Bruce McLaren piloting the works Isuzu Bellett at Goodwood during practice for the St Mary’s Trophy race over the April 19, 1965 International Trophy weekend.
In a busy weekend McLaren raced his Cooper T77 Climax to fourth place in the F1 feature, the Sunday Mirror Trophy, and his 4.5-litre Elva McLaren Oldsmobile to third in Lavant Cup, both races were won by Jim Clark, in Lotus 25 Climax and Lotus 30 Ford respectively. The power to weight ratio of this Nippon Racing, British Saloon Car Championship entry would have been the lowest of his mounts I suspect…
It was the first time a Japanese car appeared at a BSCC round, so it was an historic occasion. The Autosport report of the race records that a piston failed in the 1471cc four-cylinder engine in practice, so Bruce didn’t take the start of the event won by Jim Clark’s Team Lotus, Lotus Cortina and Jack Sears’ sister car.
John Sprinzel raced the Bellett at Crystal Palace on June 7, albeit not in the BSCC race, how did he go?
I wonder what Bruce thought of the car?, highly regarded in Australia at the time, see here; https://www.shannons.com.au/club/news/racing-garage/isuzu-bellett-the-club-car-that-helped-bondy-become-a-superstar/
Credits…
MotorSport Images, ‘Motor Racing at Goodwood in the Sixties’ Tony Gardiner, Stephen Dalton, Jack Inwood, Brent Benzie, Doug Nye
Tailpiece…
No doubt Bruce had ‘plenty’ of touring car form – don’t bother with an essay on the topic whatever you do, they were of no consequence to him – here with a works, I think, Morris Cooper at Pukekohe during the January 5, 1963 NZ GP meeting.
McLaren DNF’d that race after magneto failure in his Cooper T62 Climax on lap 24, John Surtees won aboard a Lola Mk4 Climax. I wonder how he went with the Mini? He brought this car out on his Australasian Tour that summer, racing it only in NZ, does it still exist?
Etcetera…
A few days after I posted this article I had a great email from Brent Benzie.
“I read with great interest the post about Bruce McLaren and the Mini Cooper he raced in the Tasman series support races (at least in New Zealand) back in 1962-63.”
“During the mid-late 1960s I owned and raced this car mainly at Teretonga, Wigram and Ruapuna. The late Wally Willmott, wh I got to know quite well in the 1970s, told me a lot about the details of the car and its history with Bruce, and that he (Wally) had quite a lot to do with its original preparation.”
“It had an interesting a very special engine that was basically a BMC Formula Junior unit. It was fitted with two 1 1/2 inch SU carbs with no provision for chokes and sure was hello get started in that South Island climate I can tell you.”
“I sold the Cooper to fund my move to Australia but I’m pleased to say that the car still exists in New Zealand and has been restored by a gentleman who lives in or near Auckland. See the photo.”
“Incidentally, before your post I had never heard of Bruce driving an Isuzu Bellett and it brought to mind a story I read several years ago about a company that, back in the 1990s, had just leased an abandoned warehouse near the docks in Los Angeles. Inside was a huge stock of Bellett parts – including complete engines, transmissions and body parts etc – all brought into the US by Isuzu but never distributed to their dealers before they ‘pulled the plug’ on that model.”
Finito…
primotipo... 