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Trevor, PM sent
Below is all I know about the Bainbridge at this stage. I have a lot of other rumors and unconfirmed stories. It is an excerpt from the Auto Age magazine printed in 1985. A full reprint of the article has been uploaded to my thread "NZ Cars A cottage Industry as I did not think it appropriate to put it in this thread. The car shown as part of the article is an Everson Eagle not a Bainbridge.
Part 1
Attachment 9264
Part 2
Attachment 9265
Attachment 9266
Patrick - thanks very much....all interesting to me (selfishly!) as when bought it I didn't really comprehend it's history and have subsequently enjoyed pulling together snippets of info.
Lindsay
Then perhaps Lindsay you can confirm that the car above is a Bainbridge and perhaps post some different pictures of it.
Patrick - I can't confirm if a Bainbridge or not but can confirm it's not mine as mine is a S4 widebody chassis from the Steele's jigs they bought and has the S3 'styled' body to fit over it. The one on the cover looks a bit too compact by comparison....and the dash is different. I believe they MAY have built a couple S3 chassis but unsure if ever finished them in to a working car.
Lindsay
Attachment 9277Attachment 9278
I heard Malcolm at Bygone Autos currently has the Black Widebody for sale in his workshop.
Hi Paul do you know what diff ratios Steel bros. offered for their cars?? did they ever get into the 3s??
Not sure if Steel Bros were the same but the English service handbook I got for my car says 3.77:1
Thanks I got the last set they had in 1994?? for my SS and can not remember but it was the fastest they used?/
A MAZING I orignley built the car for SEXEY REXEY but the motor would not stand 9000rpm at Wigram all sorts of nasty things escaped from inside the block so i fitted A BDA bottom and dry sump it but with the TWIN CAM head but it was still not fast enuf for REX JAMIE A
Hi Paul. Saw this thread by accident and thought I should add to it. My father (Bob Harden) was the first owner of the white wide bodied 7 he drove it up from Christchurch new in November 1978 nego number JA7334. Your car was built at the same time. Car came with 7 inch hot wires and had the most ridiculous mud flaps under the front wings, that were discarded strait away. Car was wrecked by fire in 1990 I think and dad bought it off the insurance company. Was then sold to Harry Hawkins who was going to rebuild. Remember your car back in the day was very fast but unreliable as I remember.Quote:
Originally Posted by AMCO72
Agreed, looks great on those wheels!
The other car wasn't bad either... This is another photo of the same Seven with a different line up... Attachment 11534
Nice one of the front end... Attachment 11535
Fantastic photos!
It was a fantastic car as womble will attest. I was more familiar with the back of the car or commonly known as the parcel shelf.. as a young kid womble and i would sit in there and be driven around... good fun.. (ah the good ol days)
AussiemonzaQuote:
Originally Posted by aussiemonza
I have just found this site whilst browsing The Nostalgia Forum" on Autosport and came across this forum which I have a VERY personal interest in. I have read through all the comments and I think perhaps a few of them need to be discussed further.
In my opinion any resemblance between the MB car and a Lotus Super 7 Series 4 was purely coincidental. To this day I still don't know how it ever got a CAMS Group D log book. I did a hell of a lot of research on S4 sevens and went to Pomgolia to purchase the real thing after mant discussions with "the powers that be at CAMS". I got my log book only to find that MB then got a log book for what was basically a "hot rod". My memory was that it was powered by a full house Cosworth FVA or BDA can't remember which one and the chassis bore no resemblance to a S4 chassis. Any way that is all in the past, he got away with it so good luck to him. He certainly kept the 934's on their toes at the tight circuits!
As for my old car in Canberra. I converted my race car back to a road car( ie bolted on some road wheels and tyres) and sold it to a chap called Ian (?) McLaren. I was told on good authority that he was killed in the car when it took off on the Westgate Freeway in Melbourne and hit a road sign and burst into flames. If that is not the case I will be very happy to know that Ian and car are still OK.!! My car was a Lotus factory built 7 and had the chassis plate to prove it so if anybody has any info on "current" owner wouldn't mind contacting him/her as I live just down the road on Vic/NSW border.
Will post some more info to set the record straight about racing 7's and some photos of my car undergoing "wide body conversion" and build if any interest.
DS
W154, PM sent.Quote:
Originally Posted by W154
MB ended up running an all alloy 2lt Alloy Twin Cam on injection in 1981 (he tells me) but sold the car in 1982 to the Alan Jones Driving Centre/Jim Murcott without the Twin Cam, 5 speed g'box, and centre-lock wheels. Murcott put the Pinto in, 4 speed and Rebels. That's how I got it after being fire damaged.
CCR
I too would love to see pics.Quote:
Originally Posted by W154
I was hoping we would have heard from W154 by now!
As requestedQuote:
Originally Posted by W154
The above photo will answer 1 of your questions.Quote:
Originally Posted by aussiemonza
DA
Looking for advice on what the pedal bracket was on a SteeleBro S4? Was it a donor part (Triumph/Ford) or a Lotus/SteelBro fabricated part?
Thanks Paul, I have that reference out of the Tony Weale book. Do you have any dimensions/plans or any idea who might have stock (long shot) or be able to manufacture from a sample? Mine was discarded for a pedal box, I want to put back to standard
Here....Attachment 28997
These photo's were taken in 1988 after I re-built the car for then owner Jim Murcott.
Aussiemonza,
All the best for the rebuild.
I purchased the Gary Angel car (ex Dick Smith, Gary Ryan, Jim Murcott) and it will be heading to Tassie shortly.
Any info people have on the early history of the car would be greatly appreciated. Best to send to my email.
Just spotted this thread. Some years back I had a Steel Bros frame for a wide frame 907 engined car. I did a bit of research and found there were four modified versions made of the S4.
1) The wide body which was just the std TC S4 with wider and more bulbous guards. Pauls one-off one had the odd looking rear spoiler.
2) The 907 engined car with the same widebody guards but longer than the std S4 (the front guards were longer) - there was a yellow one and a red one from memory.
3) The wide framed 907 engined car which was the same length as 2) but wider - there was at least one complete (white) car built and also my frame. This model had a wider nose and cockpit
4) The Escape - which had the different body with the 907 engine. There was the red one in this thread and one owned in Wellington I have seen - it was never quite completed. There was a long article about the Escape in Car Styling magazine-book from Japan.
There were also some 907 engined cars built after production finished by ex Steel Bros staff - one had Viva front suspension.
I was lucky enough to get a tour around the factory in 74 - by David Dixon too! Great guy! Outside he had a red factory demonstrator which he said had won the South Island production sports car championship. That car was sent to Robin Curtis who was the semi-official Wellington agent for them - he did a hand drawn picture of it which was on the Motoraction editorial page for several years. A friend later owned that car in the early 80's - we had great fun in it. (I think Robin briefly had a dark green wide body one as well)
I later had an early S4 7 with the Big Valve engine. My understanding was the first 50 cars came with the BV engine in the package deal from Lotus - and the second 50 had earlier type engines sourced from unused Australia Escort Twin Cam production. In an earlier post Patrick Harlow said the second 50 came from UK Lotus Europa unused engines. This may be right but at that time the Europa would have been using the BV engine and the later Steel Bros car I have seen have all have the pre BV engine with the smooth cam covers.
Bainbridges bought chassis jigs and body moulds and some 907 engines and gearboxes. Steels had bought a large number of 2 litre 907 engines when the UK factory changed to 2.2. There are still some unused ones kicking around in NZ. I vaguely remember hearing the Bainbridge deal was not straightforward and there may have been some dispute - not sure what that was about - perhaps the use of shape as they went on to make the more period looking version.
There are some great photos around of the 907 cars - including some being built inside the factory.
Graeme Farr
Wellington
Hi Guys,
If you want to ad further interest to this Lotus 7 thread you might research the left hand drive 907 engined one off car Steels were developing with the idea of producing a series of them for export to USA. It had a very nice looking Lotus 4 speed gearbox housing which used Morris Marina internals that kept stripping teeth off the gears! The chassis was a widened 7 unit. The vehicle was purchased from Steeles by a gent from Ashburton when Steeles abandoned the project due to the amount of red tape involved.
and was used for racing ocaisionally at events like the "Country Gents" at Wigram and he probably ran it at Levels in Timaru and maybe Ruapuna.
If anybody is interested there are some other details relating to this vehicle which could be interesting.
PK.
Attachment 40045Quote:
Originally Posted by Graeme Farr
I am in the USA and have acquired some documents from the old DeLorean Motor Company. Among them was a June 1979 letter from A.L. Harrison (Arthur, I believe) of Steel Bros in regards to what I believe is the Escape.
It included a styling drawing of this car and references a J.D Power & Associates Market Survey for the car in regards to potential sales in the USA.
The styling drawing has a logo in the upper left which looks like a stylized "BS" or possibly "AS". I lean towards to the latter as it there is some fine handwriting that says "Studio Aguila" and is dated "May 1979". The logo/badge on the front and rear of the sketch appears to be similar to the Steel Bros logo on the letterhead.
My interest in purely academic at this point, and I'm just curious to find more details on this car and share what I have with others who may be interested. If this might be you, great! Or if you know others who might be, please let me know.
Kind regards,
James Espey
Houston, Texas USA
http://www.delorean.net/SteelBrosFil...ila_Sketch.jpg
http://www.delorean.net/SteelBrosFil...rosLetter1.jpg
http://www.delorean.net/SteelBrosFil...rosLetter2.jpg
I forgot I found one other reference to Studio Aguila online, and it may well be referencing this same design.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/interpretations/nht79-25
James Espey
Houston, Texas USA