jw4 Smokey's JW4 Formula Four Rebuild Thread

[SootySport]

Congrats on brilliant job     

 

I thought crystal palace closed years ago for all  petrol heads 

They have a sprint & car show just once a year at the Palace on Spring bank Holiday.    The old circuit has been swallowed up the park developement

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Thanks eveybody for the kind words and compliments.

There's still a little way to go before it's completely finished and still a few jobs to do but I'm pleased that I'm now able to start taking it to shows.

The main things left to finish are the roll hoop which I have in the garage but still needs to be welded on, then there's the fuel tank to get made, unless I find something suitable from a lawnmower after that I plan to strip the whole car down again to paint the chassis and fit the brake lines, then it will be reasssembled for the final time.

After that I'll need to get an MSA log book and then I can go sprinting in it

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Congrats on brilliant job

I thought crystal palace closed years ago for all petrol heads

They have a sprint & car show just once a year at the Palace on Spring bank Holiday. The old circuit has been swallowed up the park developement

Racing at Crystal Palace stopped in around the 1970's and sadly Bernie's right that large areas of the old circuit have been lost to development, particularly around the football stadium. The tarmac has now also be narrowed from what it was originally.

Motorsport made a brief return before the millenium for sprinting, and then 5years ago it restarted again for Motorsport At the Palace which is a two day sprint on part of the old circuit combined with a classic car show.

This is from my last visit a couple of years ago.

[Kit Car Electronics and Essex AO]

Thanks eveybody for the kind words and compliments.

There's still a little way to go before it's completely finished and still a few jobs to do but I'm pleased that I'm now able to start taking it to shows.

The main things left to finish are the roll hoop which I have in the garage but still needs to be welded on, then there's the fuel tank to get made, unless I find something suitable from a lawnmower after that I plan to strip the whole car down again to paint the chassis and fit the brake lines, then it will be reasssembled for the final time.

After that I'll need to get an MSA log book and then I can go sprinting in it

 

what sort of performance will it have?

[Mark (smokey mow)]

what sort of performance will it have?

31bhp and 220kg with driver so approx 140bhp/ton

Top speed in period was around 110mph and they could lap the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in around 62 seconds, averaging 72mph which is roughly 2seconds slower than I can do in my Westfield.

[pistonbroke]

I used to love watching racing on TV at "the palace"

 

Much regret never having got to see the track in rl which must have been one of best in the country for spectating 

 

Always seemed to provide spectacular racing like this one involving the late James Hunt 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSCDucychzA

[BLiNK Motorsport]

Well held in the slide Mark :-)

[Mooch]

Well held in the slide Mark :-)

Agree - that looked like horrible conditions for sprinting.  You're braver than me!

[Mark (smokey mow)]

I’m just catching up after the weekend at Crystal Palace and I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who came and spoke to me on my stand; so many questions and visitors, and a very enjoyable 2 days spreading the word about Formula IV racing.

A few of the highlights for me were a couple of the conversations I had with people who had watched the races back in the 1960’s and seen the cars on display at the Motorsports Show in 1966. Also the amount of people (both children and adults) that were posing by the car for photos, and finally it was fun doing a short interview piece for the race commentary.

Here’s a couple of photos

 

 

 

[1959grantura]

Great to meet you over the weekend Mark , your display looked great

Look forward to seeing it running next year :0)

[Pistol Pete]

Yes looks great and the first run will make a great Essex Area day out.

[pistonbroke]

Car looks fabulous , well done sir 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Once again I've been a bit lax in keeping on top of this thread so I'll make an effort to bring things up to date.

the summer months have been pretty quiet and after the "big push" to get the car ready for Crystal Palace very little was done to the car throught the summer.  In August the JW4 was wheeled out of the garage once more to appear at my local car show, even the Subaru tow car scrubbed up ok on the day 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Back to the restoration and a few small jobs were completed. First up was the gear lever and linkage. Thanks again go the John Danby Racing for the fabrication of the lever and gorgeous plating work. It's a simple push pull linkage connecting to the motorcycle gearbox.

Next job was to fit the pedals. These originated from a Mk3 car so needed a small amount of fettling and shortening of the accelerator pedal so they would fit within my Mk2 chassis. The pedals were original parts and came from Johnny Walker's 1960's stock but when It came to fitting them I found they hadn't quite been finished. The bore for the pivot was undersized and needed reaming out to fit. The corresponding holes in the chassis also need to be done to remove the excess paint but I wont be able to do this until I remove the lower body.

The master cylinders for the brakes are fitted in an unconventional position compared to most cars and when seated for driving are located under your knees. An adjustable linkage connects the pedal to a very crude balance bar for the mater cylinders. The components still need a clean up and plating but for the moment, they're just being fitted to check the fit and operation.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

I'd been neglecting to update this thread over the last few months, and whilst I've not really been making much progress on the car thats not to say I've been doing nothing so I thought a proper update is a little overdue.  

 

Those of you who have been following this thread from the start, will recall that all this began about 3 years ago with an impulse purchase of a car from eBay. Since then I set about to research it's history and seek out what few spare parts remain tucked away in sheds and garages around the world.  

 

Luck has played a major part in me getting to where I am now, but also importantly my research has allowed me to piece together the History of Formula IV and Johnny Walker.

 

Earlier in the year I acquired some more of the History of Johnny Walker's business and the production drawings for the various cars he produced through the years.  From the beginning Johnny Walker produced approximately 56 car (excluding the karts) and over the next few posts I plan to give a brief chronological history of each of his cars.

 

1965 - Walker Special (Telstar) - Class 4 Kart

1965 - Type 65 Walker (JW4 Mk1) - 250cc Formula IV

1966 - JW4 Mk2 - 250cc Formula IV

1966 - JW4 Mk3 - 650cc Formula IV

1966 - Walker Special (Winsmore) - Class 4 Kart

1967 - JW4 Mk3 Imp - Formula IV

1967 - JW4 Mk4 SAAB - Formula IV / Formula SAAB

1968 - JW4 Mk5 IMP - Formula Libre

1969 - Costin Walker/ Type AH/ JW4 Mk6 - Formula IV/ Formula Ford

 

Type65 Walker (JW4 Mark1)

Johnny Walker's first venture into car manufacturing came in the early 1960's with his own Telstar karts in which he competed to promote his engineering machinery business, however his first F4 car was to come in 1965 with the Type65 Walker (later to me known as the JW4 Mark1).

 

Keen to bring Formula IV to Britain, Walker had advertised for a designer and David Peers who was then an R&D engineer with Villiers Engines applied for the role.  Peers had brought along to the interview a model of the proposed car and was promptly given the job.

 

 

With his experience a contacts at Villiers, Peers chose to use a 250cc Starmaker Engine which he mounted into the rear of 20 gauge round tube space frame chassis. Steering was by bespoke magnesium uprights but unconventionally there was no steering rack, instead Peers adopted a design more commonly found on Karts using two spades welded to the end of the steering column which operated long track rods connected to the uprights.

 

Front braking were cable operated outboard drums with bond minicar wheels with a single inboard drum at the rear.

 

The car had a short rather stubby appearance as it was penned to suit David Peers diminutive figure, somewhat in contrast to Johnny Walker's 6ft height which created difficulty for him getting into the car.  Walker had spent much of the time during the cars development working aboard and was said to be so furious that the car was not comfortable for him and their customers that he fired Peers from the project.  

 

In January 1966 Johnny Walker exhibited the Type65 at the Olympia Motorsports Show.  Whist many prospective customers had been put off by the design of the steering and its cramped size enough interest had been expressed to warrant the project being developed further and so was born the Mk2.

 

The JW4 Mk1