Isuzu Bellet driven by Bruce McLaren?

Hi folks,

Whilst looking through some old press info on the Isuzu Bellet in the UK one of my friends found a picture of what appears to be Bruce Maclaren using one in practice at Goodwood :

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x58/Spottedlaurel/Isuzu%20Random/Bellett_Motor_17-4-65.jpg

There is also this one (a 2dr this time) :

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x58/Spottedlaurel/Isuzu%20Random/Bellett_Autosport_19-11-92.jpg

If there were two of them floating around I wonder if they are still alive. Are they buried in anyone's collection??

Barry sold/shipped his car to Japan about 15 years ago

Thank you for the response. I guess thats one of them solved at least.

Anyone got any more info about the Bruce Maclaren piloted one? Even some event results would be interesting.

Motor Racing at Gooodwood in the Sixties by Tony Gardiner , has on page 80 , shows Bruce in 1965 driving no 112 on to the circuit , no result given.

Thanks for the info, I'll go and track down the book, I think it might be in my fathers collection actually.

Seems that beyond that its dissappeared. What would the deal have been on a car like that in that period? Would Bruce McLaren have been the owner/driver or would it have likely belonged to a 3rd party? Isuzu didn't officially exist in the UK at the time (which is what stemmed the interest in these Bellett's making it to our shores).

I was at that Goodwood meeting and remember that it didn’t appear for the race. According to Autosport the engine suffered a piston failure in practice, so McLaren didn’t start. The entrant was listed as Nippon Racing. In the Autosport preview it was referred to as “a works Japanese Isuzu Bellett”.

Also according to Autosport it appeared in the GT race(?) at Crystal Palace on 7th June, driven by John Sprinzel.

That is some fantastic extra information, I now have some more avenues of investigation. Thank you very much.