Rayden Smith's Twin Cam 1968 EX-JOHN WILLMENT GROUP 5 FORD ESCORT TWIN CAM - Rayden found the ex Willment Twin Cam while searching for information and parts for an ex-works RS 1600 (SPU 254K). The car was in Thames in a carpeted basement in Black with over body stripes and side panels in shades of Red and orange. It still had the fibreglass boot, bonnet and doors along with the Perspex side windows that Linn Neilson had fitted when Racing in the South Island OSCA series. It was obviously the owners pride and joy as he had many stickers on the car along with some old magazine articles when it was driven by Jim Richards. Under the bonnet there was a 13B Mazda rotary fitted along with a 5 speed gearbox, with the LSD axle hung on leaf springs but without the 4 links attached, these however were amongst a box of bits. The original compression strutted front suspension was complete including the large alloy wheel spacers and modified rollbar, the front springs were however not original. A portion of the firewall and transmission tunnel had been cut away to fit the Rotary engine. The seat and instruments that Neilson had fitted after the fire had been replaced, however hood lining still covered the special monocoque roof structure. The rear suspension pickup points were intact with the top mountings requiring some attention. The Chassis rail modification for the exhaust pipe was as it was along with evidence of the major whack to the left rear guard that occurred when Linn Neilson owned it as did his purple paint job under the black. It was obvious and it proved to be that the car had seen very little work over the previous 12 years. After some time the decision was made to rebuild the car. Rayden's enquiries had shown that the original Speed Services cylinder head was quite likely still around, even though the motor had thrown a rod whilst in Neilsons hands. Ideally a steel race spec'd Twin Cam would be perfect for the car, however to be realistic he had a budget and Twin Cams are extremely expensive to build up so it was decided to use a BDA from a Mk2 Escort he owned. The shell went to a local body builder for some attention and painting in its original Willment colours, while the BDA was stripped for crack testing and rebuilding etc. The rear suspension was set up to the original pickup points and initially ran coils plus one light leaf spring. Vented front discs and Princess 4 pott calipers were then dropped in together with the ZF gearbox from the MK2. The first outing was a practice run at Bay Park, the day before the first event at the Hamilton Motor Festival in April 1993. This saw the car right on the pace, however in the last race the oil pump drive sheared resulting in a DNF. The engine was rebuilt and the services of Bob Homewood was sought to set up the suspension to how it originally was. After several events with varied success and teething problems associated with metal fatigue reliability was found. Then at the Whenuapai Wings and Wheels in February 1996 the car recorded two wins and a DNF with a gear selection problem. The car was now running a Quaiff kitted 4 speed gearbox. Bob had rebuilt the engine to a reliable rally spec around 190 to 200 hp. In Dec 1997 a very rare Hart 416B wide angle T/C cylinder head was purchased to replace the BDA head. This cylinder head had been very successfully used by both Geoff Brabham in his championship winning F2 car and Bob Homewood in his Rhubarb sports car and Escort sports sedan. Back to the Twin Cam configuration the car has continued to be reliable and competitive having won all of its last 6 race starts. HISTORY Purpose: Built to Group 5 Specs for the RAC British Touring Car Championship. Engine: Prepared by Racing Services ( Spike Winter and Ken Brittain ) Owner: John Willment Group of Streatham Road, Mitcham Surrey. Driver: Mike Crabtree. Results: 1969; 5 Class wins giving outright winner of Class C 1600 / 2000cc class and 4th overall in the RAC British Touring Car Championship. Press Comment: Autosport cover photo January 8th 1970. Caption "The most predominant machine in Group 5 racing last year was the Ford Escort TC, and the most successful of these was this Willment car of Mike Crabtree. The winner of the 2-Litre class of the RAC championship is shown cocking a wheel high in the air at Thruxton" 1969 December: Imported Into New Zealand by Jim Carney. Owner: Mary Carney Raced under the livery of Carney Racing and later Radio Hauraki. Driver: Jim Richards. Engine: Prepared by Murray Bunn. Results 1970: Won every round and outright winner of the 1970 National Touring Car Championship 4200cc class. Press Comment: Both car and driver featured in many race results over this time, but one article that portrayed both car and driver was in the Auto News May 1971 page 15. Storey by Allan Dick on a ride with Jim Richards in the Twin Cam Escort around Ruapuna. Taken from the 4th paragraph . " Suddenly, as we exited from Rothmans at the completion of the standing lap, he jumped on it - hard! I was shoved hard back in my seat, the noise level became painful and the blacktop (tarmac) began disappearing under the stubby white bonnet at an unbelievable rate. A brief pause as top gear was grabbed and then the rushing onwards continued at an unprecedented rate. Down, down, down the straight towards the hairpin with the cluster of heavy dark green pine trees waiting to catch us should anything go wrong. The trees were rushing towards us at an ever increasing rate. Already we were beyond the braking point that Jim had used with the Monaro! Yet there was no sign of his slackening the pace. On, On, On. What on earth is Jim trying to do ? Stop Jim stop!." Suddenly the noise stopped and there was a loud bang as Jim stood on the brakes, heeling and toeing down three gears simultaneously I had to place both hands flat on the dash to stop myself being hurled against the windscreen. It felt as though we stopped from 100 plus miles per hour in 50 feet. The car stayed straight and true, no weaving or squirming - just plain deceleration of about 10 g's. A quick flick of the steering wheel with extreme sideways forces acting on me so that I almost landed on top of the driver, and we were around the hairpin. A quick burst on the accelerator had me pinned to the back of the seat. Up another gear and we pounded into the first of the esses. On with the brakes again, a quick flick of opposite lock and the sideways forces had me pinned to the passengers door. The tail went out and the inside rear wheel lifted slightly and there was a slight increase in the noise level as the limited slip diff made the lifted wheel spin against the black top. The car lurched, kicked slightly, everything gripped and we headed off towards the left hander. Down a gear and all the side forces again almost threw me into the drivers lap. There was precious little for me to hold onto to save from being flung about so I simply grabbed the seat hard with both white knuckled hands and held on. Apart from the first lap concern about braking points for the hairpin it was a no sweat ride despite the fact that we were cutting out laps in the 50 second bracket. Richards exudes such confidence and authority that concern or worry over whether he might over do it never entered my head. It was a scintillating display. - What stands out about the ride? The demon late braking, the noise level and the forces that acted on me. 1972 Owner: Fairmonte Motor Court. Driver: Linn Neilson. Mechanic: Ray Mitchell. Results 1972: Many wins including the 1973 South Island ACE OSCA Series Class C. Press Comment: Again there are many but one important one relating to the history of the car - Fire - Auto News November 1972. Shows two photos on page 14 of the Neilson Escort directly after a paint shop fire. On page 13 paragraph 3 Alan Dick goes on to say "The car had been almost demolished in a paint shop fire 18 days before the meeting. At first Neilson was despondent, but within 24 hours had decided to get the car running again. Work actually began two weeks to the day, before Teretonga and the car was running on the Saturday practice. - The next day was to prove that everything was indeed right. - Heat one saw hordes of class C cars with Neilson on pole position and Frank Ryan's similar car alongside. Neilson led from start to finish-." 1974 Owner / Driver: John Beatty. The competition results for the next 4 years are still being collated.