Description
This Turner Ford was one of the very last cars to come out of the factory in 1966. Like many Turners, it has had a long competition history being raced by John Miles and Mike Lawlor in Modsports, Tony Broom and Geoff Sizzey, who was part of the winning team in the 1987 750MC 6 hour relay race.
The previous owner, Paul Tooms, bought the car in 2013, partly because he remembered seeing it racing.
A large part of what makes Turners so successful is their lightness. The factory homologated the car in 1963 with a total weight of 508kg! At the Silverstone Festival in 2025, Nikolaj Mortensen and Jan Magnussen put their Turner Ford on pole position for the Pre 63 GT race and finished 4th overall despite a 30 second handicap during the pit stop.
After Paul Tooms purchased the car, he fitted a lightweight fibreglass body to the original chassis and tub, after carefully checking both. Paul is a very talented driver, having many successes and having won the HSCC Historic Roadsports series in the past, so John Smirthwaite has always ensured that Paul had the very best engine he could provide.
In Paul's first race he finished 4th behind 2 Elans and a Morgan V8 and used the Turner occasionally with 2 second places behind the Morgan V8 at Oulton Park and Brands GP. He is particularly proud of beating the Elans on the GP circuit.
I bought the car in November last year. It was on coil overs all round and had an open cockpit with an aero screen but the original windscreen, hard top and side screens came with it. The engine had been rebuilt by John Smirthwaite after the last race so it was on the button. My idea was to get FIA papers so, with the help of Nigel Taylor, who actually makes the fibreglass bodies and anything else for a Turner, we converted it back to the original torsion bar rear suspension and fitted the screen and hard top.
Unfortunately, some health issues have made me realise that I can no longer prepare my own cars so, very reluctantly, the Turner is up for sale. I did take it on a track day at Castle Coombe and was impressed by the car's performance and totally amazed at the braking. It felt so much better than any Elan I have driven yet it has a disc/ drum set up – must be the weight!
For FIA papers, it will need the dampers and rose joints changing but it does come with 4 sets of wheels; 2 sets of alloys with Yokohamas and 2 sets of steels with Dunlop Historics.
The belts and extinguisher are new and the aeroscreen and previous suspension parts will also come with the car.
