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The Daren Mk1 Prototype 1967 with thanks to the late John Green and to David Sewell for photos and advice
Recovered in Singapore..... It looks more like the Ford F3L Prototype than a Chevron B8. Windscreen off a JW Auto Gulf Mirage! But which ran a 165bhp Vegantune Lotus Twin Cam? Above left - fresh out of Maurice Gohm's body shop and still without paint at Leighton Buzzard, February 1968. Above right - the quarter scale model that weighed over 65kg. Photo taken December 1967. |
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The Daren Mk1 Project (Last Update: Sept 2006) The links in this box will take you to the Daren rebuild pages. We are presently 50% through the work with the spaceframe complete and now awaiting final touches before mechanicals are sourced.
DAREN Mk1 Prototype PROJECT link - Singapore 2005
DAREN Mk1 Prototype REBUILD link - Macao 2006 & 2007
The other DARENs - Mk2/3/4 - updated Sept '06
DAREN Mk1 Prototype adverts - Great Britain 1969/1970
DAREN Mk1 Prototype documentation - Singapore 1970
DAREN Mk1 - Racing in UK & Europe - 1967/1968
The DAREN Newsletter |
| What could have been the progenitor of this lightweight, gull-winged, mid-engined Group 6 racecar from 1967? The Chevron B6 and B8 were contemporary but the one that preceded all of these would certainly have been the Eric Broadley-built Lola GT. The Lola GT was "almost a prototype for the car taking shape in Ford minds, a low, sleek GT coupe first displayed at the London Racing Car Show in January 1963. Its central structure was a monocoque, with tubular frames front and rear." DNA established but the argument raged on for months – Diva or Chevron. |
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The Daren Mk1 at Nurburgring, 1968 ADAC 1000km
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.
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After nineteen years of searching, I finally re-discovered what has turned out to be John Green's first car - the Daren Mk1 Prototype. Closer inspection suggests a link with the Ford F3L and JW Automotive Mirage. Closer to the F3L than to a Chevron? This was getting very interesting indeed. Daren Cars were built by John Green and this is the PROTOTYPE that was built for the Nurburgring 1000km race in 1968. It ran at the World Sportscar Championships Round 6 at Nurburgring in 1968 but DNF-ed. |
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Vegantune - Ex-B.R.M. mechanics George Robinson and John Sismey built up Vegantune after leaving the Owen Organization around 1964. They became of of the largest tuning outfits in the English Midlands, concentrating on racing engines - particularly Ford, BMC and Vauxhall. A favorite with Lotus owners (from Cortina to Elan) they also offered turnkey engines for lower Formulae and club racing. |
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The car was subsequently redesigned with a de Dion rear end and eventually sold to Stanley Leong in Singapore. According to David Sewell, an associate of John Green’s, "...the Mk1 had had a carb fire that caused the retirement (at the 1000km Nurburgring race) 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." Stanley’s notes suggested that that car once had a Coventry Climax 1,100cc engine that was replaced by an Allan Smith-built Lotus Twin Cam (allegedly putting out 190bhp). Alan was more of a V8 builder and further investigation revealed that the Lotus-Ford Twin Cam it always had was built by Vegantune. John Green himself told me it was a 173bhp Vegantune Twin Cam capable of 165mph with fuel injection being contemplated later on. This was later verified by David Sewell. Never did it have a Climax engine in it. The engine ran on a compression ratio of 13:1 !!! OriginsJohn's decision to build a GT car came about in 1967 when he raced a Diva. At 35 he was already national monoposto racing champion in Britain and at one time was also Fairthorpe's works manager. He had his own garage called JG Motors at Station Road, Leighton Buzzard. The decision to build a GT race car attracted the attention of David Taylor. David had worked for Ford before joining JW Automotive Products (thus becoming involved with the Mirage Ford) and was a potential customer of John’s before he got involved in the design of Daren. John himself worked on chassis design with mechanic Mike Aird. The end result was an exquisite shape that the press billed as being faultless with a sparkling engine. |
John Green - Monoposto champ for '68.
Source:AUTO SPEED 1968, the Racing car show in London, 3-13 January 1968
The pictures above show the quarter scale model and show frontal water spray to see if the vortices can be seen at the tail. No wind tunnel available then! Photo taken in December 1967
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The little GT's debut was as Castle Combe with a class win. The following day, John took an outright win at Llandow (15th April 1968), near Cardiff with a new lap record. Before heading for the Nurburgring 1000km (in 1968), there would be yet another win, at Silverstone. John tool a number of class wins and placings during the 1968/69 season, notably at Mallory Park, Snetterton and Silverstone. A change in GT racing rules for 1969 meant that minimum weight restriction would be lifted, thus making the Daren Mk1 obsolete, and hence the sale of the car to a buyer in Singapore as the team began working on the Mk2. |
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Daren Mk1 Prototype: Wheel base 90" Track f/r 52" Height 38" Overall length 144" Dry Weight 1180lb |
Ford Group 6 Prototype: Wheel base 87" Track 55" Height 35.3" Overall length ???" Dry Weight ???lb |
Ford GT40 Mk1: Wheel base 95" Track 54" Height 40.5" Overall length 165" Dry Weight 1835lb |
Lola GT: Wheel base 92" Track 52" Height 40" Overall length 154" Dry Weight 1800lb |
Daren Mk3: Wheel base 94" Track 54.5/56" Height 34" (to roll-cage) Overall length 138" Dry Weight 950lb |
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AUTOSPORT Issue: Feb 21st 1969 p44
Imminent completion of Mk2 Darens and the need for additional space necessitates sale of the successful Daren Mk1 GT. This car is available, less engine and gearbox at GBP1,150. Ford engine and Hewland Mk 5 gearbox with L/S differential and spare ratios are available. The car is fitted with De-dion rear axle, magnesium wheels, A.R. calipers and long-range tanks.
An advert from car dealer Deryck Harbison for the Daren that appeared in Autosport of 16th July 1970. The Mk1 made its appearance at the Singapore Grand Prix in April 1971. The car most certainly left for the docks on a trailer with John Green driving direct from Leighton Buzzard. Earlier Tony Smith had painted the car the red. Deryck Harbison advertised the car in Autosport - which is where Stanley Leong found it. Stanley had two choices - the Piper or the Daren. Stanley told me that the Piper was far more expensive. The advert above also reveals that the car was being advertised sans engine. This conclusively shows that Stanley's earlier remarks that the engine was from Alan Smith are correct - an all steel crank putting out over 190bhp and able to rev past 8000rpm (hence Henkie Iriawan's interest in "borrowing the engine" for his Elfin 600C). Advert credit: Peter Richardson
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John Green sold the car to Stanley Leong in Singapore in 1971. Stanley had already brought in a number of very interesting cars since returning back from Sydney with a works MGA and had a loosely built team – the team did remarkably well with an Elva Mk7S BMW, a Merlyn Mk7 and a Mk10 in Rodney Seow’s hand. Stanley was nearing the end of his racing exploits and when Indonesia racer Henkie Iriawan (best with karts but who raced Elfins, Pallisers, and a bent Brabham) approached, a deal was struck. Stanley entered the Daren in the Singapore GP of 1971 but decided he'd had enough of racing. The plan was therefore to let Henkie run in the Sport and GT car race at the Singapore Grand Prix in 1971. Henkie indicated that he was very impressed with the speed and handling (akin to a kart was how Henkie described the Daren) in a practice run, but had to rush back to Jakarta on short notice and so missed the event. Henkie never did buy the car as he was involved in a fatal accident while karting in Ipoh soon after. The car then went into hibernation - stripped off of all mechanicals. Stanley had some work done to get it restored for road use but after a number of attempts, laid it to rest at one of Tan Ah Bee's workshop. I uncovered it (literally) in 1986 at one of Ah Bee’s workshop near what is now Robertson Quay one fine day while looking around the island for this sort of thing (before I discovered that there was such a thing as a day job that payed). Casual inquiries via the MSVCR's Tuesday “Noggin and Natter” evenings at the Polo Club didn’t help and I left things as they were. I did have the presence of mind to take photos which I carefully packed away. This was definitely a race car with its own trailer so must have been involved in racing or sprints in the region in the 60s and 70s. Fast forward to mid-05 when I started to catalogue my photos for a book I had undertaken to write titled Snakes & Devil’s - the Golden Age of Motorsport in Asia. As I now had a reason to look at those old photos, I took my initial inquiries to my good friend and fellow historic motorsport enthusiast Neville Mc Kay in Macau. We gravitated between it being a Diva to an early Chevron (Neville was in the Diva camp, I was in the Chevron B4 camp). I was almost certain a Diva had raced in these parts but that Peter Heath, who had campaigned just such a car at Macau, had cut a hole in the roof to accommodate his tall frame. This was not a Diva. It wasn’t until I began interviewing some of the race drivers that I was able to piece things together. Rodney Seow (who won the Singapore GP in 1967 in a Merlyn Mk10) identified the car and the owner as Stanley Leong. Rodney raced for Singapore Motors and then for Capital Motors with Stanley. A lunch with William Lyou resulted in Stanley’s son’s contact number. I had done some auto testing in the late 80s and so new of Stanley's son Nick (he drove an Alfa GTV, I a hot Spitfire Mk2). I called on Nick about doing an interview for the book with his father and asked politely about the car and the response was “It was a piece of shit when you found it, it’s now a worse piece of shit.” I was getting somewhere. Why the name Daren? David Green was John's only child and so John amalgamated David and Green to form the name Daren. Some people thought David Sewell was the David as the younger Green was just two years old at the time Daren Cars was created. Sewell thinks otherwise as the Mk1 had preceded him. Sewell's direct involvement began with the Mk2 onwards. John Green: "I was co-driving a Diva in long distance races in Europe in 1967 and decided I needed my own car for 1968, having looked around for a suitable car without luck I decided I could build a better car. Over the winter I built the Mk1 for my own use, space frame chassis alloy body, Lotus Vegentune engine, Mk5 Hewland gearbox, windscreen was from a John Wyer Mirage. I later made a de Dion rear end as a test rig. This was so successful that I had customers wanting me to build cars for them, hence the start of Daren Cars." David Sewell: "David Taylor worked on the GT40 and Mirages before becoming involved with the Daren Mk1. He was a casual visitor to John's garage and saw the Mk1 under construction. Like myself he “volunteered” to help. At the time he was with JW. Hence the source of the screen... I came in as the modification to the de Dion rear were being completed so as far as I am concerned the detailed stuff was done but I did attend a few meetings. Then the CSI changed the rules and we started on the open MK2's and a small production run of an initial six - later another four I believe. (Two were destroyed in accidents and one in a garage fire). We only know of two - one in Detroit and one with David Green so where are the others? Of the remainder one went to South Africa and attempts I have made to locate it came to nothing. Another went to the USA. I believe there should be still another two around?" “…because after the modifications to the Mk1 I became a sort of travelling mechanic with John and it was a one on one situation (hence lack of photos of the earliest Daren). With the 2's and 3's and a limited production run other owners were around with their people…” |
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Bodywork for the Mk1 was a joint project. John Green did some parts himself and Maurice Gohm Associates (a specialist sheet metal company) the other parts. Maurice Gohm also did the Ford F3L. Dave Taylor worked for Jeff Uren who ran the Ford saloons in the 60's that led to the JW Automotive set up. Dave was a traditional draftsman - no CADCAM in those days. John normally roughed out the design outline and Dave completed the drawings in detail. It was about the time of John Green's return from the 1000 km that David Sewell became involved with Daren Cars. Sewell recalls that 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. The Merlyn rear uprights were discarded and the rear uprights became part of the fabricated tube assembly. The windscreen I found on the car in 1986 had been a replacement screen sent to Singapore in early 1972 and was apparently the last one John Willment had in stock at J.W. Automotive. The last screen left Leighton Buzzard in a slatted wooden crate according to Sewell. The replacement screen cost £35.00 with crating adding £15.00 and Air Freight a further £151.00 (Correspondence between Myrna Green of Daren Cars and S.T.S. Leong dated 18th November 1971). Total cost to ship down that last surviving Mirage laminated screen set the owner back a whopping £205.00 (with special adhesive added at £4.00). Without even counting for inflation, that would have cost ~Singapore $1200. NB: During the course of rebuilding the chassis, we observed that there was very little structural rigidity around the base of the windscreen, a problem that would undoubtedly resurface and cause any new windscreen to crack under stress. This has now been rectified. |
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Comparing the Ford Prototype with the Daren Prototype....
The Ford Prototype Coupe was powered by a Cosworth V8 DFV, unlike the Daren, which had a Lotus Twin Cam. The body/chassis was bonded and riveted with all-independent suspension following conventional Grand Prix practice of the day. The prototypes be all built by Alan Mann Racing together with Ford GB with the intention of entering the cars in long distance events (Nurburgring 1,000km, BOAC 500, but not Le Mans, surprisingly). The size of the car is more compact than that of the Daren, slightly shorter, smaller wheelbase and far smaller track. Len Bailey of Ford GB's Research Engineering Centre, was responsible for the design, with Dave Taylor doing the draught work (hence the similarity to the Daren shape). Tyre size was 15in, compared to the Daren's 13in Magnesium rims from John Green's Merlyn F3 (or Alexis F3 as specified in the spec sheet sent to the first owner).
The relationship between the Daren Prototype and the "Mirage" Ford from J.W. Automotive Engineering.....
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Smith gauges, a neat looking gear lever and a single air vent from what appears to have been from a Mini! Definitely not enough to cool the interior of a gull-wing race car anywhere in the world. let alone on a 1000km race at Nurburgring. Steering wheel needs a total repadding and gauges will have to be repaired or replaced with identical ones (all Smiths). |
 Smith gauges - ok, British. A four-branch manifold without flanges? Definitely Lotus Twin Cam. Manifolds now sitting at home in Singapore. ..the switches and labeling was when David Sewell entered the scene. Stopping at John's garage one day David was looking at the MK1 undergoing the rebuild post Nurburgring and mentioned the switches/wiring harness etc and John said "If you can do it better come and do so" and that was the beginning of a very long involvement. |
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Gullwing doors, spaceframe rear. Rear uprights would have been used before the de Dion modification was incorporated and the trailing arm links can still be seen from the earlier Merlyn suspension. The de Dion axle was done a year or so into the car's life, after the 1968 Nurburgring 1000km, the rear upright now becoming part of the de Dion axle. John did not continue with the de Dion tube in the subsequent Mk2 and M3 cars.
Gullwing doors - Attached via Sisal string and pins. These were done as a way of jettisoning the "Gull Wing doors" in the event that the driver needed to exit rapidly. It worked for Peter Gaydon at Nurburgring in 1968! The string was later replaced by a nylon cord after the rebuild.
Source: David Sewell
| According to John Green, windscreen came from the John Willment Mirage design. The common denominator? Dave Taylor, draughtsman for the Daren Mk1 was already working at JW on the Ford F3L and GT40 projects, hence the Mirage windscreen.
The one on the car found had been a replacement screen sent to Singapore in early 1972 and was apparently the last one John Willment had in stock at J.W. Automotive. The last screen left Leighton Buzzard in a slatted wooden crate according to David Sewell. The replacement screen cost £35.00 with crating adding £15.00 and Air Freight a further £151.00 (Correspondence between Myrna Green of Daren Cars and S.T.S. Leong dated 18th November 1971). Total cost to ship down that last surviving Mirage laminated screen set the owner back a whopping £205.00 (with special adhesive added at £4.00). Without even counting for inflation, that would have set the owner back ~Singapore $1200.
A friend of David's has been talking with David Piper (the original one of various Ferrari/GT 40's fame and who drove the J.W. Automotive Mirage coupes as well). David continues to campaign his various historic GT cars and says that getting one of screens made by Triplex is not that difficult and they can now be tougher and thicker for historic preservation purposes. |
Photos below of the Mk1 in various stages of development. Note 1/4 scale model in the foreground of one of the photos. Note same photo has a different rear suspension setup. The original the idea of the tail section was to create a Vortex which in effect made the car 3 meters longer, very slippery in those days 165mph with 165hp. Picture to the left is the Nürburgring program for the 1968 1000km race. Entered in the race was John Green and Peter Gaydon in the #56 Daren Mk1 Ford in the 1600cc Prototype class. Others in that class included the Chevron B6 BMW, the Ginetta G12, Abarth 1300 OT, Abarth 1600 OT, Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ, Austin Healey Sprite, Costin-Nathan GT Ford, Mark Konig's Lanfranchi-driven Nomad Mk1 Ford, the Tavenor Ford, Intertech Lola Mk1 Ford (driven by Tony Goodwin and Angus Clydesdale - both of whom raced in Singapore as well), Emeron Lotus-Ford, Piper GT Lotus-Ford, Deep Sanderson 302 Ford, Harvey - Lotus-Ford, Sandro Munari's Lancia Fulvia.
It was about the time of John's return from the 1000 kms that David Sewell became involved with Daren Cars. David recalls that 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. The Merlyn rear uprights were discarded and the rear uprights became part of the fabricated tube assembly. What the press said in 1968....
Behind the Wheel - Home built - but it has a professional touch...27th August 1968 |
John's attire suggests that the photo was taken in winter. That would therefore date the photo to winter of 1967 - when the car was unveiled. This photo was taken at Leighton Buzzard soon after its return from Maurice Gohm's bodyshop. |
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The Ford F3L rear end is similar to that of the Daren Prototype. The concave tail end was to create a still air "slug" that effectively lengthened the car by several feet aerodynamically (John said it was about 3feet). David Taylor was the draftsman on the project.
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Bodywork was a joint project. John did some parts himself and Maurice Gohm Associates (a specialist sheet metal company) the other parts. Maurice Gohm also did the Ford F3L.
Dave Taylor worked for Jeff Uren who ran the Ford saloons in the 60's that led to the JW Automotive set up. Dave was a traditional draftsman - no CADCAM in those days. John normally roughed out the design outline and Dave completed the drawings in detail. |
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1/4 scale model in foreground. Note different rear suspension from that of the de Dion later on. On the tail section - ala F3F, the original idea of the tail section was to create a Vortex, which in effect made the car 3 feet longer.
Dave Green has still got the MK1 model under a bed in the back bedroom of his place. The 1/4 scale model is also painted green and had been sitting in the office for years holding the safe down. It is apparently extremely heavy. Dave apparently also has the Daren Mk2 model with him.
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AcknowledgementsWith thanks to David Sewell, Dave Taylor, Myrna and David and the late John Green for photos and background to the Daren history. Thanks also to Stanley Leong for filling in the Singapore history of the car and allowing me to use a six-wheeled crane at his compound to remove the car from the relative security and into another lifetime of hard labour on the tracks. Thanks also to Raphael Solomon for overseeing the work on the Daren’s trailer and to Harry Tan at Henderson for fixing it with a great deal of reluctance. Stanley tells me the trailer was an exact copy of one that Dodjie Laurel had for his Brabham BT9/10 Formula Junior. |
