| Gtm 700f
I might be able to provide a liitle history to this car as my older, late brother, Tony owned from 1972 to 1976. (I am doing this from memory so please forgive me if the dates etc aren't perfect.)
He bought it from Hexagon of Highgate for about £3,000 and sold it to Brian Angliss of Autocraft for rather less than that as the oil feed on the dry sump engine had failed!
The first time I saw it was at a friend's wedding in summer 72. The bride and her family were not amused as all the men were in the church car park admiring the car instead of the bride.
Tony did a few sprints with it at Thruxton, but he didn't feel confident enough to race it properly. He only had one set of tyres - slicks and once he got caught out by rain, coming back from Thruxton, had to abandon the car beside the road and walk to the nearest house so that he could phone his wife to come and tow him home.
The following facts may be wrong, since 700F and 777F were so similar and their histories sometimes get confused. I think 700F raced at Le Mans and Tony told me prince Rainier had owned it for a short while. When he had it it was black with two centre white stripes and sidepipes that were not cromed. The cockpit was black and well worn.
I regret to say I only went in it once and i had to bully him even then. it was a perfect summer evening just before dark. We went onto theonly piece of dual carriageway nearby, which was the Eastley bypass. At 80 a teased him and said 'come on, my Vitesse goes faster than this'. He floored it, the tyres squeaked and we were upto 130 before I knew it. If hadn't put on the racing harness, I probably would have shot out of the seat as it wasn't properly bolted to the floor. The noise was the best bit though.
For the last year or more, he had problems with the oil feed and didn't use it. He emigrated to South Africa in 76, so decided to sell it. He loved owning it, but could not really afford to run it.
I daresay his wife may still have photos of it during those 4 years. I can find out if anybody is interested.  |