Connaught Cars (1959) Ltd, Send, Surrey

[benjj]

Do any of you old timers remember these chaps!?

They did a twin carb conversion to the DS but I'm not sure if they're around any more.

[nicanary]

That would be the garage arm of the old Connaught racing team, formed by Mike Oliver and Rodney Clarke and sponsored by Ken McAlpine of the building company fame. Beautifully built and sweet handling, but always underpowered, and most famous for the win at Syracuse in 1955 driven by Tony Brooks, who had never driven a single-seater, and never even sat in the Connaught.

Sorry, can't help with the tuning side of things, but the racing team was wound up in 1957. A certain B C Ecclestone bought the cars and equipment.

[benjj]

Ah ha, thanks for that.

st. Bernie has got my carbs

[nicanary]

benjj said:

Ah ha, thanks for that.

st. Bernie has got my carbs

Sue the bas**rd. I think he's got a few quid.

The date of the tuning co suggests the whole outfit was re-formed as a purely retail organisation after the liquidation. The racing team was definitely based in Send, but possibly not in the same premises.

[a8hex]

There was also a group calling themselves Connaught Cars a couple of years back who built an accurate replica of a customer D-Type.

[LordBretSinclair]

Probably teaching you to suck eggs Ben but have you tried the guys at Der Franzose?

http://www.franzose.de/en/Home/

[neutral 3]

A late acquaintance called Pierre De Villiers raced a Connaught in I believe 1959, I remember seeing a photo of him sitting in it . Can't remember which race though

[Leithen]

PH's McNab in '53

[benjj]

Thanks for all this, chaps.

Looks like their DS fettling division has gone the way of the dodo!

[EsGrau1994]

Reading To Draw a Long Line by C Johnson. All about a designer at Connaught.

Book contains the auction catalogue when the firm closed. No Citroen connection mentioned but carbs sold were:
1x38mm SU carb plus one similar.
2xWeber 48mm twin choke carbs and parts.
2x48mm single choke Weber carbs.
2xAmal carbs
5xSU carbs
2xSU carbs - 2inch bore.

[benjj]

Hmm, interesting. The DS GT conversion was done with either twin Solex or twin Weber.

This is the link I have been reading:

http://www.citroenet.org.uk/foreign/connaught/conn...

[benjj]

[benjj]

[GTRene]

I only remember this one>>





I believe it has some very special engine?

[5mphuk]

Coys have a 1950 L3 for sale at present, "the Kenya car" , see
http://www.rws-flexiweb.co.uk/flexiweb/sites/coys/...

[Flatinfourth]

Three little snippets!

Camberley Auto Factors in Merrow, Guildford were delivering parts To Connaught in a courtyard premises in Ripley in the early nineties, wen there myself.

Was there any connection with what was Connaught Garage at Brookwood crossroads by the Basingstoke canal on the A322? That was home of the Mini Scamp, Is now a petrol station.

I think there is a reference to Connaught on a commercial office building at Burnt Common, the guildford end of Ripley/Send

[whirlybird]

GTRene said:

I only remember this one>>





I believe it has some very special engine?

If I remember correctly the engine was rumoured to be a 2 litre ??? V10 , supercharged ? possibly using Smart Conrods,/pistons,
but then I could be wrong !!!!!!!!

[neutral 3]

Pierre De Villiers died in approx the late 1990s, but I Definately remember him showing me a photo of him sitting in a Connaught Grand Prix car, which was taken in 1959 ? . Apparently it appeared in an article at the time by one of the daily News papers and said something like " Brave British bid for Grand Prix title" I'm sure the car was shipped to the States for the race.

[nicanary]

neutral 3 said:

Pierre De Villiers died in approx the late 1990s, but I Definately remember him showing me a photo of him sitting in a Connaught Grand Prix car, which was taken in 1959 ? . Apparently it appeared in an article at the time by one of the daily News papers and said something like " Brave British bid for Grand Prix title" I'm sure the car was shipped to the States for the race.

I have no idea what this is about. The Connaught team had been disbanded by then, and the cars ans assets sold off, some to the entrepreneur B.C.Ecclestone. (He'll never amount to anything). The last car built, the C-Type, had never been raced and was bought by arch-enthusiast Paul Emery. He entered it, rather optimistically, for the 1959 US Grand Prix - it was driven by American sports-car racer Bob Said, and I'm guessing he put up the cash for the costs involved. It crashed on the second lap.

Apparently the car was then purchased by a group of enthusiasts who supercharged the engine, and wanted to enter the Indy 500, but nothing came of it.

[GTRene]

indeed, a supercharged V10

http://www.connaughtengineering.com/engineering-se...

said:

Powered by a Connaught designed 2.0 litre V10 Supercharged engine of 300bhp with a top speed around 170mph
The car is a lighweight composite and stainles steel structure with aluminium body panels for an overall weight of 950kg

thats a good power to weight ratio.



http://flickriver.com/photos/45676495@N05/81032588...



here a good video about Connaught

said:

Connaught in build plus some of the 50's heritage footage from the first British Team to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix since World War 2

http://youtu.be/x7GJ36d7rUc