My friend and I built this car having had it shipped over from america ,it was in a right mess and needed a full rebiuld. Originally it had a 1300 cc twin cam because the aim was to contest the index of fuel efficiency class I 69 we fitted a 1600cc lotus twin cam to preserve the newly rebuilt original ,also the suspension and hewland box were rebuilt with the aim to race the car at le mans in the classic event with one of the original drivers named Tim Lalonde which we duly competed in with a little more success than in 1969 and the car was raced sparingly in England being the only example of the gtr ever built for Le mans .eventually it was sold to whom and where it went ends the tale of this pioneering prototype which Steve Mc Queen described as "slippery " .
Technically the car was very light as it used a very advanced manufacturing method of using a Mallite centre tub and then spaceframes to mount the engine and suspension. Mallite is formed of a core sheet of end grain balsa wood, faced by duralumin sheets. see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallite.
Nice Car! for such a tiny manufacturer : By 1969 Le mans was already major league enginnering for high performance endurance engines From multi-million dollar developments of Corporate FORD and Porsche, state of the art and leading edge tech.: FORD beat Posche by a tiny difference: This one No chance!
I'd fit a 3.8 L XK I6 cylinder producing about 300 bhp, a 1969 Aston Martin DBS based 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans, Tadek Marek 3.7-litre Inline-6, (bored to 3,750 cc (229 cu in) from 3,670 cc (224 cu in) 317 bhp (236 kW; 321 PS) at 6000rpm DP214 or the Mirage BRM M2's engine behind there❓
I'm not sure but I believe that the driver was one David Piper who was the boss of Piper Cars. He would beg, borrow or buy any car he could get his hands on to race at Le Mans. He was also recruited by Steve McQueen to help supply cars, drive and help on the technical side of the production of the film 'Le Mans'. During filming Piper was supposed to deliberately crash one of the cars but things went wrong and he lost a leg in the accident. He continued to collect and race cars and I believe he had two of the Alan Mann Ford P68 3 liter GTs painted in emerald green. The Len Terry designed P68 was even more aerodynamic than the Piper GTR but suffered from compromised engineering, bad reliability and an aerodynamic flaw that nobody understood at the time. Maybe that would make a good video in the future?
@@EpicB The P68 had it's debut at the 1968 BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch where 2 cars were entered but only one started as Jack Brabham considered his car too dangerous to drive. The sister car qualified in 6th place driven by Bruce McLaren and actually led the race for a few laps until the rubber donut (off a Hillman Imp) failed on the driveshaft on the 12th lap. Putting 410 bhp from a Ford DFV through it was not a good idea! The car's layout had been compromised by Ford and Cosworth not being willing to supply the engine due to their commitment to Lotus in F1 so it was originally built to take the 3 litre Serrenisima V8 which was heavier, less powerful and couldn't be used as a stressed member like the DFV. Eventually Ford/Cosworth relented and supplied the team the engines but it was too late to remove the engine mounting 'horns' so the units weren't fitted as Alan Mann would have liked. The aerodynamic problem was due to the car being so very 'slippery' that the body created positive lift that it would cause the car to 'float' at high speed despite an air dam at the front radiator inlet and a full width kick up of the rear bodywork. This was exacerbated by Terry designing a tail that was supposed to cause low pressure area under it which, given the rudimentary nature of the understanding of aero at the time wasn't surprising. It was this that Jack Brabham objected to as he was getting understeer into a corner followed by a rapid transition to oversteer from mid corner to exit. McLaren just drove around the problem!
My friend and I built this car having had it shipped over from america ,it was in a right mess and needed a full rebiuld. Originally it had a 1300 cc twin cam because the aim was to contest the index of fuel efficiency class I 69 we fitted a 1600cc lotus twin cam to preserve the newly rebuilt original ,also the suspension and hewland box were rebuilt with the aim to race the car at le mans in the classic event with one of the original drivers named Tim Lalonde which we duly competed in with a little more success than in 1969 and the car was raced sparingly in England being the only example of the gtr ever built for Le mans .eventually it was sold to whom and where it went ends the tale of this pioneering prototype which Steve Mc Queen described as "slippery " .
did you re-built / restored / repaired this car in Wokingham back around 1968 ish ?
Piper GTR. My Favourite racecar ever.
Piper may not be a very big car company but their cars is sure unique in it own ways
Just found this series. Loving it so far. Really into it Mike
kapil busawah Thanks bud 👍
@@HSGAutomotive I Just Recently Subbed Because Of This Series, Mike! Thank You For Having These Vids! Really Interesting Series!
Great video. Hope to see driving footage someday.
I saw a red one in the 80s in Long Beach CA ready to be shipped to Japan , great looking car
Nice
I love this thing from an engineering POV. Unfortunately not really from a looks POV though
This car in its , race displacement category, would have been a winner.
Beautiful!!!
Were the big headlights under the smaller headlights designed to be used for racing at night during the Le Mans 24 hour race?
Technically the car was very light as it used a very advanced manufacturing method of using a Mallite centre tub and then spaceframes to mount the engine and suspension. Mallite is formed of a core sheet of end grain balsa wood, faced by duralumin sheets. see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallite.
this car is fantastic
The WM Peugeots could also be a good idea for this series.
Unfortunately this car was sold in 2009 but it has since disappeared never to be seen. Anybody have a clue to its whereabouts.
It's actually a beautiful car I like it
Nice Car! for such a tiny manufacturer : By 1969 Le mans was already major league enginnering for high performance endurance engines From multi-million dollar developments of Corporate FORD and Porsche, state of the art and leading edge tech.: FORD beat Posche by a tiny difference: This one No chance!
'68 Marcos Mantis xp could use a nice review of itself1
The only car that might resemble it is the porsche 907/908, in terms of shape and small size
I feel like I've seen this car in a GT game
It is the type of weird that GT often features.
I'd fit a 3.8 L XK I6 cylinder producing about 300 bhp,
a 1969 Aston Martin DBS based 1963 24 Hours of
Le Mans, Tadek Marek 3.7-litre Inline-6, (bored to
3,750 cc (229 cu in) from 3,670 cc (224 cu in) 317 bhp
(236 kW; 321 PS) at 6000rpm DP214 or the Mirage
BRM M2's engine behind there❓
I want to see an Unsung Heroes episode on the Lamborghini Portofino concept.
I'm not sure but I believe that the driver was one David Piper who was the boss of Piper Cars. He would beg, borrow or buy any car he could get his hands on to race at Le Mans. He was also recruited by Steve McQueen to help supply cars, drive and help on the technical side of the production of the film 'Le Mans'. During filming Piper was supposed to deliberately crash one of the cars but things went wrong and he lost a leg in the accident. He continued to collect and race cars and I believe he had two of the Alan Mann Ford P68 3 liter GTs painted in emerald green.
The Len Terry designed P68 was even more aerodynamic than the Piper GTR but suffered from compromised engineering, bad reliability and an aerodynamic flaw that nobody understood at the time. Maybe that would make a good video in the future?
@@mikehipperson I have no idea what car you're talking about.
@@EpicB The P68 had it's debut at the 1968 BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch where 2 cars were entered but only one started as Jack Brabham considered his car too dangerous to drive. The sister car qualified in 6th place driven by Bruce McLaren and actually led the race for a few laps until the rubber donut (off a Hillman Imp) failed on the driveshaft on the 12th lap. Putting 410 bhp from a Ford DFV through it was not a good idea! The car's layout had been compromised by Ford and Cosworth not being willing to supply the engine due to their commitment to Lotus in F1 so it was originally built to take the 3 litre Serrenisima V8 which was heavier, less powerful and couldn't be used as a stressed member like the DFV. Eventually Ford/Cosworth relented and supplied the team the engines but it was too late to remove the engine mounting 'horns' so the units weren't fitted as Alan Mann would have liked. The aerodynamic problem was due to the car being so very 'slippery' that the body created positive lift that it would cause the car to 'float' at high speed despite an air dam at the front radiator inlet and a full width kick up of the rear bodywork. This was exacerbated by Terry designing a tail that was supposed to cause low pressure area under it which, given the rudimentary nature of the understanding of aero at the time wasn't surprising. It was this that Jack Brabham objected to as he was getting understeer into a corner followed by a rapid transition to oversteer from mid corner to exit. McLaren just drove around the problem!
@@mikehipperson Okay, sure. I was just talking about a completely different car.
Any new murder mysteries?
VALLY I'm currently working on a new one, but as with the cave mystery this one isn't going to be a murder.
piper perri? 😂👍
Another is like in forza horizon 4