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1967 Titan Mk3 (WA)

This vehicle has been sold. View our available inventory here.

Vehicle is located in Washington

Ready to race! This Titan Mk3 has a fresh twin cam Lotus by VDS Racing Engines and a Mk8 Hewland gearbox. FB class.

View the Titan’s logbook in PDF form by clicking here.

Brief history of Titan formula cars

From titancars.com

After participating in various forms of motor racing with little or no success, Charles Lucas, Jonathan Williams, and Piers Courage got more serious about racing when the FIA created 1 liter Formula 3 in 1964 to replace Formula Junior. During the 1964 season, Courage and Williams teamed up to form Anglo-Swiss racing and joined the F3 circus on the continent. On several occasions, Charles Lucas tagged along and liked what he saw.

Roy Thomas was well known in London’s club racing circles for his natural engineering talent and skill as a welder. Roy worked for Graham Warner’s Chequered Flag Team, building the Gemini Formula Juniors. He then went on to do contract work for the Sirocco F1 team and Tom Hawkes’ AUSPER concern. For the 1964 season, Roy built Lotus 31 clones for Jonathan and Piers, and a Lotus 23 clone for Charles Lucas.

For 1965, Charles came into his family inheritance and decided to do motor racing properly. He teamed up with engineering wizard Roy Thomas to form Charles Lucas Engineering, Limited (CLE). In the 1960’s, everyone involved in racing seemed to have a nickname. Charles was known as Luke, and Roy was known as Tom the Weld or just Tom. Even the team had a nickname that appeared in the press as “The Eng.”

Luke bought the former Brahbam, Hulme, and Hill 1964 F2 BT10s for himself, Jonathan Williams (“Willums”), and Piers Courage (“Porridge”). Tom reworked the cars to F3 specification, and the team dominated the 1965 European F3 season bringing a level of professionalism that was new to the junior formula. So much so that Colin Chapman (“Chunky”) hired Luke to run the Team Lotus works F3 team for the 1966 season. The team was called Charles Lucas-Team Lotus.

At the beginning of the 1966 season, Brabham F3 cars were the privateer’s choice. They were fast, durable, and forgiving. Chapman was looking to break the Brabham strangle hold and designed the Lotus 41 F3 car. The sponsors selected two up and coming drivers in Piers Courage and American Roy Pike (“Pikums”) to drive Chunky’s new F3 car. However, the “41” was not living up to expectations, but as the season progressed the team developed the cars. So much so, that Piers Courage finished the season sharing top F3 series honors with Chris Irwin (“Earwig”) who drove a Brabham for the Chequered Flag Team.

The Team’s relationship with Lotus ended when Chunky decided to keep Eng’s Firestone bonus money. The Firestone bonus was a substantial amount of money, and this unfortunate experience drove Luke and Tom to build their own F3 car the Titan Mk3. Given Tom’s experience with Brahbams and Lotus cars, he incorporated the best of both marques and designed a conventional space frame car with beautiful cigar shaped bodywork. While the Titan progressed, Tom was also working on a modified version of the Ford based Cosworth MAE engine.

The Mk3 made its debut at the British Grand Prix held at Silverstone, July 15, 1967. Roy Pike put the prototype on the poll and Luke qualified 3rd in one of the Lotus 41’s. Luke’s car was fitted with Tom’s prototype downdraft MAE engine. Unfortunately, Luke spun at Stowe corner collecting Roy Pike, but miraculously Luke recovered and went on to win the race thanks to the horsepower of the new engine, and the Eng took over 100 engine orders the next day. The downdraft MAE became the F3 standard until the formula was changed in 1970.

The 1968 works team of Roy Pike and Luke raced the Mk3 with a lot of success. While a large percentage of the F3 grid had Lucas MAEs sitting behind the driver. Charles Lucas Engineering started out as a private racing team. However, their success pushed Luke and Tom into commercial racecar and engine production. At the end of 1968, the company had built and sold 36 cars and over 100 F3 and Formula Ford engines, which would be the tip of the iceberg.

 

Chassis

  • AM #23
  • Rebuilt in 2008 by T-Zero

Motor

  • Lotus Twin Cam 1600
  • Rebuilt in 2012 by VDS Racing Engines
  • 2 hours on motor

Gearbox

  • Hewland Mk8
  • Rebuilt in 2010 by Taylor Race Engines
  • 1 race since gearbox inspected
  • Quaife differential

Suspension

  • Koni 8212 Shocks
  • Rebuilt and last serviced in 2008.
  • Rebuild by T-zero

Brakes

  • CP2213
  • Good condition
  • Rebuilt in 2012

Wheels

Good condition

Body

  • Painted
  • Paint is in great condition
  • Fiberglass material
  • No damage to the body, good shape.

Spares

  • Wheels
  • Tires
  • Drawings from Charles Lucas Eng. Lt.

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