Big Sam
There seems to be a lot of waffle and opinions about Big Sam recently, which is interesting, but as the present owner for over twenty years, some of the misplaced "facts" put forwards may need correcting.
I have known Tim Riley and his family for over thirty years and when I bought Big Sam and commissioned Tim to rebuild it the goal was to get it back to being the highly competitive, but slightly tatty, modsports racer that we both remembered from 1974. Fran Tuthill rebuild the bodyshell with strict instructions to retain as many of the dents, brackets and modifications from its previous rally and racing history as he could whilst making the shell straight and true. We had to cut out and replace a lot of the tunnel and nearside footwell and the nearside chassis leg, which was 3/4" in and 1/2" higher than it should have been, was straightened and re-inforced. All the rallying dents in the offside floorpan, rear arches and cross members for instance, were retained. Tim then did a great job rebuilding the car and though we could have had a 2.8 or 3.0 litre engine we decided to stick to the original size of 2.4. The latest ignition system, starter motor, fire extinguishers and ancillaries were fitted and the suspension rose jointed but little else was changed. The engine was put back in the same, further back, position and a modern limited slip differential was fitted.
Appearance wise we repaired the original fibre glass front wings, filling in the side light holes, repaired the doors and bootlid, which is a Datsun works part but we had to make a new bonnet. The slightly crude front airdam is also a copy of the original modsports item. We didn't remove items that were added when it had last raced with Martin Sharpe as they are part of its history but the car is as near to what is was as a 70's modsports racer as we could make it.
Since then Tim has raced it about ten times and I have used it about twenty times at Goodwood, Silverstone and for local sprints in Cornwall. Tony Dron raced it at Goodwood in 1992 and twice at the Bentley Drivers Club meetings at Silverstone in the '90's. We got Win Percy back in the car just before his tragic, botched, operation and the last time I had it out was at the Festival Speed in 2005. Maybe I haven't used the car enough to please some people but that can happen when you retain a car in period. Today, there is a renewed interest in early '70's period modsports cars and we have started to get invites to some serious new series racing.
All of the professional drivers that have driven Sam, Win Percy, Tony Dron and Jackie Oliver love it for its balance and handling. I thought it would interesting to ask Mark Hales, who not only races everything from GTO's to single seaters today but also teaches competition driving, to see what he though of Sam today. Though Tim's engine rebuild is now 20 years old and it has been my servicing and maintenance of corner weights, toe in, balance etc it was very pleasing to hear Mark Hales comments on the superb handling that the car has. Last week he was not only doing some serious lap times of under 1m 27 seconds at Goodwood but he he was having fun pulling away from a brand new GT3RS Porsche down the Lavant straight-whose owner said he was going at 147 mph-- and out handling it around the corners. Just like then old days with Nick Faure....
For those who get all tied up with Sam's history, The Count and I find it quite amusing, or should I say frustrating, that people still get mixed up over facts. In 1974 the first Big Sam--the ex works, Rob Grant car-- was written off at Brands Hatch during the modsports series, by Win Percy at Paddock bend. Within two weeks another ex works shell had been acquired, rebuilt and put back on the track where it carried on to win the class for the season. And the shell wasn't an ex Safari one but this is the car which is still going and which Tim and I rebuilt in period. The fact that it can beat more modern and sophisticated sports cars is a testament to Fran Tuthill and Tim Riley's skills with an ex works shell and my small efforts at maintaining it.
It might look like Spike Anderson's "Big Sam" but as Win Percy said, entering the pits, when I asked him if it felt like Sam used to be, "No, nothing like it; it handles properly now!"