Formula Atlantic/Pacific

[Howard Wood]

Ok, this is the last of my photos I promise!

After running the March in 1977 we were offered the opportunity to develop a new Atlantic car for Lyncar. At the time Lyncar were a race car fabrication/ maching/ preparation operation but owner Martin Slater wanted to break into the manufacturing side. He had already built a number of one offs including an Atlantic car with which NZer John Nicholson had won the British Atlantic championship.

He had a completely new car drawn up by a former McLaren draftsman whose name escapes me now and John Anderson and I built the prototype, jigs, moulds etc. Unlike the March, Ralt etc opposition the car was quite a complicated design with inboard rocker suspension front and rear. In fact it was so complicated (and the detail design work was still being done as we were building it) that the project ran horribly over time. The original plan was to thoroughly test in the UK and then run a full "works" operation in NZ for Jan '78 but in reality we only ran a short shakedown test at Goodwood before shipping the car to NZ. Photo 3 is at Goodwood with Martin Slater on the right, John A at rear and the designer left, trying to identify the brake issue we had all day.

At the end of the first real day's testing at Puke late Dec, with no major issues, we bolted on a fresh set of tyres to scrub them in. Coming up to the braking point for the first time at the chicane on top of the hill (now thankfully gone), the left front tyre split from the rim sending the car careering along the bank to end up in photo 5. Needless to say, neither the car nor I were involved in the '78 series!