Left to right: 1968 - Mk1 at the Nurburgring 1000 kms. Pits photograph. John Green in the car; Mk1 Daren Coupe Castle Coombe; Mk1 Daren Coupe Castle Coombe as well.
Racing History of the Daren Group 6 Prototype
First raced in 1968 and driven by John Green, former British monoposto champion. Power unit at this time was a Ford Twin Cam 1594cc mated to a Mk5 Hewland gearbox.
Three outright wins during first three outings including lap records at Llandow Circuit (Wales) for GT cars - time 41.0 seconds at 87.81 mph (15th April 1968). Many other class wins and placings during 1968/1969 seasons at such circuits as Mallory Park, Snetterton and Silverstone.
This car also competed at Nurburgring for the 1000km race but was forced to retire due to "engine failure".
The Daren at the Nürburgring 1000km race in 1968
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A.D.A.C 1,000 Kilometers - Nürburgring 1968
John Green and Peter Gaydon entered the A.D.A.C 1000km with the Daren GT in 1968. The car ran as high as third in class at one stage with John at the wheel. Sadly a fire in the engine compartment thwarted their attempt at success.
This came in from my friend Klaus Tweddell in Germany on 19th December....
"....nice to hear from you. after many years of searching for the remains of the Daren, it was nice to get your email. Nevertheless, the pictures in your website are very disappointing..... how can such a nice car come into such sad state. Yes, I remember the Daren very well, although I was only 16 years old, when I saw it running at the 1000km race at Nürburgring in 1968. I took several pictures of it mainly at entrance at Karussell Bend and at Kesselchen Valley section, one shot from nearly above , as the spectators position is here very high..... After the race I saw the car beside the Daren race truck, signs of fire at the carburetor area (right side...the rear Perspex destroyed) and took pictures there. Years later I came across the advertisement of the Daren in Autosport, then the track ended. By the way, the mentioned nomad BRM, which competed in the same race, a wonderful coupe, is in a garage of a friend of mine, only 20km from my place, very sensible restoration to its perfect state from 1968, keeping as much material original and not replaced, as many restorations go today, robbing the cars their identity , patina and at last their history.... A further car in that class at 1000km race 1968, the Tavenor-Ford, is in my possession (beside some other race-cars), also restored the same way as the Nomad Mk 1, so the Daren is the third one to have survived the prototype class in that race. By the way, there exists also a super 8 movie of that race , showing the Daren jumping at km 13 Nurburgring crest, that place, where many famous shots were taken in those days. Unfortunately the pictures are a but rattling, the cars were a bit too fast at this place for super 8 Technics in those days." Wonderful stuff, huh?
#56 Daren Mk1 at Nürburgring with small canard fins. According to David Sewell, "...the Mk1 had had a carb fire that caused the retirement and it was after the event that John decided to fit the de Dion tube rear end whilst other work and the repairs were being carried out."
From Peter Gaydon, the co-driver of the Daren at the 'ring in 1968!
“I drove several prototypes and one offs and yes, I was the Peter Gaydon who drove your Daren at the 'Ring in 1968. ….I do recall my affiliation with John Green and Daren. I had been racing for four years as an amateur; racing at weekends whilst working as Export Sales Executive for Rootes Motors. I see you have Macau featured on your site (www.currypotproductions.com). I came out to race at the Macau Grand Prix in 1967 (in a Cooper T83 which Peter described as “quite the worse single-seater I ever drove –an awful car.” Source: Dr. Philip Newsome, Colour & Noise) at the end of a good year when I won six F3 races in my Brabham BT18…and a Grovewood Award. …Macau was a disaster. I went to drive Graham Owens' Cooper T-something - 72? and having set fastest lap in practice well under the record to take pole position, Graham, who was tending the car forgot to tighten the wheels and one fell off on lap 2 so that was that. Back to Daren. [That was the way of jettisoning the “Gull Wing doors”. It worked according to Sewell. The string was replaced by a nylon cord after Nurburgring] As the car was Johns' baby, he started but I had raced at the 'Ring several times and knew it well so had put in the quicker laps in practice. At that time experience of the Ring was worth huge chunks of time and as it was John's first race there he was on a learning curve. Even so, we were well placed in the class after his stint and given my likely lap times and his growing circuit knowledge, we were confident (they ran as high as third in class at one stage).
We refuelled and I started my stint. The car ran well and I was settled into the rhythm so essential for long distance racing and getting a car to the finish. At some point - I can't remember how many laps or the exact place but I was breaking hard for a tight left hand corner after a longish straight when the whole cockpit suddenly filled with flames. Fires in racing were an uncomfortably regular occurrence then. What had happened was a fuel union to the carburettors had fractured spilling fuel on to the undertray. Fuel had collected on the undertray and when I braked, the fuel had flowed from the engine compartment into the cockpit under the vertical bulkhead immediately behind the driver. This bulkhead was riveted to the undertray but it was not fuel tight. The fuel flowed under the drivers seat and pooled in the footwell.
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A.D.A.C 1,000 Kilometers - Nurburgring 1968
DSJ's notes from Motor, June 1968
...Of the enormous British club-driver entry some got the results they deserved, others suffered misfortunes, some were no better than could be expected, some went fast and off into the bushes, some went slow and kept on the road and some went steadily and reliably. The usually reliable Nomad-Ford 1600 of Konig/Lanfranchi suffered an engine blow-up; the immaculate Ginetta G12 of Richard Groves, driven by Moore/Davidson was going splendidly and leading its class for a long time until a petrol leak delayed it and dropped it to third place; the equally well-prepared Chevron-BMW of Tech-Speed driven by Rollinson/Nunn was not fast enough to challenge the better Porsche Carrera Sixes, but nevertheless ran extremely well to finish third in its class. ...
Of the 3-litre Alan Mann Ford prototype's (F3L) second outing, the car did not show up very well over the Nurburgring's bumps, and after poor Chris Irwin crashed his heavily in practice, this car, driven by Frank Gardner and Dick Attwood, had a troubled race, ending in an ignominious retirement when the engine died.
There were 76 starters in the race - 47 finishers.
1968 Nürburgring 1000 Km
19 May 1968 - Nürburgring: Round 6, International Manufacturers Championship. Round 3, Challenge Mondial. NB: The qualifying time for the Daren wasn't particularly impressive when compared to the Chevron B6 and the Lotus Europa but in the Prototype 1600cc class, a good class placing would have been entirely possible.
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