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Turner Sports Cars | Photos by Chassis Number |
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Turner Sports Cars | Photos by Chassis Number |
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| This Turner MK2 racing car had been dry stored in Hockley Birmingham since 1976 and had until 2016 never moved ,
It has now been extracted from being buried in behind 16 tons of granite sheets and about 10 old machine lathes and Initial viewings of the car found it to be a Turner MK2 with a Ford engine and with some interesting body modifications not unlike that of the famous Tatty Turner team car, Found within the car was a scrutineers ticket for a race meeting at Santa Pod 06-07-74 stating race number SSA 29 and this matched a known photo of this car on the Internet in all its 1970s glory with SSA 29 painted on the doors. Further research since has traced the car back through the periods of its ownership, before being placed in storage It was bought from David Key in 1976 and was supposedly only ever used as a competition car. David Key sprinted the car and it was he who ran it at Santa Pod and he had bought it from a Mike Overton, Mike raced the car and ran it at Curborough mid-60s having bought it from Roy Morris who ran a tuning business in Birmingham called Morspeed , Having contacted Roy Morris he recalled ‘’I was originally told about the car by Drag racer Tony Froome who dealt in all sorts of cars,He had a workshop in Hockley B'ham just round the corner from my Morspeed workshop in Spring-hill, Bham and I did a deal with him but I had to collect the car from John Rhodes Auto-shop on the Wolverhampton Rd nearly into the Wolves, But I never knew who the seller was. When I first got the car it was in full race trim but had not been run for a while. It had small magnesium wheels and Dunlop green spot racing tyres. The motor was a Ford 105E full-race " Cosworth " MAE Blue-printed @ 999cc on twin Weber DCOE carbs which was rather tired. I used it a couple of times at Curborough & Santa-pod races and then started to upgrade it over the next season’’ The Morris family have been successful in drag racing and have an excellent website which has a page dedicated to the Turner with many period pictures of the car racing at the link at the bottom of this page. I believe from photographic evidence I have identified this as the same car that it was raced in 1965 by a Peter.J Kimberley who was under entered by John Harper Racing in 1965 and it was likely he who then sold the car on via John Rhodes Auto-Shop on the Wolverhampton Rd to Roy Morris , a contact has been given for Peter in Australia where he emigrated so hopefully this can be confirmed and I believe from my own research that this is the same car that was originally owned by a Peter Hahn who ordered it through Gordon Unsworth’s Motorway Sales who then built and prepared it in a the Team Turner styling and my records show it as being raced by Peter at Brands Hatch 23/04/1962 , Mallory 06/08/1962 ,and in the Brands Hatch Peco Trophy 26/08/1962 Where the distinctive body features are evident in a picture I have of the car at Brands Hatch showing Hahn racing the car where it is interestingly pictured carrying the Middlesex registration of 3579 MX. Works production records show a Turner Chassis 62/516 was supplied to a Mr Hahn through Motorway Sales around March 1962. I understand Chris having secured and recovered the car has now since agreed a sale to a new owner in Germany who plans a full racing restoration. |
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