Ian Briggs' Delta F4?

I own Ian Brigg,s Delta which won the f4 championship in 1978 and 79.The car was sponsered by CP Hydraulics and painted black and gold.I want to put the car back to its original livery but I haven,t got any decent photo,s of it.Can anybody help?

I remember the car,it had an 1140 Imp engine at the time we were running a 1300 MAE in the Holley Enterprises /Brian Turner car.When Brian became i/ll he had to give up racing,not before we had taken the championship the two years before Ian,unfortunately that is all I can tell you though,it was all a little tense in those days.

I posted something similar to this earlier, but it seems to have gone missing.

I had no idea you used to help Brian Turner, Terence.

The Imp engine in F4 spec should have been 998cc, and I assume Briggo's was legal!. The 1300 engine regs were some way from MAE spec. Iron cranks were compulsory, and downdraught heads were not allowed etc. Iain Briggs spotted that the Imp engine (which had fallen into disuse) had the benefit of being very light (handy when the minimum weight was 360Kg, or thereabouts), could use twin carbs and had the benefit of the Chrysler Competitions Department still being in existance to provide spares etc.

The engine equivalency rules must have worked well, because in 1979 Mr Briggs won the championship with his Delta/Imp, Brian Turner was second with his BTC/1300 and I was third with my Cirrus/MAE. It was a source of great pride to Brian and me that two of the top three cars were home built.

I did most of the chassis mod's Alan.The car,as you are probably aware,started out as an FF2000.Good days I must say,I do remember some talk of Ian's car's legality!Brian came to us after a certain chap started using one of our FF1600s,he could talk a good race etc,then he fell out with my boss Arthur Carter,I was asked if I would race it but Arthur wanted way too much for the privilage.Then Brian stepped in with a pretty good budget,we soon got shot of the 1600 though!.

Well well Terrance we have more incommon than just racing MGB's

And wind-ups about scooters.;)
Spent a little time in single seaters Iain.

Now, is my memory playing tricks? I thought that Brian's BTC was a monocoque, like the Cirrus. Did you build a tub to replace the (Hawke?) FF2000 spaceframe? I remember Brian getting a bit touchy if the car was referred to as "Hawke-based"

It was Hawke based,although there were quite a few mods to suspension pick points and we did quite a lot with some of the chassis tubing basicly looking for a bit more torsional regidity,seemed to work,Brian was very confident in the cars behavior.

Apparently the BTC still exists. Mike Whatley saw it recently, and confirms that it is a monocoque. Did Brian race a modified Hawke before the BTC was built, perhaps?

Sorry - we're not being much help are we, Nigel?

Yes it was a Hawke,But then Brian had a falling out with my ex-boss,lost touch after that,but I did hear that he was building something else.

The posts have been very interesting,the research is almost as exciting as driving the car.I knew the car was well known in it,s day and I enjoy reading the stories that surround it.
However I still need a good colour photograph, if anyone has got one I would be most gratefull.Does anyone know where Mr Briggs is now?

I seem to recall it was a pale blue colour if memory serves me right and a quess did it go to Alan Hicks afterwards.?


Pete

Hi Nigel, I also have a Delta F4 with Imp engine. I have a full set of body moulds and wishbone jigs if you should ever need to use them. I am in Surrey, near Leatherhead. If you want to meet up and compare notes you would be very welcome. Regards, Mike.

I eventually tracked Ian Briggs down,he has given me loads of photo,s of the car and in colour too.He was really suprised that the old car was still racing.All things being equal I should be be able to return the car to its former glory!Thanks to all who have posted I have enjoyed reading all your posts.There were two Deltas run by C.P.Hydraulics,does anybody know where the other car is?

Very interesting reading. My dad, Peter Dorricott raced against Mr Briggs and Brian Turner, although they were always up at the front. My dad raced a Brabham BT15 (or was it a 21?), ex Mike Whatley car I believe, from about 79 to 82. He later got the car converted to classic F3 spec and raced in the historic F3 championship. I was only about 10 or so at the time but I still have very strong memories. Only thing is it seems very difficult to get any info on that period of club racing - I can't even find a list of races anywhere, never mind results. If anyone has any information I would be very grateful. I'm sure there must be some photographs out there.