The Daren Mk2/3/4
Other Daren cars out there
Clockwise from Top left: #36 - Mk3 with LV240 engine; #15 Jack Wheeler at Nurburgring with the BRM 2 litre V8 engine; #32 - Mk3 at Nurburgring; #23 - Alan Rollinson at Silverstone with the LV 240 engine; #36 - Clive Baker at Nurburgring; #38 - Arthur Collier at Nurburgring with the LV 240 engine car
The photo to the left shows John's own car (the one on the left) fitted with a 3-litre Martin engine. The car to the right was originally sold to Martin Raymond who won the 1969 Motoring News Championship in this car. This very successful car was designed by Dave Taylor and this is the car that David still owns. Photos from David Sewell and David Green
Left Photo: The Jeremy Richardson/Peter Brown Daren Mk2 FVA at the BOAC 1000km 1970 at Brands Hatch on 12th April 1970. Car number 82 ran in the up to 2-litre class (P2) but retired after 12 laps with ignition problems. Right Photo: Daren Mk2 prototype steel sheet monocoque that was intended to be turned into a monocoque for the Mk2. This chassis was never built but sold off as a bare chassis. Is there a Mk2 Prototype out there wearing this now? David Sewell suggests that John discarded this monocoque as rather too complex to build and sold it off to a special builder.
Specifications - The Mk2 was a development of the 1967 Mk1 car. As there was no longer going to be a minimum weight restriction, Dave Taylor (ex-John Willment Automotive designer) made use of his vast experience to reduce weight even further (following the lightweight Ford GT40). The chassis was a multi-tubular one with extensive use of stressed skin panels to give greater rigidity with low overall weight. The complete car was to weigh 8 1/2 cwt, over 2 cwt lighter than the Daren Mk1 GT. A total of six examples appear to have been built.
Daren cars offered the following versions:- Group 4 - Homologated with Twin Cam Lotus-Ford engine Group 6 - Fitted with new Formula 2 engine Group 7 - fitted with 1300cc version of the Twin Cam Lotus-Ford engine Price - subject to final specifications - £1,500-1,600 less engine and gearbox
Daren Mk3: This was built for International Sports Car Racing in the 2 litre class. The basic design philosophy of the Mk2 was retained. The Mk2 had established lap records at Castle Coombe, Crystal Palace, Brands Hatch, Silverstone (Club circuit), Oulton Park, Mallory Park, Silverstone (GP circuit), Thruxton, Cadwell Park, Snetterton, Croft and Lydden Hill. The Mk3 shape was derived from extensive wind tunnel testing by Dr. T.R. Boyce of the Aerodynamics Department of Imperial College of Science and Technology at London University. The body itself was molded in glass-fibre and the car came fitted with a 21 gallon rubber bag fuel tank behind the driver's seat (compared to the Mk1 prototype which had a tank half that size). The Mk3 was supplied as a complete rolling chassis less engine and gearbox and priced at £3,000.
The Mk3 brochure above that was sent to Stanley Leong in 1971 after he expressed interest in the car. My correspondence with David Sewell revealed that David had had the brochures printed with Frank Hughes taking the photos. Frank was one of the keepers at the London Zoological Society and was a keen photographer. You will notice that the photos appear somewhat underexposed but were used because 1) they gave the car a bit of a dramatic look about it; 2) they were collected the night before the Olympia Show. This was the year the Darens shared space on the Palliser stand.
The Palliser connection - Hugh Dibley ran Palliser cars. Palliser's connection was a Group 5, 2-litre sports car being made for John Green's Daren firm under a manufacturing agreement similar to the one between McLaren and Trojan. As reported in March 1971 of Motorsport (pg 218), the Mk2 Daren had shown potential and with the backing of Palliser and a more efficient body shape much was hoped for from this new alliance - a productionsied Mk3. Interestingly, Dibley himself was expecting to drive a BRM V8-powered Daren in several races in a monocoque chassis. The Palliser Racing Design Ltd outfit were made up of an office manager, a secretary, and an Australian driver named Vern Schuppan (of whom you will read about in the Snakes & Devil's links of this website). Vern was to drive a Formula Atlantic for Palliser for 1971.
Nearby the Palliser outfit in South London was a small workshop where Mark and Gabriel Konig had their Nomad GT. The Nomad had a BRM 1.5 V8. In the workshop roof cavity hung the monocoque the BRM engine had been sitting in. The monocoque had been nicely bent by JYS or Graham Hill during the Tasman Series (I am in the process of verifying this and suspect that any damage inflicted on the Nomad would have been the work of Tony Lanfranchi and Mark Konig). John Green eventually purchased that engine from them with the intention of using it in a his Mk2. Never materialized and the Konig's moved up to a larger engine. No idea what happened to the Wheeler/Davidson 2-litre BRM engine but it may have been obtained via Mark Konig. According to David Sewell, "gold dust if around today."
Reference to the Nomad and to Lanfranchi, Mark and Garbriel Konig can be found in Down the Hatch - The life and fast times of Tony Lanfranchi by Mark Kahn, W. Foulsham & Co, 1980. |
