Valour Formula Ford

2007-06-26T23:30:00.000-07:00

A Valour driven by Peter Hughes in 1972 held the Pukekoe lap record for a Formula Ford

I am really interested in hearing from anyone who owns a Valour Formula Ford or Formula Vee so please email me don_short@bigfoot.com

The Designer - Trevor Larsen

2007-06-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

As you will see later in the blog there were three cars that were designed by Trevor Larsen of Auto Research. I believe that the first cars were designed and built in Huntly. The company was moved to Lake Road, Hamilton in the early 1970's when they started building the Formula Fords.

There were 14 kitsets Formula Vees and 2 factory built Vees that were used in the Auto Research Driving School that operated out of Bay Park, Tauranga.

Ten Formula Fords were built plus a further two in production at the time the company was closed down. Two of the Fords went to Australia. One returned to New Zealand.

Do you know whatever happened to the Formula Ford that arrived in Australia in the 1970's? I would love to know.

Only one Formula Junior was built

Formula Junior

2007-06-25T23:54:00.000-07:00

The first car was a Formula Junior powered by a 1100cc Cosworth Ford engine rear mounted through a Hewland Mk 4 or 5 gearbox was built out of the Huntly workshops. The car weight estimate was about 880 lbs with a height of 26 1/2 inches to the top of the screen.

The overall length was 11 feet 10 inches. The chassis was Multi-tubular space-frame of 1 inch, 3/4 inch and 1/2 inch, 18 and 16 gauge high tensile seamless tubing. The front suspension was independent double wishbones of un equal lengths with coil over Armstrong shocks. The rear was full independent with wide based lower wishbone, twin radius rods and inside upper link in conjunction with adjustable Armstrong shocks. The brakes were 9 1/4 inch with twin master cylinder, adjustable balance bar and pedals.

Type 694 Formula Vee

2007-06-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

The next was a series of Formula Vee's Type 694 (69 for 1969 and 4 for Formula 4) I am not sure on the number of Formula Vees that were built but I have seen photos of the double decker trailer that was used to transport them to Bay Park for the driving schools. The company even used to offer an annual scholarship in a Formula Ford.

Type 723 Formula Ford

2007-06-25T00:04:00.000-07:00

Valour Formula Ford Type 723 (72 for 1972 and Formula 3 was Formula Ford) was produced in a factory in Lake Road, Hamilton by a company called the Auto Research. It was New Zealand’s first racing car production line. Approximately twelve 723 cars were manufactured to different levels of finish. These cars were debuted at the Hamilton Motor Show in 1971.

One of the Valour works cars

The chassis design and suspension were taken from a Titan Formula Ford. The body was built by Trevor Larsen and John Hyde (directors of Auto Research Ltd) with the help of a body builder and overseas tradesman. Moulds were made from the shell and fibreglass were taken from these for the production cars.

"There is no profit in the prototype. This one will cost about $9000 when it is finished," said Mr Larsen. The car was planed to be tested on the 11-12 March 1972. They had planned to have three Fords racing as a works team and also used by the New Zealand Racing Drivers School for training cars. The kit was to cost $960 with out the Ford GT motor, $3300 as a rolling chassis or $5200 ready to race.

Auto Research was the fist company in New Zealand to begin making racing cars on a production basis. Eight of the 10 cars to be made in the first year were meant to have been sold even before the first car was completed.

Here are some of the differences between the two cars.

The front nose cone.
The cars had a hammerhead shark looking front nose cone when they first started racing. This was subsequently banned as it was considered to be a down force aid.
The radiators on the side of the car and not in the nose that was normal at the time. Therefore the fluids were not carried though the chassis tubes
The rear top engine cover is ramped at the rear when the Titan cover is flat Two pedal options were offered. Top mounted or bottom mounted. The body may have started by using Mark 6 Titan components but by the time they were finished it was quite different.

Components

Back in the 70s some parts were hard to find so as kiwi's they adapted other parts or just made them. In the sale brochure there was two gearbox options. The first was a Hewland Mk8 if you could find and afford one or a modified VW gearbox.

The 723 had quite unique rear uprights that were cast aluminum with the words VALOUR cast in the side. I have also seen the same upright with M.J. casting marks. I understand that this is for Mark and John being Mark Petch and John Olson. These uprights utilized a CV joint from a Morris 1100 a disc is from Triumph 2000 and the caliper from a Hillman Hunter.

The steering wheels on the Valour’s are quite unique in they have three fingers supporting the outer ring. On each of these fingers is a series of holes. There was also an arrangement that would allow the steering wheel to be removed by unwinding the badge although I have never seen one.

You hear some interesting stories when you start asking around about these cars. I spoke to the original radiator supplier about how the calculated the size necessary to cool then engine. He laughed at me. He said he was given two shrouds and asked to make radiators to fit them.

Original Owners of Valour Formula Fords
John Broomhead
Dennis Martin
Ian Simcox
Ross Martin
David Tait

Auto Research

2007-06-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

The two Auto Reseach works cars at Pukekoke

Auto Research was the name that the cars were manufactured under in Lake Road, Hamilton. It sounds very much like motor racing today, there were lots of people there working for nothing just trying to help get something off the ground

Auto Research also run the New Zealand Driving School. They had a special double decker that they carried the Formula Vee's across from Hamilton. They offered some scholarships for promising drivers. They would use some of the great drivers of the day to help instruct the students e.g Roly Levis

Newsletter to Valour owners from Trevor Larsen

Ian Simcox 723

2007-06-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

Ian Simcox built my car from components he purchased from the factory. He was an enthusiastic competitor who had graduated from the NZ Racing Drivers School after winning a scholarship with them.
The car was later owned by John Hyde one of the owners of Valour Cars. He campained the car for a few years until Jeff Goile took it over. After that I believe the that the car was owned by Steve Grant more well known as Radar.

This car was lost for many years and parts were since found in someone's garden. The current owner is Andrew Denton and you can read his rebuild story

This car has now been sold and shipped to Australia

Dennis Martin 723

2007-06-23T23:39:00.000-07:00

Dennis Martin built my car from components he purchased from the factory. He was an enthusiastic competitor who had decided to make the step up from Formula Vees. The car was assembled with a Mk8 Hewland and all the other necessary equipment. When it came time to race Dennis had to borrow tow cars of people because he had put all his money into his racing car.
After a time of competing in the 723 he decided to pulled apart and use the components designed and built a Formula Ford himself. This car that he built looks quite different but is still running today. Even though it is not a Valour it has value in that it is a car that has survived from the 70's
Dennis was still competing the last time I looked. He went from Fords back to Vees and has at least one national Vee title. Today I think he is now building Formula First (Formula Vee)

John Broomhead's 723

2007-06-23T23:24:00.000-07:00

John had started his single seater racing with the New Zealand Racing Drivers School. This was another part of the Valour Car business. John got is NZRDS qualifying car in October 1971 that made him eligible to use both the Formula Vee and Formula Ford cars

John built his car up from a kit over two years. He campaigned the car at various club meetings usally as car number 64 and three national meetings at Baypark during 1973 till 1974. It was at the October 1974 meeting that they car was destroyed. The car had the normal engine with a Hewland gearbox and did not run with the rear covers.

"The reason for the accident - well I left the braking for the hairpin very late - after having been in the wrong gear for the rolling start and being left behind by everyone - leapt on the brakes - everything locked up so I eased the brakes and they wouldn’t release - the balance bar between the master cylinders jammed in its housing and kept the brakes full on as a result the car continued in a straight line until it encountered the fence, where upon time slowed down the right front suspension went whistled over my shoulder along with various other bits and I began, very seriously to pray, because we were airborne and it looked as though we were going to fly in amongst the group of tree trunks and stumps which were stacked up not vary par from the fence and I was going to die."John Broomhead

John suffered a 20cm cut to his hand and a very very vary bad attitude for the rest of the day.

The chassis was a write off and dumped. The other parts that were of value were sold to other drivers or used on a car called a Radar the was built by Steve Grant

Ross Martins 723

2007-06-22T00:51:00.000-07:00

This car was built from a kit by the Martin Brothers. Ross was the driver and his brother was an engineer who made most of the components for the car.

This car was restored by Frank Van Lingen in the mid 1990s. Frank is the buinsess on resotring cars for other people so he really enjoyed working on his own project. This enjoyument showed in the finsh of this car. It is faultless.

He ran the car for a while at historic meetings until he was convinced to sell the car to a partnership that included John Hyde one of the directors of Auto Research Limited.

David Tait Unbuilt 723

2007-06-21T01:24:00.000-07:00

There is a Valour car that was purchased from the factory that to this date has never been completed. Its quite unique in that we can see how the chassis was before any modifications by owners

Rebuilding a Valour Formula Ford.

2007-06-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

April 1999

The advert read "Early formula Ford chassis and body panels, offers over $600". Then the phone number, no more and no less.I got this message over the cell phone from Graeme Banks whilst driving home on a Friday evening and stopped off and purchased a copy of New Zealand Classic Car from the next Shell station. I thought well for $600 I may as well ring, as I would prefer a Formula Ford rather than the Formula Vee that I had started to rebuild. My first phone call ended with an answering machine so when Lindsey the seller did not reply by mid Saturday morning I gave him another ring.If I could get there before lunchtime he could show me the car as he was going to work in the afternoon. All I could glean from him was it was green in colour, had been raced by a Steve Grant who lived in Tauranga and the radiators and petrol tank, seat and dash were also there.As he was only in Onehunga I shot straight over. The sight that met me was not the most inspiring. Behind the rusted out Vauxhall Viva was a rotten blue tarpaulin over an equally rotten trailer. Around each of these two items which were for sale was long grass and weeds. We removed the tarpaulin, to find a single seater with the belly panel and top panel in place. There was a seat and dash panel in place, no nose (but he did have the mould), no engine cover.We removed the top and seat and the original fuel tank was in place and on the floor was a set of totally rotten front wishbones with one bent rose joint and a cracked front upright. Also a stainless steel oil tank.The bottom chassis tubes had been lying in water and were only half there in places and for some unknown reason the diagonal bracing had been doubled up. I could not determine the manufacture so we did a deal and I left it that I would return with someone who would probably know its origins. Enter Nigel.The rest of the weekend I tried to convince both my wife and myself that the car was a "bargain" and repairable. We went over on Monday and the car was definitely a New Zealand built Valour of about 1972 vintage. We loaded the bits onto a trailer and asked Lindsey if he knew the whereabouts of the rear engine cover. Down the bottom of the "garden" under a pile of weeds we found it.

Now is not the time to recall the words used by the lady in my life when this "Heap of junk" (part of her words) arrived on my trailer in the driveway.So what did I get for my money:- The original Valour 723 parts were:Chassis, Undertray, Rear body, Cockpit, Nose mould, Dash panel, Seat, Fuel tank, Screen, Front, lower wishbones, Front uprights, Rollover protection, Fuel pipes, Brake pipes, Oil tank, Dzus fasteners, Both side mounted radiators

Valour Formula Fords were copied from the Titan and used basically the same running gear. The main difference in the chassis is in the front top chassis bracing. The single diagonal is replaced by two, and the cross tube is curved upwards. The pedal bracket is a sheet steel fabricated type on top of the front bulkhead. The rear bulkhead behind the seat is square tube. The rear G/B bulkhead is the same as the Titan.Having looked at the photos of the restoration of a MK6 Titan car on the internet the resemblance between the condition of this car and mine as it was found are so similar. Unfortunately all the additional bracing that had been added and the number of holes in the frame meant that I had very little option than to rebuild the chassis entirely. The removable rear G/B mounting which was chromed looked as if it could be saved until I took it down to be stripped. It was cracked badly and there were a goodly number of pinholes through the tubes.

July 1999
A quick trip to Hamilton to see John Hyde helped considerably and I am grateful to him for his help with information and the loan of the wishbone jig. That and a visit to the wilds of Franklin County to see Frank van Lingen put everything in place.Rebuilding the chassis was no major problem as I had the original to take all the measurements from. I made a liquid fluxer device that allows flux into the acetylene supply line thus dispensing with the tin of flux. This ensures a clean and very tidy joint. The original car had the cockpit opening bracing that goes past the dash bulkhead in two parts, but with a slice of luck I was able to make this in one piece.

Sept 1999
The chassis welding finished I took it down to the powder coaters. I had made up the aluminum bulkheads from 2.0mm material that was powder coated grey on one side so the chassis had to match this colour. I have riveted a 2.0mm Alloy undertray from the front bulkhead to the rear of the cockpit as a little insurance as the original fibreglass body does not give the impression that it will stop a kerb or stone that may decide to enter from below. The frame etc now looks as if it was new and I am back in favour with the wife.

Oct 1999
From the excellent photos of the Titan car and taking the dimensions from the original chassis I have manufactured the new pedal assembly. The front discs have been skimmed in my Myford lathe and the uprights have the bottom trunnion machined down to fit a ¾" spherical bearing.

Nov 1999
There is a now justification to buy a TIG welding set!!! Fortunately British Oxygen has a small unit on special for the month so one unit is now in the garage. The front suspension is welded up and along with the uprights and pedals have taken them down to the nickel platers.

Dec 1999
With the suspension fitted at the front a temporary set of rear uprights have been fabricated until I get the alloy units and the rear suspension is underway. Hopefully this will be ready before Xmas.

Jan 2000
Work started on the body with the main task to see what panels can be re-used. The top cockpit panel had 17 coats of paint on it and in places this seemed to be the only thing holding it in place. The repairs carried out over the years had been done without cleaning off the dirt on the old surface and when attacked with a wide blade wallpaper stripper can off easily. 40 grit paper in a dual action sander knocked most of it off with a few hours work and the original colour was a purple/blue. Grinding out the cracks and refibreglassing put new life back into the body. Much the same story with the tail although this was in a worse state have been buried.

Feb 2000
The nose cone mould was washed out, cleaned and polished ant then covered with PVA release agent and put outside the garage to dry. The crunch of fibreglass as a son returning home and drove over it did nothing for parent/child relationships. I have resurrected it enough to allow a copy to be taken out using copious amounts of plastacine.The belly mould was beyond it! It had been through a number of wars and had been attacked where it fits over the chassis. Don Short came to my help with the original mould and the moulds for the radiator ducts. The pleasing thing was to find evidence of the original colour gel coat on these moulds.

March / April / May 2000
Dark evenings and a warm fire has meant that progress has been slow with only a part of the week end available for work I have molded the new radiator ducts and had the belly pan spray molded. This is now fitted on the car. The brake pipes have been installed and the master cylinders rebuilt. Following advice a pressure regulating valve is installed in the rear line.The rear upright moulds have been taken to the foundry and needless to say I pick the busy time of the year and they will take 6 weeks to have done.

June / July / Aug 2000
Another trip to Hamilton to see Don Short to return the moulds has allowed me to check out the rear hubs. These use a Triumph 2000 disc and caliper grafted to a BMC 1300 hub and drive shaft and an aluminium spacer.As I had not been able to find a Hewland bellhousing I borrowed Dons and by building it up with body filler this was used as a mould so a casting could be obtained.The uprights were cast at the end of August, taken for heat treatment and then passed to the machinist.The paint for the car was bought (the same colour as the original) and work was done aligning the nose to the car.

Sept / Oct / Nov 2000
I took the rear uprights to Robin who machined them beautifully. There needed to be a 35mm alloy spacer made up to give the correct track and this I used to change the wheel stud spacing to allow me to run Ford alloy wheels. This spacer can be replaced if I decide to go back onto steel original wheels. I now have front and rear suspension on.

Dec 2000 / Jan 2001
Things slowed up a little over the holiday period and whilst I changed employment. During the warm weather I sanded, primed and painted all the panels. The cockpit came out very well in its original colour but the tail was basically beyond repair. Much of it was distorted from standing in a squashed up state for some considerable time.I decided it was time that the engine was looked at and this was stripped down ready for the reconditioners. There were a number of jobs that I completed on the rods including changing the oil holes and polishing off the flash marks. This brought the rods down to almost minimum weight so there was not a lot left that could be done to lighten them. The flywheel was on minimum weight so I have left it alone. The only addition to it was a couple of Mig welds to hold the ring gear.
Feb / Mar 2001
The original radiators are looking a little seedy and need an overhaul. The top and bottom tanks are fine and I took the opportunity to increase the number of core tubes as all indications were that the car suffered from overheating.After numerous visits to the engine reconditioners the bill started to grow. The rods were shot peened, the block resleeved, genuine FF pistons put in and the block was shaved to raise the compression ratio. I opened out the head ports and had the valves reseated. The guides were marginal and a number of these were changed.The rotating parts were then taken down and balanced and the engine built up.The engine runs a dry sump and the pan was made from the existing sump cut just down from the lip. A Pace dry sump pump has been fitted.
April / May 2001
The problem of connecting the gearbox input shaft to the clutch that I had been putting off for a long time finally came to the top of the pile and it actually became much easier than I thought. There are 3 lengths of gearbox-input shaft and where I thought that I would have to weld a spacer into the existing shaft I found that I had the middle length and the longer one, which I obtained from a VW specialist, was correct. A standard VW clutch plate required machining down on the o/s diameter in order to clear the Ford pressure plate.The radiator ducts were modified to fit the radiators and painted.Stainless steel brake pipes were installed and the Bundy pipework for the brakes and clutch finished off.

June / July 2001
Most of these two months were taken up with installing the cooling and oil systems. The radiators which are side mounted are a plumbers nightmare with the flow passing from the bottom of the first radiator to the top of the second. This meant that I had to install two air bleed valves in the top of the radiators.With a front mounted oil tank the pipework was run in aluminum alloy tube and the remote oil filter mounted on the nearside of the engine.Wiring the car was simple with only two switches and a starter button.

Aug 2001
Time to turn to the other subject that I had left, the gearchange linkage! After a look at Jim Baird's car and with the position of the bearings already in the chassis it turned out quite easy. The use of good quality universal joints is paramount, as is a solid mounting for the lever.I used the Formula Ford Underground web site to determine the "correct" spring rates and with all the dimensions visited the spring makers. The rears proved fine but the fronts needed resetting as they turned out an inch too long. The shocks on the front came in for a modification and they were shortened so that on full droop the springs were still under tension. This also allowed me to fit bump stops onto the shocks and spherical bearings.

Sep 2001
At last the car hits the ground and stands on its own wheels. The brakes and clutch are bled using Silicone (expensive) brake fluid. On Installing the original seat I found that can't fit into the car both in width and length. The seat was remoulded using expanding foam and fuel tank was slightly modified so that I sit lower and slightly more upright to give me legroom. I decided to have to seat upholstered to improve the appearance.

Oct 2001
It was time to circulate the oil around engine without the plugs in. Despite filling the filter and oil pipes to the front tank I could not get pressure on the gauge. I even installed a header tank of oil above the pump inlet and still no pressure.After some considerable trying I removed the engine because I was concerned that either a plug had been left out by the engine reconditioner and also to settle my fears that the engine may have sustained damage to the bearings with all the turning over. It was also sluggish on the starter and a bit tight. There was no marking on the bearings, all plugs in place so I put it all back together, liberally covered all the bearing surfaces in Moray's, turned the engine on its side, filled all the galleries up and all the pipes, and refitted the engine to the chassis. Everything should be OK. No oil pressure. Despite the comments of "Don't do it" from the Historic Formula Ford aficionado's I decided to put the plugs in and start it up!On 28th October I hit the button and it fired up with 80psi of oil pressure coning up 2 seconds after it started. There was no tick over but above 2000rpm everything seemed fine. I have had the same problem with an earlier engine and found there was an air leak and this time I found an air bleed that I had not blocked off when I took off the automatic choke.It was now necessary to find if the clutch worked and give the car its first run so on 24th November I took the car over to work and gave it a blast around the car park. This showed the gear selection was wrong and needed completely rebuilding, oil surged out from the oil tank through the breather and I had to increase the ground clearance.

First Outing.
Taupo 8th December 2001 Historic Racing and Sports Car Club Event
This event is best left in the memory as "Rain stopped Play."
Second Outing

Pukekohe 22 December 2001 Practice Day
Loaded the car onto the trailer in the sunshine and ran over assistants (wife) foot.The forecast had been rain later in the day so I might have get some time in.As we unloaded the car from the trailer for the first run, the drizzle started. I then started up, put the gear into 2nd and ran into the better half's leg. Having paid for a days testing I was going out but half way down the main straight the engine cut. I just made it back to the pits and loaded up. The fault appeared to be a blocked fuel filter that was replaced back home.

More Detailed Pictures of the Formula Ford

2007-06-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

The Simcox car as it was run as part of the NZ Drivng School

Right Rear view of the Simcox car

Front right of the Simcox car

Rear veiw of the rebuilt Simcox car

The Simcox car after a full rebuild

The rear uprights with the trailing arms fitted