Club racing - 1967/68 Daren Mk1

[EliSolomon]

Here's one GT car that was club raced in the UK in 1968.

John Green built up Daren Car and the first prototype Mk1 was built for the Nurburgring 1000km race in 1968. It ran at the World Sportscar Championships Round 6 at Nurburgring in 1968 but DNF-ed. It was subsequently redesigned with a de Dion rear end and sold to Stanley Leong in Singapore. It was said to have had a Coventry Climax 1,100cc engine that was replaced by an Allan Smith-built Lotus Twin Cam (allegedly putting out 190bhp). Myth. Further investigation suggested that the Lotus-Ford Twin Cam that came with the car had been built by Vegantune. John Green told me it was a 173bhp Vegantune Twin Cam engine capable of 165mph with fuel injection being contemplated later on. This was later verified by David Sewell, a close friend of John's. Never did it have a Climax engine in it. The engine ran on a compression ratio of 13:1 !!!



John's decision to build a GT car came about in 1967 when he raced a Diva. At 35 he was already national monoposto racing champion in Britain and at one time was also Fairthorpe's works manager. He already ran his own garage called JG Motors at Station Road, Leighton Buzzard. His decision to build his own GT race car attracted one David Taylor. David had worked for Ford before joining JW Autmotive Products (and becoming involved in the Mirage Ford). David got involved in the body while John worked on chassis design, together with his mechanic, Mike Aird. The end result looked a bit like the Ford F3L minus a DFV.



The little GT's debut was as Castle Combe with a class win. The following day, John took an outright win at Llandow, near Cardiff with a new lap record. Before heading for the Nurburgring 1000km (in 1968), there would be yet another win, at Silverstone.



[John Green and Peter Gaydon entered the Nurburgring A.D.A.C 1000km with the Daren GT in 1968. The car ran as high as third in class at one stage with John at the wheel. Sadly a fire in the engine compartment thwarted their attempt at success.]



A change in GT racing rules for 1969 meant that minimum weight restriction would be lifted, thus making the Daren Mk1 obsolete, and hence the sale of the car to a buyer in Singapore.





Seasons Greetings from Hong Kong

Eli