The story of the Clan Crusader 

It was just an interesting fact. People presumed that the fibreglass body would offer no crash protection but in fact it was not only strong and absorbent but was easy to repair as well.

Repairing/remaking fibreglass bodies is not an issue as it happens all the time in the boat building world and I know of one rebuilt boat on US Eastern seaboard where the keel was virtually ripped out and two amateurs rebuilt it to a standard that exceeded the requirements of the maritime assessor. Many competition cars with fibreglass bodies are crashed and get rebuilt time and again to regularly pass scrutineering. The problem with most crash repairs is that only the basics are done and so long as its cosmetically right, that is enough.

Thank you for the note; I have a few more films to put up over the next few days, and I'll be doing some more filming soon. The plan is to do more filming with owners away from indoor shows, so we can get the cars running and moving. It's all been a bit static up to now! But I have a few more films in the bag from last year to edit yet...

Martin Holmes was indeed the navigator and he was a regular journalist and photographer. My late uncle competed in the same Road Rally series as nav in a Sunbeam Rapier Mk3a, driven by Geoff Cook who was (and I believe still is) part of the family than owned Elddis Caravans and what was Siddle C Cook Transport, now Elddis Transport. They also competed twice on the Monte, a run in the Tulip and many RAC and Scottish Rallies in the late 50s and early 60s. I have all his trophies and original rally plates from many hundreds of events. Their car reg was 300 HPT which still exists, now on an Aston Martin. Alan Conley ran Wylam Garage which is now a Nissan dealership in Hexham, whether he was or is connected with that business, I don't know. I'll have to ask an old mate from school who lives about 500 metres from that dealer.

James asked me to ask the question specifically, so he could roll out that anecdote.

I'm keen to do a Gilbern video or two. I want to move away from static films at shows like the NEC, so we can see the cars moving and hear what they sound like. Trying to juggle Below The Radar with proper work is a challenge, but maybe we could do a film with your car? Drop me a line via the website (www.below-the-radar.com) and let's take it from there.

@@BelowtheRadarCars unfortunately my car is not running right now so that's out of the question and with my current financial situation it's not going to be fixed for a good while but try the GILBERN owners club, thanks for your offer though.

Thanks Adam - through my work with Practical Classics I've been in touch with the GOC within the last few days, so I can make this happen easily enough. I just need to find the time on top of everything else... Good luck with your car!

@@BelowtheRadarCars thanks.

Hi Adam! (I love the look of Gilbert Invaders), are you a club member and are you following Speg’s current series?

I loved the lights. Perhaps I was biased because I waned my Clan for several years. It was unique, different and a proper sports car.

The pod lights were a design solution that was reminiscent of the Bug Eye Sprite as well as coming from the age of the Lotus Esprit, where you can see the obvious lines. Doing anything else would have meant a completely new look that veered away from the original concept. Pop-up lights as per the McCandliss Clan was the obvious solution but until the TR7 came along there were no mechanisms readily available. The McCoy version resolves the pod lamps by having a more bulbous front to accommodate the Mini engine but that looks plain Fugly. Most competition Clans (Race and Hillclimb) use fared in lights and I think that it is now possible to use the projector lights with a faired in acrylic cover to get the right shape and just about get the correct height.

Many thanks for the detailed reply. I wonder why then, it was actually a design decision to do it this way .? It seems an odd choice to decide upon this look. ... Well, on the Sprite they were entirely separate and made a point of being obviously so, and as for the Esprit that was fully faired in and more or less invisible. So, I will beg to differ and say that these are neither fully integrated, nor fully distinct. And in my eyes always a shame..

@@jonathancarson1974 You can see what was intended with the flat front shape that was all the rage at the time and compromises had to be made if you were confined to using stuff out of the Chrysler parts bin, the headlights being Avenger/Caprima. The Clan was a very much smaller/cheaper car than the Esprit so couldn't realistically adopt its solution but as a design solution with the two constraints of maintaining the overall shape but using commonly available headlights it actually works.

That will be because it isn't a Clan but is a McCoy. The McCoy was a Kit car based on mini running gear looking vaguely like a clan.

You would not have been able to fit a front engine in a Clan.

You have forgotten 1972 Manx Rally, where Andy Dawson driving the first works competition Clan came second against many official works teams, which was probably its most famous outing - who knows what might have happened on the international scene had Clan Cars survived?. Roger Clark won the event in a works Escort with more than 2x the power of the Clan. Andy Dawson's engine was borrowed from Chrysler Comps and was reputed to be just a 'cooking' 998cc rather than the fully Chrysler Comps rally engine used in the Works Imps.

@@clivewilliams3661 Thanks, I'd forgotten that. One of my slides taken at Charterhall on a Jim Clark featured Brian Coyle (one of the winning London/Sydney Marathon winning Hunter crew) driving a bronze Imp with what was believed to be the largest engine possible which I think was 1140cc. I'll double check my old programmes and confirm that, but I don't think anyone could stretch beyond that capacity and keep it reliable enough. A tuner called Roger Nathan made a range of fast road cams for that engine and my uncle, who owned a Singer Chamois (posh version of the Imp) fitted a Nathan cam and twin Strombergs and boy did it shift. Sadly, the drum brakes all round weren't up to the task and he fitted front uprights and discs from, I think, a Vauxhall Viva. Happy days recalling these events but here in the Scottish Borders we still run the Jim Clark Rally, now on closed roads at the end of May, happening again this year with extended mileage for both events, JCMR and the Reivers Rally.

Well, that's jogged the old brain cell into action and I'd forgotten that I helped my uncle rebuild the engine and we fitted new pistons. I was given the old ones and by turning them upside down and machining the skirts down to half way through the gudgeon pin hole, made them into ashtrays. Back in the days when we all smoked. I must dig them out from the loft and give them a polish.

@@mrdunns3338 Normally, the largest that an Imp engine can be taken out to is 1220cc but the 1120cc is more common. The advantages of the very big bores was in increased torque as the power was not that great over the 998cc especially when you consider its rev limit is around 10,000rpm. Andy Jones at Shrigley Motorsport is the current guru for Imp engines and has some seriously modified ones that go way beyond what was around back in the day, although they are still constrained by what the head can produce. I want to use a 1040cc (overbored 998cc) on some specially modified CD150 Strombergs to see if the extra driveability can outdo the power advantage if a pair of Webers. Although I fully intend to add disc brakes to my Clan using MG discs all round with VW calipers at the front and Alfa at the rear (both ATE), my Road Rally Imp's braking problems only stemmed from the available lining compounds. Ferodo VG95 linings all round were well up to the job and as good as they needed to be, witness the Clan's/Imps use on tarmac rallies where they were competitive. The problem I found with the VG 95s on Road Rallies was that they were very good when hot but keeping them hot was the issue. i tried mixing them with AM8 linings and that was better. On Road Rallies the problem comes where for instance you are competing in the Derbyshire Peaks and they cool of on all the uphill sections but come to the point where its a slot right at the bottom of a steep hill and you quickly ran out of brakes or they didn't give the initial bite as they should, both could be a problem,

@@mrdunns3338 Such sacrilege using parts from one of the very best racing and fire pump engines of the age as common ashtrays! Shame on you.😁😁😁

Splendid! Now get all of your friends to watch it please!

This was filmed at a static indoor show. What were you expecting?

An AI ......2 hour ...real thourobread...video ..if the clan..on it's way ...