Tim Coventry

[Ewan]

I’m trying to trace more history of my car, which was first owned and Hill Climb raced by Tim Coventry in 1993-1995. A long shot I know, but does anyone on here know him?

[Richard (OldStager)]

Is this the car once dubbed 'Flymo' ?. There a few posts on here requesting details as you have, but I guess you have seen those already. Not a lot shows up online other than its results.

[Mark Stanton]

Tim Coventry's hillclimb and sprint car isn't the Flymo albeit it was quite similar in appearance and also had a John Eales V8 engine. - Tims car was specifically developed for hillclimb and sprint use and used by Tim for a small number of years in British Hillclimb Championship, before finding a new home in the Midlands (being driven by N. Clark & I. Stinton) and campaigned in the WSCC Speed Series at this time it was resprayed "Subaru Blue".

Tim was perhaps more well known for his yachting, developing the laser class boats, he also worked for a very short time as Westfield Ltd PR, before going back to work within the sailing world.

 

"The Flymo" was originally developed as a GT race car (yellow in colour) to compete in the Brit GT by Mike Smith and driven by Tony Lanfranchi .... then went into storage for quite a few years - there is quite a lot of history of this car on the internet. Again, this car was driven for a few seasons in the WSCC Speed Series becoming a championship winning car in the hands of T. Green (one of the founders of the championship and first WSCC Comp Sec) before being sold to fellow driver J. Tomlinson who refurbished the car and sprayed it black, was then sold on again a few years later. The Flymo name was given to the car at a sprint event at MIRA when Tom had a major spin whilst approaching the control tower spinning several times through the grassed run-off area giving the grass a trim, this featured in the speed series newsletter and the name stuck.

[cast iron]

Ian Stinton is Active on Facebook , if you need to contact him

[Ewan]

Thanks for this info chaps.

 

Mine did have an enlarged John Eales V8 and John kindly sent me a photo of Tim racing it. But it was never blue, and to this day still has its original unpainted fibreglass bodywork in British Racing Green (the panels even have the name Tim Coventry on the labels on the inside).

 

Is it possible to find the results from the WSCC Speed Series from this long ago? It would be fun to see how Clark and Stinton got on. 

[Richard (OldStager)]

7 minutes ago, Ewan said:

 

Is it possible to find the results from the WSCC Speed Series from this long ago? It would be fun to see how Clark and Stinton got on. 

I found all these yesterday, i never saved the pages. Just search with google changing certain terms to narrow results.

[Mark Stanton]

Quote

Mine did have an enlarged John Eales V8 and John kindly sent me a photo of Tim racing it. But it was never blue, and to this day still has its original unpainted fibreglass bodywork in British Racing Green (the panels even have the name Tim Coventry on the labels on the inside).

I see now, you actually have Tim's road car that he used for a number of hillclimb events ? rather than his Hillclimb special car that was built by the factory, which was never road registered. 😉

 

There are two Tim Coventry cars and it seems you have his first road-going unit that he used for a few hillclimb events, before his non-road going car was manufactured - he used John Eales V8 in both with his second non-road going special having even more BHP. Two different cars, one original owner. His Hillclimb special is the one that was repainted blue and still owned by Ian and Neil. Tim never competed in the WSCC Speed Series.

[Ewan]

Great info - thank you. I’d not realised he had two at the same time, both factory built but with enlarged JE engines. That explains a lot. Mine is indeed the road car.