Jim:
I want to follow up on our several conversations concerning J-10. As you know, several years ago two friends and I purchased J10, originally raced in the CanAm series as "G7A." According to a sworn statement from Kerry Agapiou obtained at the time of our purchase, J-10 had been acquired by Charlie and Kerry Agapiou from Ford Motor Company along with J-9 in February of 1969. J-10, completed by Charlie and Kerry as a CanAm spyder, was raced in a number of races in 1969-70 by drivers such as Jack Brabham, Vic Elford, Peter Revson and John Cannon with its highest finish a 2nd at Fuji in 1970.
It was subsequently crashed in practice at Riverside and was taken back to the Agapiou shop where the suspension, uprights and steering rack were removed. The damaged front part of the tub from the bulkhead forward was removed. The tub was repaired and the monocoque was reassembled. It was subsequently sold to Marty Yacoobian in 1989 as a bare rolling CanAm chassis without engine or body work.
At the time of our purchase of J-10 from Marty Yacoobian in 1996, the car had been essentially completed as a coupe in the MKIV "Sebring" configuration with the appropriate dry sum FE427 and T-44 gearbox.
An argument could be made that the car should have been restored as it ran in the CanAm series. However, by the time the car got to us, other than the chassis, there was little of the CanAm parts; body work, motor, trans., all being substantially different than as raced as a MKIV, to be had. Pragmatically, we were not prepared to go back and start over again to try rebuild G7A. Since our acquisition of the car, we have been methodically going through it and hope to have it reassembled this coming year in time for the next SAAC convention..
All of the twelve J car chassis were original designed and built with the sole aim of winning at LeMans. Had the French not legislated them out of existence following the 1967 race, the four "left over" chassis; J-9, 10, 11 and 12, would have, in all probability, been completed and raced by Ford. At this point, that is speculation to be sure. And there is certainly no question that the six MKIV coupes; J-3 which did thousands of miles of testing, J-4, which won Sebring and the four LeMans coupes J-5, J-6, J-7 and J-8 have an immortal place in international racing history. But, I would argue that perhaps J-10, with more races to its credit than any of the other J chassis, deserves a little recognition in its own right as well.
Jim Holden