some of those parts.

There are two cars built on original unused tubs after the fact by Brian Angliss which carry
J11 and J12 chasis plates.

Chassis J9 and J10 were built up into Can Am cars after 1967 and J10 is being reconstructed as a MK-IV.