1961
Lynx Formula Junior single seat historic racer |
Just a quick email to say hello and let you know
I have just bought a 1961 Lynx Formula Junior single seat historic racer.
It is powered by a Borgward Hansa / Goliath 1100 cc flat four. I am trying
to find out if there are any other owners of cars with these engines and if
there are any engine builders in the UK with experience of them. It is a fine
thing - and I expect it will be at Goodwood in a couple of years for Revival.
Anyway, here’s a pic or two - and a link to it starting up last week.
The Borgward engine is sweet - and all alloy with a dry sump. I expect we
can get it tuned to a decent, competitive output.
John Francas
email johnfm69@gmail.com
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It was built in 1961 by Lynx in
Australia (there’s a bit on Lynx online). A guy called Kelvin Prior
bought it and specified a Borgward Goliath 1100 engine (Lynx built the cars
with whatever engine the customer specified and supplied). He raced it in
Australia for a while, sold it and then he bought it back a few years ago.
He sold it in 2012 to a UK buyer. As installed,
it is running twin SU carburettors and is dry sumped. I will have the car
on a dyno soon to get an idea of current power output. To be competitive in
Formula Junior, it will need around 120-130 HP I think. The cars a pretty
quick in Formula Junior as they only weight 400kg and have very low centre
of gravity.
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The plan is to race in the UK next year and Goodwood Revival and Members’ Meetings
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Lots of details about Formula Junior at the Formula junior Historic Race Association (http://formulajunior.com/). There is a very active UK championship with 14 races and a very full grid, plus a European series and they also race in the US, Australia and other countries. Formula Junior was a really popular global formula from 1958-1963 and was the feeder series for F1 in that period. It launched many an F1 career (Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jochen Rindt and others started single seat racing in Formula Junior).
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Overall, car is in very good shape. Needs a new harness, extinguisher system and not much else for HTP papers.That should be done within 4 weeks or so.
Will do some testing in August/Sept and see how I get on with it ready for next year’s races.
John Francas