1963 Pandora-BMC Sports-Racing Two-Seater

Here we are delighted to offer this most attractive small-capacity sports-racing car which was originally conceived, designed, constructed and raced both near and at the Goodwood Motor Circuit.

This pretty BMC Mini-engined projectile was created by three enthusiastic friends from the Chichester, West Sussex, area, as described by one of them, Roger Phillips:

"Our racing car (yet to be named) was conceived in the White Horse Pub, Chichester. There were three of us; Tony Cowell, a master blacksmith, who wielded a torch as an artist wields his brush, he even used to weld up speedo cables! Alongside him was Michael Homer, and both of them lived a few doors apart in Selsey.

"I joined these lads after noticing Michael's much modified 850 Mini, which had all the Downton bits and went like a rocket.

"We retired to the White Horse after watching some race or other. I think it was the 1961 Boxing Day Brands Hatch meeting and we were all fired up about racing. I had experienced my first ever race earlier that year at Goodwood in my daily driver MGA 1600 MkII...

"Not wishing to risk my daily driver again...I was listening to Michael when he suddenly came up with this wild idea of building our own car. He was full of the news that there was to be a new 1100cc sports racing class and he reckoned he could design and he and Tony could build a super low and light weight car to these new regulations using a BMC engine.

"After the conception, the gestation was long. Michael's brother-in-law was Ray Jackson of H.R. Jackson & Co in Godalming who were BMC Competition dealers and where Michael worked as a BMC mechanic. The arrangement was that I would fund the cost, Michael would design the car and build the engine and Tony would do all the fabrication. We would own the car jointly and share the driving.

"Michael at least had some good friends and contacts, two of whom were Paul Emery (of Emeryson Formula 1 cars) and Mike Spence, who had just purchased a Lotus 20 Formula Junior, which we were able to go and see.

"We studied a Mike Spence Lotus 20 when no one was looking I whipped out my tape measure and measured up the suspension layout, wheel-base, track etc and tucked it away. That was the beginning of my design.
"Paul Emery helped tremendously and answered and he provided us with the rear magnesium uprights, four F1 wheels and I believe he donated a small radiator which he had and was too small for the cars he was building.

"We made lots of visits to the Downton works and they were all very helpful as well. On one visit to Downton, we saw them finishing up the now famous Peter Sellers Mini, which was a blast. My old invoices show that we only had to pay £17.00 for a fully ported 'Downton' cylinder head.

"The Jackson company was growing and getting busier all the time, plus the commute from Selsey was a bind so Michael managed to sweet talk a wonderful lady in Selsey who had a lock up garage that she never used and she kindly offered it to us as a workshop. The lady's name was Pandora and when the question of a name for the car came up we thought that would be a nice name, with the add on of 'Powered by Austin', (Austin sounded so much better than BMC).

"The design and shape of the body was pretty much left to me with Tony standing bending a handful of welding rods to shape, and then tacking them on. To speed things up I suggested we start up our own garage business which we called, 'Pandora Motor Engineering'.

"Tony and Michael would work in the business during the week and we would all congregate on the weekends to work on the car. As we arrived at the body stage, much pondering went on whether we build it in fibreglass or aluminium. We started with an aluminium body and I thought perhaps to produce replicas for sale we would inevitably need fibreglass.

"Michael had obtained a 1098cc competition engine, we bought a new VW Transporter gearbox casing and sent it off to Mike Hewland. I was very keen to keep weight low and when it came to lights the regulations stated we had to have front and rear lights. The standard Lucas 7-inch headlight was heavy so we used tiny chrome interior lights as our headlights. And they passed scrutineering!

"The seat was another problem. Our answer was to take down the aluminium Shell Oils sign at Pandora Motor Engineering and Tony started tapping away with his panel beating hammer. The final shape was formed by him tapping away over my bum. Covered in vinyl fabric it was very, very light.

"We went for white cellulose and green bonnet stripe. Tony sprayed the car and by golly, it looked absolutely fabulous. The first test was down Selsey High Street. We then booked a test session at Goodwood, just six miles away. It was a damp and drizzly day. As the 'money man' I pulled rank and took the car out for its first ever laps. On my first circuit I went off at Madgwick then did a full 360 spin exiting the chicane and came into the pits and asked Tony if he had let the tyres down for the wet. Tony replied "Oh, sorry, I forgot, they're still at 50psi".

"Once that was settled we got down to some decent laps. First race was at Cadwell Park late 1963 - head gasket problems curtailing practice and a light encounter with a tree in the race.

"In 1964 with the car repaired we got an entry for the upcoming Whitsun Trophy at Goodwood but as it was for holders of International Drivers Licenses only we had to ask Ray Jackson to drive. He qualified with no problems but as he lined up after the warm up lap I could see water already coming out of the breather pipe. I ran out to the grid and told him what I was seeing and said 'Just take it around gently and see what happens'. I don't think he heard me because he was not gentle by any means and he managed to bring the car home in third place with Roy Salvadori winning.

"I later met Roy at lunch with Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Jack Brabham and John Surtees at a Goodwood Revival meeting and he remembered 'that very pretty car'.

"At Oulton Park, I went out in qualifying and the head gasket seemed to be holding but on about my fourth lap the standard flywheel bolts sheared. We got the car home and I began pondering the wisdom of a BMC vs Cosworth engine but our racing ardour had cooled.

"I later found Michael had sold the car to someone in Guildford. Eventually I traced the owners from Graham Cooke who bought the car from Michael through a couple of others and eventually to a young Mr Riley, sadly killed in an accident at Brands Hatch in a Merlyn Formula Ford. In 2005 I got an email from Alastair Brown in Edinburgh. After all these years I was able to confirm that yes indeed he had the Pandora."

From Alastair Brown the car passed to the present vendor, a well-respected specialist preparer/restorer/driver who now offers the restored Pandora here in very close to its original form, plus some important modern-requirement safety modifications.