George Bevan

ACCORDING TO

ROB MASON

My brief was to cut away the inner arch and raise so as to enable the wheel to go up inside the wing without touching any metal. Then the outer wing had to be hammered out to produce a bulbous shaped arch in steel, not using any filler. This had to be done on all four arches.

Outside the Potting shed

My racing career started long before the Imps because I first started out in Minis. George and Peter Bevan lived close by, George asked me to modify their New-to-be British Saloon Car Championship winning Imp wheel arches, which at the time were just hammered up to give clearance.

My brief was to cut away the inner arch and raise them so as to enable the wheel to go up inside the wing without touching any metal, I remember removing the coil springs to allow the wheel to easily travel up inside the inner arch using a trolly jack to raise and lower the car.

With the inner arch removed the outer wing could then be hammered out to produce a bulbous shaped arch in steel, no body filler was allowed and this had to be done on all four wheel arches.

I was a Panel Beater and already had a reputation for producing very fast minis.(That was another life, in fact thinking about it Ive had about three lives already) I did whole job for free but asked one thing, I would like to go as a team member to some International races.

Bill McGovern who drove for George was a friend of my dads and they had raced together in the early years so I knew I would fit in, although I had forgotten one 1000cc club race at Brands Hatch when Bill and I were racing for the lead and on the last lap I push him aside at Clearways and went on to win.

I remember George being really upset with me for crashing into his driver. George was at my car before I could get out, he was fuming and shouting that I should be disqualified (this was before George became deaf) as soon as I could get a word in I asked George to speak with Bill first before making judgement.

Bill had to own up to the other damage on his car where he had bashed hell out of me at Paddock bend and Druids hairpin where George couldn’t see.

George honoured my request to attend the next race and when I saw the car I was surprised to see my master pieces had been cut off and in their place were arches made from GRP to the same design. These became the Homologated Roots Wheel arch kits that were sold to all Imp owners around the world.

My plan to go with George to the international meetings was calculated because it gave me a face and the opportunity to mix again with the big teams like Broadspeed and other works sponsored teams.

The year before I was racing in the British saloon car championship with a Don Moore 1000cc mini against Alex Poole who went on to win the championship and I came second and I was hungry to race again in the championship. That year I won the three hour European Touring car championship race at Brands Hatch driving the Don Moore car.

I knew the imp of George´s was going to clean up and mini´s were finished in the championship and although I didn’t manage to secure a rear wheel drive I did end up racing yet another mini Cooper S in the British saloon car championship but this time in the 1300cc class because I knew the 1000cc mini wouldn’t stand a chance against the imps.

In that championship year if I was just one car in front of George/McGovern duo I was doing well in my class. It was impossible to shake the imp off and although I started the championship late that year I did have some fantastic races against Jonathan Buncombe driving a Richard Longman car. Just for the record I was driving a Ken Costello car. (Ken Costello was at the top of his career driving minis when minis first arrived on the scene in the 60s with great success)

Don MooreMini Cooper S

Jonathan Buncombe and Rob Mason

I got a test drive in the now famous Bevan imp and although I turned in good times I felt I had failed miserably, but I wasn’t ready for it. It was too much of a change from front to rear wheel especially with the pendulum effect of the engine hanging out the back. Another car had been built for a Silverstone European International race and I would have been the driver, but I believe George thought it was too soon to risk. Ray Calcut drove the car although I was the acting mechanic for the car. You can learn a lot from drivers when you’re that close.

I did manage to make good contacts and secured a drive with Arden Equip owned by a lovely man called Jim Whitehouse racing a Dolomite Sprint in the new Group One British Saloon Championship. The rules were changed to stop the Bevan Imps from winning. I think Frank Gardener instigated that, well he was the one who complained the most. Ironically Frank refused to race in the Championship because he said ¨The championship has come full circle and did not want to do it again. It was a very competitive year and the rules were stretched by other teams to the extent it was impossible to compete. Jim Whitehouse said he was not prepared to break the rules.

Arden Equip were the team that run Alec Poole in the mini that one the British Saloon Championship in 1969.

I was up against the might of Ralf Broad with the Broadspeed cars with Andy Rouse driving. (All these wonderful names) I did win the second round of the championship at Brands Hatch in 1974 that year.

I gave up the drive part way through the year to Chris Craft (These wonderful names) The next year I was invited to test the Broadspeed Dolomite at Silverstone. The test went very well and I was selected to drive the second car only to refuse the drive. The car was easy to drive and of course very quick but the brakes would overheat before the first lap was out, there was no fun in driving a car that didn’t have brakes for the rest of the race.

I later saw this as a big mistake but then I went on making more mistakes, like when I was offered the drive from Richard Long to drive his Volkswagen Golf in the British Saloon Championship but turned that down too. It went on that year to win the championship.

Ive gone off the track a bit because, as I write this story memories come flooding back of the journey I was making trying to succeed in this sport but I am proud to have driven on circuits in the same races as the great names of the passed who were coming to the end of their careers as mine would too. Names like Denny Hume, Frank Gardener, Alex Poole, Jack Brabham, Brian Muir, John Fitzpatrick and many more. I still can feel the Z28s thundering pass me at Silverstone.

The Early Years

Over the years I had been working with George when there was bodywork to be done or just a talk in his now famous garden shed, George aways gave you the time of day and when ever you were in the shed a cup of tea would always be offered by Doris.

The stories of George and Doris as privateer racing enthusiast and their dedication to their motorsport is well documented but I would like to add just a small piece of knowledge that was never mentioned. George used his own money to finance/prepare and run the Imp with his son Peter and a guy who worked with George in his day job, Royston.

George´s day job was making Chinese cookers and Royston´s job description was to be at George´s house at 4am, go with George in the van, (The same van used to tow the imp to race meetings) somewhere up North to deliver and fit another new Chinese cooker, then returned mid morning to work on the imp.

I have never read about Royston in any article about the success of George Bevan in any story. Royston was the chief mechanic at every race and did all the work on the car at the race meetings. He was well known and liked by everyone in the paddocks. They were truly a family team.

Almost every enthusiast started out working after their day job in their garage at home, George was no different, although I never saw the car in the garage. It was always on the trailer that doubled as a lift which enabled them to work under the car or at the perfect height at the back where the engine was.

The garage was at the end of a drive next to their house and the garage was rented from a neighbour. There was a side gate from George´s garden to the race car. Just inside the garden gate was the famous potting shed where George built all the mechanical parts and engines.

George in the Potting Shed

Peter Bevan at Brands Hatch

I was there at the very beginning of their motorsport career when George´s son Peter was racing a Austin A40 and he was very fast. Peter later with his father built the first Imp that Peter drove until a end over end crash destroyed the car, he never race again.

Peter was an engineer who worked for Balddyne Engineering and later went on to work for himself modifying cylinder heads.

I lot of credit was owed to Peter for the success of the 3 time British Saloon Car Championship wins including my father Ron Mason on his racing minis and later my minis with the tuning knowledge Peter had.

The Imp was rebuilt after the accident and George ran Ginger Pain and later Bill McGovern.

Jonathan (Peter Bevan´s son) was a small boy when I was with George and he will tell you the whole team was run from a Potting shed at the end of the garden which was bought from the local garden centre. Something that couldn’t happen today was the racing imp sat on the trailer in the driveway next to the potting shed that was open to the road, ready for anyone to hitch up and tow away.

If Frank Gardener had known that, he would have been the one to tow it away with the help of Ralph Broad

To have followed the championship in those years you would have seen George´s imp was unbeatable in its class and the other 3 classes where ferociously fought with different winners each meeting.

British Saloon Car Championship was ferociously contested

Just like today the works sponsored teams don’t want a privateer beating them after all the money they had invested and that is why the rules were changed back to Group One to stop George.

I started racing when the race cars had to be standard and you could only remove the carpets so I had done a full circle back to Group One myself

At any part of that journey the original Body-shell had to remain standard and as the years went by you were allowed to change and tune many things on the cars and Group One became Group Two,Three, Four and five so the journey started again.

I didn’t enjoy the the new Group One cars and I believe this is because of the Thunder cars of the pass. The cars were built with brakes that stopped you, tyres that worked. You were able to use your skill to tune the car with adjustments instead of running on road car suspension.

With my skills I liked to engineer a car and all the cars I have worked on have gone on to win but I struggled with other teams not being able to adjust and modify. This is the main reason I took a break from the British Saloon Car Championship and move back into Special Saloon Car racing.

Back to my Roots

In 1975 George spoke to me and asked if I was interested in building an Imp for Bill McGovern and one for myself. Although I had to produce the body shells at my expense and he would supply all the running gear and engine and gear boxes.

Bill´s car would run the 1000cc class and my car would be the 850cc class. This was a honour to have this opportunity but it did mean a lot of work. The deal was that Bill´s car would be built first. I agreed and the first rolling body shell arrived.

The rules for the special saloons were run under the FIA so reading the rule book I looked around at other winning saloon cars, it became obvious that space frame was the way to go. This was a car constructed of tubing with the suspension hanging from each corner with a glass fibre body over the top.

I discussed this with George and he was adamant that this could not happen. The brief was the car had to be built using the original body shell.

My first thoughts were I was at a disadvantage in weight and height before I started because the rules allowed you to modify the car how you wanted below the centre line of the wheels which were according to the FIA was to allow you to fit air ducts not to cut away the door sills enabling the car to be lowered even more in body height and was not in the spirit of the sport.

I agreed with George that this made the cars ugly and did not resemble the model of the car seen from the side as original.

I did say earlier that I enjoyed engineering a car so I took this as a challenge and I was intent to produce a car that would beat those space framed cars.

At the time I did ask myself why not use a prototype sports car and drop a body on it but that would be cheating although it would have to be a long saloon car that had a rear engine because the rules say the engine must remain in the same position and overall length the as the donor car used. You could use a Karman Ghia. But no unless you used it for the Thunder saloon class it wouldn’t be fair.

Anyone who worked on an imp would know how heavy the bodywork was, its only when you start unpicking the bodywork you discover there are two cars moulded into this car, the whole car was over engineered. When I use to work on George´s championship car I could never understand why the suspension coil spring were so strong, 850 to 1000lb compression. The coil wire was nearly 15mm thick, you make roll bars with that diameter. I later understood why.

When I first studied my imp shell I wanted the roll cage to be the strength of the car.

My plan was to remove the whole back of the car and support the suspension on the roll cage including the engine.

I remembered from the McGovern days lowering the car put the drive shafts at too much an angle and caused the rubber donuts to break and they had to be changed between practice and race so with my design I would raise the pick up points for the rear suspension, so when the car was at its ride height the drive shafts were level stopping the donuts working overtime.

The First Drawing

In my head it was all coming together so it was time to put pen to paper and start drawing my design.

There is my drawing, my plan was to use the aluminium roll cage that George supplied and I would hang the new pickup points for the rear swing arms from the roll cage. The new fixing points would be higher to keep the drive shafts level and not at the ridiculous angle when lowered.

I could have used alloy tubing to space-frame the back to support the engine mount/shock absorber top mount but there was a lot of weight hanging at the rear with the engine and gearbox, not forgetting the toque from the engine too.

I was a profession Panel beater and sprayer so I new my way around chassis work and it was natural for me to fabricate metal to form a chassis leg which I knew I could weld to parts of the original bodywork and once boxed in with inner stiffeners it would be strong and light, and especially strengthened where the top shock absorber bolted through.

As I was retaining the original floor pan my idea of the new chassis legs in affect made the design a monocoque construction. This way I wasn’t making a space frame but achieving the same end.

The imp engine as you know hangs out the back and has an engine mount to hold the engine which is fixed to a rear lower panel that bolts to each side rear wings. My rear wings were being cut away so there had to be another means to support the engine.

My design would hold the engine from above then I could throw away the rear panel.

Anyone who has worked on an Imp would know how heavy this panel was.

In my head it was all coming together so it was time to put pen to paper and start drawing my design.

The first drawing had the fabricated chassis members to support the suspension and the engine

As I was retaining the original floor pan my idea of the new chassis legs in affect made the design a monocoque construction. This way I wasn’t making a space frame but achieving the same end.

My design would hold the engine from above then I could throw away the rear panel.

Anyone who has worked on an Imp would know how heavy this panel was.

Now I have a plan and it’s time to get started. But first I needed to make a jig to support the rear cross member that the rear suspension bolts too. This was bolted to the floor pan so I made up a simple jig so I could align it back once I had cut away the box section that once held it in place.

The whole back of the original imp was cut away, including the the cross member that held the rear swing arms, springs and shockers. Leaving only the roof pillars and rear

wing panels.

I wasn’t able to produce a roll cage to reach the rear engine mount or the top of the shockers, so with my Panel-beating skills I fabricated two chassis members and welded them from the floor pan up-and-over to run along the line of the parcel shelf and on to the engine mount. The original alloy engine mount was now used, but upside down and bolted to my new chassis member. I fabricated new mounts to support the new Koni´s with springs attached and used the original cross member that held the swing arms to weld into the new fabrication.

I knew this new project was going to be a winner because of my knowledge with club Minis´s compared with a British saloon car just by removing all its trim the top speed was greater.

Im not exaggerating when I tell you the last part I cut away from the car was the box section that held the swing arm cross member. I was lying under the car and when a cut away the last part that was holding it in place it nearly killed me it was so heavy.

Every part I had removed from the shell I had in a pile, two men couldn’t carry it. I couldn’t believe it, how did that 1000cc engine pull that car along.

All the fabrication work was complete and the car was standing on its wheels at my intended ride height. I had set the body shell with clearance to the ground before welding the cross member in place so I could get the shafts parallel. The whole project was tricky balancing the engine, gearbox, suspension and cross member to find the correct height to weld it in place. I had a rough idea its position but I had to check before the final weld up.

George had supplied me with those 1000lb rear springs and there was no way they were going into this car and thats why I came up with the idea of using the Koni with adjustable coil springs. We ended up using 300lb springs at the rear and more weight saving.

Remember I told you I tested George´s championship car at Brands Hatch but wasn’t comfortable driving it, one of its annoying habits if you went to hard into a corner like Clearways the car would start hopping across the track and you would have to slow the car to collect it before it would run off the track. I knew then that the coil spring design was so far in

The whole back of the original imp was cut away, including the the cross member that held the rear swing arms, springs and shockers. Leaving only the roof pillars and rear

wing panels.

I knew this new project was going to be a winner because of my knowledge with club Minis´s compared with a British saloon car just by removing all its trim the top speed was greater.

Every part I had removed from the shell I had in a pile, two men couldn’t carry it. I couldn’t believe it, how did that 1000cc engine pull that car along.

To produce them in glass fibre you need to make a mould, you do this by taking a mould on the outside shape of the wing and after waiting for it to cure you would build a Frame around the new mould to stop it going out of shape. Then you would use the inside of the mould (called a plug) to produce the finished wing panel.

This was not for me because first I didn’t have enough time and there was more expense involved doing it that way.

I would have to make good the tack welds on the outside with filler to get a smooth finish, so I decided as it would be the same work I would make a mould in a way I have never seen done before.

I carefully removed each modified wing panel complete like I would to remove a damaged wing on an accident damaged car. When the panel was off I turned it over and ground away all the welded areas and made them good to leave them smooth. I tack welded a strip of metal about 25mm all round the forward edge where it meets the door and the top edge so there was extra panel to pop rivet the new wing to the body shell.

I then had my mould to produce a GRP panel from the inside of that panel. The inside of my metal wing was now the plug. I continued on and did the same the other side and produced two glass fibre finished wings with out making a mould.

If you can now imagine the cut away shell with no inner wings, I can now see through and out the other side looking over the engine and gearbox with no inner arches.

With all the metal work done on the rear end, the car was now standing by itself and looking weird with no back end.

Next was the job of bonding the new glass fibre rear wings into place, I did this by pop riveting and glass fibre strip bonding. Across the back I made new glass fibre panel the same way but from a replacement skin which I bought from the local Roots garage. The inside of the panel was ready made to mould from the same way as the rear wings. I went on to make the engine cover (boot) by cutting away the inner stiffening panel and moulding the same way as the others.

You can now see how much easier it is to produce moulds and the time saving, especially important to me because I had to work during the day which left me working on the car in the evenings and weekends.

I went on making the doors and the roof in glass fibre the same way.

I will need three people to carry the waste metal away at this rate. Its easy to see how the space framed cars where so fast. Little did I know they were going to have a shock.

Again I shaped the front arches to match the rear wings with nice flowing arches, but this time not cutting the wing away. I added a sheet metal front spoiler to the front and again tack welded it into place. The whole front end I want as one piece because I want to remove the the whole front. I could have bought a glass fibre front end but I was on fire and I wanted to produce my own panels incase of a crash.

While the bonnet was off I cut away the inner panels that supported the front wings and across the front so the front was only attached at the back end of the front wings and barely hanging on.

This was not for me because first I didn’t have enough time and there was more expense involved doing it that way.

I would have to make good the tack welds on the outside with filler to get a smooth finish, so I decided as it would be the same work I would make a mould in a way I have never seen done before.

If you can now imagine the cut away shell with no inner wings, I can now see through and out the other side looking over the engine and gearbox with no inner arches.

With all the metal work done on the rear end, the car was now standing by itself and looking weird with no back end.

I went on making the doors and the roof in glass fibre the same way.

I will need three people to carry the waste metal away at this rate. Its easy to see how the space framed cars where so fast. Little did I know they were going to have a shock.

While the bonnet was off I cut away the inner panels that supported the front wings and across the front so the front was only attached at the back end of the front wings and barely hanging on.

Next I cut away the inner stiffening panel from the bonnet so all I had was the skin, I laid the bonnet into position and tack welded it to the wings and the front panel to make it all one piece.

Very carefully I release the back of the front wings and removed the whole front end in one piece, again turning the panels up side down to revile the insides.

This was not going to be an easy job cutting all the edges away to leave them smooth but it was achievable. What a beauty Ive never seen this done before and all my friends were amazed. Talking about my friends Im very grateful for their support and help even if it was making the tea. Also my uncle John who trained me to be a panel beater and came at weekends to help with the metal work.

Do you remember the brief that George gave me was to produce two cars so the metal moulds I had made were going to keep the costs down, but I must admit I was not looking forward to doing another one especially as the first one was for Bill McGuvern. Ouch.

If you have not already realised my Imp was smaller than the others by 22g. Bearing that in mind if anyone copies this way of producing moulds take special care to allow for clearance for the wheels by about 12mm extra because you are taking your finished mould from the inside not the outside.

Once the front was away it was easy to construct tubing to support the front swing arm suspension and produce a place for the fuel tank.

Thinking back, had I used a steel role cage I could have run to all the pickup points of the suspension, springs, cross member and engine mount. Hey, Rawlson space-frame!! but then could he had kept the original Floor pan.

The choice of colour for the car was yellow. I cant think for the life of me why because I loved and admired the racing blue colour of the Bevan Imp.

Almost at the end of the cars construction Bill McGovern announced his retirement from racing. Maybe this was the reason to change the colour. It was fitting that Bill owned that period and all that went with it, including the colour.

This left me the number one driver of the Bevan Team.

Finished and Tested at Brands Hatch

The New Imp turned out at Brands Hatch for its first test.

George had agreed to provide a small engine for me to run and Bill would continue in the 1000cc class had he not retired. My Imp had the 850cc engine as agreed fitted, so what was amazing about our first test was our lap times were faster than the 1000cc class lap record.

Now that I was the number one driver I would be getting the 1000cc engine and I couldn’t wait to get it in.

The car was very fast straight from the box winning all its races and taking lap records at every circuit.

This was a new venture for George and me, all George´s previous experience with the Bill McGuvern Imp was useless because the new car had nothing in common with the old.

It never suffered with donut failure, It never once hopped across a corner. The spring rate knowledge was useless and all the spare springs were now obsolete. Even the gear ratios were no good because the car was lighter. George only enjoyed doing the engines and that’s where he specialised. We were like a couple of kids playing in the potting shed. George was able to experiment with his engines trying different camshafts any excuse to remove the engine he would, he loved it.

At one meeting at Brands Hatch there was two races one for 850cc and the other for 1000cc classes. George´s plan was to fit the 850cc engine into the car and qualify for the grid in both classes with the 850cc engine, using this engine put us on pole for both the races. The first race was for the 850cc class so the plan was to change engines after the first race and fit the 1000cc engine for the next race. It won both races but what was pleased me the most, was in the 1000cc class there were space framed imps and they were going out find out how quick this was.

George and I were hungry to challenge all the space frames and especially the BDA engined minis who were responsible for making the sport too expensive.

George was also accused of being too professional for the club race scene for what I had already explained, George was a retired man and we were running on a small budget using old parts that were considered scrap.

We travelled around the country towing with an old works van which we took turns in driving.

My point is. George never got rich from winning the British Saloon Car championships and he was running the car on his savings and pension, if Doris could have stopped George she would have done.

We were ready for a change

George and I were like a couple of kids working on cars we loved, we had fantastic times together and a lot of successes. I will always hold that in my memories.

We could only work with parts we had in stock, and with a car I built at my expense, we were a private team on a budget. But still I was made to feel guilty that I had the backing of a big team.

It was because of this that George and I decided to move on to the impossible. Move away from the Imp he knew so well to the Free for all Super saloons and our target was overall wins and to get those big mouthed boozers and their all conquering ¨Babies¨

We sold the Imp and bought a failed project in the disguise of a Stiletto Imp boasting a 2 liter FVC with the running gear of allegedly Ronnie Peterson Lotus 69 F2.

George saw the Stiletto imp for sale and we traveled up north to look at the new project.

Both George and I were very nervous about doing this venture mainly because we could be well out of our depth and maybe buying a load of junk.

George agreed a deal and we towed the car away there and then. The new Stiletto imp was taken again to my garage again to be modified and rebuilt to George´s high standards.

The original car had a steel back end, the car was redesigned with removable one piece. See the new stays to support the bodywork.

New engine/gearbox supports were made to comply with a full roll cage design. See the Lotus 69 suspension which soon to find out was wrong.

In those days you didn’t get paid like you would today to race so my day job had to be done before the new project could be worked on so no change there.

My business was only a small concern and I had to push the Stiletto out each day to do my body repairs and depending on the drying time leave the car outside. I aways managed to finish my weeks work by the Wednesday night, this left me the rest of the week to play racing cars.

The new car was a project built by a guy call Pillbeam and the car was owed by Tony Dickenson. George boult the car from a fat man named Malcolm Johnstone. As far as I no the car had no success.

The body panels on the car were steel as the car was built from a Stiletto Imp with the front end of the Lotus space frame welded into the front of the shell, the same was done at the back using the rear space frame from the same Lotus welded into the back of the body shell.

The model Stiletto was different from our last Imp because the roof sloped down sharp at the back giving a more race look and was crying out for a big spoiler.

A one piece glass fibre front end was attached at the front of the car. The doors were steel with just the inner door pockets cut out. The roof was steel and the rear body work was steel with the most ugliest wheel arches I have ever seen at the rear.

As a project this was going to be easier for me to rebuild because its not like the last car where I had to construct and modify the whole car from the bottom up. What was worrying me was the car looked unsafe because there wasn’t much room for the driver and the way the car was built if it were to crash it would fold in half. I had to find a way of making it stronger and make a safety cell for me to sit in.

First I got rid of all the body panels including the glass fibre front end because that was heaver than the steel one piece I made from the last car. I took the doors off and put them to one side as I had a plan for them.

The back end was all steel so to get to the engine you would have to jack the car up and climb over the gearbox or remove the panel over the engine and get to the engine from the inside the seating area. This was horrible and was going to change, but first before I loose the shape of the back end I cut away the old rear wheel arches, I could do my last trick of using the inside of the metal panels as the mould. The old wheel arches were made from an old 40 gallon oil drum shaped around the wheel for clearance.

When I cut these away they could have broken my foot they were so heavy with body filler. Everything I was cutting off this car was heavy and Im not sure I wanted to lighten the car because I saw it as being too fast as it was but I’m cutting kilos off this car.

I could see by the tyre rubber burn marks the rear wheels were touching the arches so I had to give them clearance. I thought I had given them enough clearance but later I discovered not enough.

The suspension was stripped and bulkhead strengthened & painted.

The original car had a heavy removable front. The radiator was moved back to be away from the accident and re-designed for the air intake to come in from behind and exit from the top and out through the bonnet

I was starting with the body work and there was no time to check the suspension layout I just assumed that the Lotus 69 would have already taken care of that, how wrong that turned out to be.

Once I shaped out the wheel arches I set about designing the back end of the car without using a boot lid because in my drawings I was going to use a big rear wind and that would tack care of most of the back end.

Once I had completed the rear half of the car I now had to cut it off which meant I had to cut half way across the roof so that it finished just behind the drivers head.

All the steel moulds were done so I put them to one side to concentrate on a safety cell for the driver. The original centre of the car was original and steel but not enough steel to hold back an impact. My plan was to make with aluminium sheets a monocoque similar to a prototype sports car and fill it with expanding foam. The original car had a Corbo seat fitted but like I said there was no room for the driver so with my plan I could have a narrow centre box section running from the bulk head behind all the way to the front foot well. This would also house the gear change lever and rod, and all the switches.

I put a block of wood on the floor to give me some height to see out of the windscreen sitting at a driving position and got my uncle John (best him) to take measurements by the side of me and to give me some shape for my back. With the Corbo seat gone my legs were now out straight. I them set about making the side pod box sections. You can see in the photo how I made the doors.

I was happy now I had a safety cell. All I had to do now was was give myself a fire proof bulk head from the engine and a small window above to see out the back.

I used the inner cushions from the Corbo seat for a bit of comfort.

Two seater with driver sitting to one side. FIA rules.

The car had the original floor pan from the imp and was unsafe so a fabricated alloy safety cell with centre boxing was designed and then foam filled for strength. The original Corbo seat was thrown away.

See how the new fabricated alloy door boxes were designed to fit snuggle around the front wheel arches and door A posts

It was nearly the start of the season.

There was so much work to be done and George was insisting on testing the car. We decided to take the car to Brands Hatch for a shake-down to check all the systems and start the engine because it hadn’t been started since the day with bought it. It was the only thing George asked the seller to prove, that the engine would run. When I think about it now we were so lucky the engine was ok. The engine was a FVA which was the formula 2 original engine and it was built like a Swiss watch with the camshafts driven by gears instead like the BDA that had a belt to drive the camshafts.

The BDA was considered to be the fastest engine because the camshaft gear train had lees friction to drive it.

The moment of truth, the first run out. To say I was nervous would have been an under statement I was almost sick, It was something I had always dreamed of to be in the bigger class and possibly challenge for the outright wins, or was it I didn’t want to fail.

Our success with the smaller imp gave Goerge a large following and George had announced the new arrival and his plans to go into the larger category. I touched before with the problem of racing with George Bevan, he was a victim of his own success because club racers didn’t want us there. In some ways that was short sighted because someone of George´s status gave weight to the championship and I remember when I was starting out my gaol was to beat the best, how else could you measure your success.

I had the same feeling in my stomach when I first tested the 1000cc imp wasn’t fear but a worry I would let George down. The building of the last imp I see now was an easy project compared to this one and my feeling this time was fear, fear of being injured or writing the car off.

I drove the car out on to the circuit for the first time and there was a lot of people there to watch us to either succeed or some of them to see us fail. My first impressions were we were going to fail because the car drove horrible, it was steering all over the track by its self and all I was doing was correcting its behaviour. It was a damp cold day at Brands and maybe the tyres were too cold the track too damp, lots of causes and excuses but in the back of my mind I felt it was