Unusual Race Cars

gordini · Post by **gordini** » Mon 07 Jul 2008, 16:20

Hi KR, you seem to have the special goodies to check the history. Can you check under other names to do with Renault, like Renault Special or Ren Prototype or something like that. And please check maybe in 63 or 65 also.I would really like the RSA history of the car. The Matra guys is quite sure that the bodywork is Matra, but the name can be anything. The old man from who i bought it states that he bought it on the track as a Matra.Matra was actually called RB before the Matra co bought the name and the company from Rene Bonnet, the actual inventor of all pre 66 Matra cars. It is also possible that the car raced under the name RB or Rene Bonnet or an abbreviation of all the names

Killarney Racer · Post by **Killarney Racer** » Mon 07 Jul 2008, 16:47

Gordini, I checked for any make that I was not familiar with and found nothing. I saw your query on the Matra forum, but they (Henk) also seemed a bit confused. I will have another go tonight. No disrespect, but I feel that the body may be homebuilt. I feel fairly sure Matra did not come out with a body looking like that.

You don't remember the name of the person you bought it from? Do you know any other names assocaited with the cars in SA? Why would Matra have 3 cars out here for the 9hr in 1964? They were not even a name at that stage.

But lets not jump to conclusions. I will scout around and see what I can find.

gordini · Post by **gordini** » Mon 07 Jul 2008, 17:03

KR, Henk is on the Ultimate carpage forum, and the other info i got is from a Dutch Matra forum, that dissapeared from the net and the official Matra forum. There the said that the car resembles the Matra Djet in its prototype form , but in a spider configuration. Henk and that other Matra/Alpine is a bit deurmekaar but their input is still valuable

gordini · Post by **gordini** » Mon 07 Jul 2008, 17:24

KR,
Did you see the other car of the 3 on UCP??

henryk · Post by **henryk** » Tue 08 Jul 2008, 08:38

I think I know about this car.

Clearly this is not the original shape as the front "spoiler" must have been a later addition. Also the windscreen seems out of character.

I've read about this car,but don't know where.

If I'm correct it was buillt in Jhb by the company that built the Lolettes. Think the designer was Eric Brockhoven. He now lives in Australia.

Looking at the rear end treatment it has a Lolette look to it.

Just look at the rear ends of the Lolette buggies at the time to see the similarity.

Think there is some mention of the car in the book Kyalami 1961 to 1971. Will check tonight.

But the car definately used Renault R8 type suspension and running gear.

Does it ring a bell to anyone else?

Killarney Racer · Post by **Killarney Racer** » Tue 08 Jul 2008, 08:54

Hi Gordini - I had a root around my archive last night. The car definately did not enter any 9hr. All the cars on all the entry lists I looked at I am familiar with, even the home grown Thompson Special, Baracuda, Lolette, etc. The closest is the Mpiti Renault built and driven by Terry Townsend. Plenty of R8's on the lists, again all are familiar.

Like HenryK I also thought of the Lolette, even though it is not one of the three (I think) that raced.

I have actually never seen your car before and I looked through many pictures to identify it. Also used the Kyalami book HK was referring to.

So my feeling is that this is a locally produced car and therefore I would be suprised if there were 3 made as they would have surfaced at some time.

I looked at all the original Matra models and even the DJet doesn't fit. I am convinced your car is not a Matra.

Hi-Fi · Post by **Hi-Fi** » Tue 08 Jul 2008, 09:21

This could clearly be yet another misrepresentation by the original owner to gordini. But don't lose heart. If the car was competitive as you say it was, then that's half the battle won. At least you can enjoy running it again once you have finished restoring it. Not only that, but if it transpires that the original designer of the car happens to be Eric Brockhoven, you have an authentic South African car on your hands.

As you may know, he did quite a few designs of quite potent machinery in the 60's and 70's to race in this country. I think it's certainly worth keeping and racing.

Can you give me the Matra site address?

gordini · Post by **gordini** » Wed 09 Jul 2008, 09:20

HiFi,
Almost missed this post of yours. I contacted a lot of Matra forums on the web itself and send the links here, but i also contacted some people that was selling their cars via the web. I got a lot of info that way.Here's some links.

http://oscar.messageboard.nl/7101/index.php
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/cla ... arno/30751
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/index.php
http://www.matramania.be/phpBB2/index.p ... 3434b18f5f
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matra_Djet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Sport_Motors

In one of these links you will see a pic of a Matra Djet taken from the rear end. My little car looks excactly like that. Even the taillights were the same but they got lost when the car was stolen.

gordini · Post by **gordini** » Wed 09 Jul 2008, 11:20

I missed this one

http://www.matrasport.dk/

gordini · Post by **gordini** » Wed 09 Jul 2008, 11:27

This is the other car in the package.It was later fitted with a 2l Volvo mid mounted eng on a Audi box. The body was also heavily modified as you can see in the pic

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