JPS BMW Sports Sedans in Australia

[jd yort]

This is what I know based on reading up in magazines and on other forums. Could someone please correct discrepencies or add dates of sale.

1) Craven Mild 318i. LHD Floorpanned Turbo Built by Jim Busby to IMSA specs in the USA. Brought out here in early 1980 and made its debut in Rd3 of the Australian Sports Sedan Championship at Amaroo Park with Gricey at the wheel. Raced through 1980. Did not re appear until the 1982 Championship Rd6 with Jim Richards at the wheel under JPS colours. Car now had the boxed guards. This car then ended up being purchased by Molloy and raced by Chris Hones before being passed on to Robin Doherty and then I think on to Rob Burns. It was then sold onto the US. Car is now in Germany or England.

2) JPS 318i. RHD Space frame. Made its debut at Rd1 of the Better Brakes 3.5 series at Amaroo Park in 1981 with Gricey at the wheel under JPS colours. Raced throughout 1981 in the Championship before being sold to Bruce Lynton for 1982 season and then John Brigss for the 1983 season. It was then raced by Grant Munday and then to Richard Gartner. Richard put a rotary in it and raced it in the NSW state series with a black colour scheme. The car ended up in Thailand and apparently is now in New Zealand.

3) JPS IMSA 320i. LHD Floorpanned Jim Busby built car. Was used as show/spares car. Did not race until the WSC in 1984 with Richards at the wheel. Was a naturally aspirated 2L F2 engine. This was sold onto Molloy whith Chris Hones at the wheel before being raced by Ludwig Finnaur with a sky blue paint scheme as he got his CAMS license. It was then further raced by Chris Hones before being passed on to a Rob Shiel? The car in now in Germany or England?

So where I am wrong 2002Turbo? I am not so sure which exact car was located in Pattaya. I always thought that only one of the cars ended up with a rotary in it.

[2002 turbo]

This is what I know based on reading up in magazines and on other forums. Could someone please correct discrepencies or add dates of sale.

1) Craven Mild 318i. LHD Floorpanned Turbo Built by Jim Busby to IMSA specs in the USA. Brought out here in early 1980 and made its debut in Rd3 of the Australian Sports Sedan Championship at Amaroo Park with Gricey at the wheel. Raced through 1980. Did not re appear until the 1982 Championship Rd6 with Jim Richards at the wheel under JPS colours. Car now had the boxed guards. This car then ended up being purchased by Molloy and raced by Chris Hones before being passed on to Robin Doherty and then I think on to Rob Burns. It was then sold onto the US. Car is now in Germany or England.

That as far as I know is all pretty much correct, of course this is the car that had the huge crash at AIR with the Brock Monza. Chris Hones has indicated that Glenn Molloy bought it after the huge crash and rebuilt it. I don't think Chris Hones raced it in competition as such, he ran it on test and promotion days. As you pointed out Doherty then owned it and Rob Burns was the last owner here in Australia before he sold the car back to the USA, would of been around the late 80s early 1990s.
The remaining spare BMW engine parts he had he sold to Herbert Gattermeier in the very early 1990s some of which are now used in his BMW 2002 Sport Sedan.


When Allan Grice ran the car in Craven Mild colours with closed guards


When Jim Richards ran the car in JPS colours with open box guards


The car when Robin Doherty raced it


The car as Rob Burns raced it

2) JPS 318i. RHD Space frame. Made its debut at Rd1 of the Better Brakes 3.5 series at Amaroo Park in 1981 with Gricey at the wheel under JPS colours. Raced throughout 1981 in the Championship before being sold to Bruce Lynton for 1982 season and then John Brigss for the 1983 season. It was then raced by Grant Munday and then to Richard Gartner. Richard put a rotary in it and raced it in the NSW state series with a black colour scheme. The car ended up in Thailand and apparently is now in New Zealand.

Frank Gardner built this car along with a guy by the name of Anderson (i think?)
and someone on the 10 Tenths forum labeled the car a "pig"! It featured a lot of Formula 5000 running gear more then likely due to Frank Gardner playing a big part in the build of it. I am not sure when Munday raced it, I was always under the impression that Richard bought the car off John Briggs, might have to ask Richard next time I run into him.




When Briggs raced it, the car had a few different paint jobs

Anyway Richard installed the Barry Jones built rotary motor because the BMW turbo engine fitted to the car needed a rebuild and that was a pretty expensive option for him. He then sold the BMW motor and associated bits to Herbert Gattermeier. He also had to change the body work a fair bit too compared to when Briggs ran it, I don't think those guards were legal in respect to the size limitations that was in the rule at the time.


The car as Richard Gartner raced it with a rotary engine

All up Richard had mixed success with that car, he ran it a fair bit at Amaroo which I used to go watch as a young boy at the time! He planted it in the wall at the Adelaide GP really badly one year, rebuilt the car and then crashed it at a practice day at Oran Park in the early 1990s.
By then I think he was either over it or didn't have the funds to rebuild it so the car then sat in a shed on a mates property up at Galston for years wasting away.
This car never went to Thailand as has been mentioned on another forum.

Over time Richard sold off the Hewland gearbox, the Bilstein shock absorbers got pinched and I have no idea who ended up with the rotary engine. In 1997 I went and had a look at the car up at Galston, it wasn't in a pretty state as you can see by this pic I took:


About a year later I bought the remaining bits of the car for next to nothing. The centre of the space frame was still intact but the front end was wrecked and the rear end was incomplete because the Hewland was now sold off. Still there were some good bits left over including some suspension uprights, centre lock wheels, AP Lockheed brake caliper, body panels and moulds, intercooler from the old BMW turbo setup along with a massive Air Research turbo, Garrett wastegate and turbo exhaust manifold.
The intention after buying it was to rebuild it as a 2 litre sport sedan but to be honest the chassis wasn't really anything special and there were so many chassis parts missing or totally stuffed it would of made more sense to build a new frame altogether. I still have all those parts mentioned above but about 4-5 years ago we sent what remained of the chassis to the tip!

3) JPS IMSA 320i. LHD Floorpanned Jim Busby built car. Was used as show/spares car. Did not race until the WSC in 1984 with Richards at the wheel. Was a naturally aspirated 2L F2 engine. This was sold onto Molloy whith Chris Hones at the wheel before being raced by Ludwig Finnaur with a sky blue paint scheme as he got his CAMS license. It was then further raced by Chris Hones before being passed on to a Rob Shiel? The car in now in Germany or England?

I don't know of the exact origins of this car, I thought it might have been an old BMW Junior team car. What you have written is pretty much spot on, Ludwig Finauer also raced it and has showed me some pictures of the when the car was at the old JPS workshop in Terry Hills, was painted black then.

Rob Shiel who was in upper management at BMW Sydney (i think he was running the place not 100% sure) bought the car, he collected quite a few old BMW race cars. For a while it was sitting down at the old BMW Sydney workshop in Palmer street Woolloomooloo. He then sold the car I think in the early to mid 1990s and Ludwig told me about 2 years ago that the car at that time was in Sweden (might have been Finnland, I can't remember exactly) and that the owner had been in touch with him to confirm some of the cars history.


Below are some comments from Chris Hones about the 3 cars:


Some of those ten-tenths guys are still confused about these cars so I thought you would provide this info and pic.

The 320 2 litre was used for display only by JPS team until 1 only race in JPS colours, WSC 1984 Jim/Tony. I prepared and raced it after that for Glenn Molloy until it was sold and dismantled. I first raced it in form you see in 3 of these pics (FIA GP5 Spec).
We ran the car in 1984 when I broke the Amaroo under 2 litre first time out.
It was changed to Aussi sports sedan specs (narrow 10" wheels) and painted light blue with some lighter Kevlar panels I made from orig moulds.

Although only 2 Litre and using old used tyres off Jim's 635, I always made the division one sports sedan final at Amaroo in the national televised events usually finishing in the top 10 against the likes of the Monzas,Tommos merc, the Jag etc. One pic shows a Young Brad Jones (with hair) getting into Tommo's Monza!
Frank asked if we would help him keep Ludwig interested in staying around ( I think he was thinking of going back home). We agreed to manage him through a process of 5 races to get a race licence and make a name for him in the car. (For Ludwig we imported sticky New Avons for almost every event!)

As agreed, Ludwig was entered (and dominated) in club races to get a licence and progress off his provisional "P" competition licence. I resumed my driving of the car and continued to develop it in set-up and minor tweaks. The car was easily 3 sec quicker than any other 2 litre sports sedan at Amaroo so the challenge was to keep lowering the lap record which I did over a 5 year period.
Frank was delighted that it was never butchered and was one of the only cars he had ever sold which was developed to go faster. Usually, when a new buyer could not go as quick, the first thing they did was "Fix the car".
We stopped racing it around 1988/89 when the necessary mufflers to meet noise restrictions killed the horsepower. It made all its power between 7500 and 9500 rpm and was measured at 145dba. The car was sold to a Sydney collector then stripped for rebuild but was again sold, then in parts. I went Porsche racing

Molloy also had one of the turbo cars, the last one JPS ran which Jim drove, pic # iii. It is the one from the AIR accident rebuilt lighter and stiffer. You can see it actually had a type of ground effects from this rear shot. It was LHD with a Getrag Box. I drove it with a faulty boost Gauge which meant we were unknowingly running 36 pounds, enough power to spin the 19" x 16"wide soft Dunlops the entire length of O.Park 9500 RPM in 5th which the gearchart said was 175 MPH. We did some demo laps for sponsors etc 45sec lap from standing start. We sold the car to Rob Doherty, he sold it to Rob Burns who sold it to USA. Last I heard it was running in Historic IMSA.

The other turbo, which Grice drove, was spaceframe with a Hewland Transaxle. Last I saw it was running a Mazda rotary a few years back.

[MrBoost]

some photos courtesy of my BOOK that was lent 5 YEARS ago!! hehe just teasin mr 2002

[Htc Motorsport]

A picture on the Old Race Photos shows a guy by the name of Gurney driving the ex JPS Jim Richards 318i Turbo

Attached files

[2002 turbo]

I would of thought that John Briggs owned it then, maybe he had another guy drive it? That's the right hand drive locally built tube frame 318i turbo.

Here's one of Grice driving the LHD Craven Mild car at Amaroo in 1980 according to Autopics.com.au


At Calder 1980:



Here is RHD car at Sandown in 1981:


At Amaroo 1981

[Htc Motorsport]

I see another sight that says John Gurney from Coolratio Motorsports owned the car....????
its unbelievable the amount of info you can find on these cars and they are all different cars i thought there was probably only about 2 or 3 of them.

[2002 turbo]

Well thats throws a spanner in the works for my theory!!!
Yeah its astonishing what you can find, check the links here:

AUS GT 1982

AUS GT 1983

AUS GT 1984

AUS GT 1985
AUS GT Series 1985

So it appears I need to make some corrections!
1. Chris Hones did race the a 318i turbo, I am thinking its the LHD car that Glenn Molloy owned
2. John Gurney raced the RHD car in 1985, looks very much like the car Briggs raced so I am guessing its the same one.

[Htc Motorsport]

How did they ever run a championship with so few cars. Some great names and cars there.

[jd yort]

Gurney in the car in 1985 at AIR.

[jd yort]

I assume this was the Gp5 car in its original paint scheme in the hands of Jim Busby? 2002 Turbo