Topic: SOLVED - What car #344 - 1950s Connaught B-Type

[@re]

Recognize this?

Please, respond below and let us know the make and model designation of the car posted here.

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[Allan L]

B type (Syracuse) Connaught of 1955

[@re]

As far as I can tell, you're very close, but not quite there. Unless, of course, you can prove me wrong - and with your knowledge of old racing cars I wouldn't be surprised.

[neilshouse]

Allan L has got it. It is definitely a Connaught B Type. Sometimes referred to as a Connaught Alta.

[Allan L]

I shall be interested to see what your source says.

The B type Connaught was introduced with an all-enveloping body as in the photo below, which came off in one piece for maintenance. That was quickly found to be impractical and the conventional open-wheeler body was substituted.
Tony Brooks won the 1955 Syracuse GP in one.
Can't see any distinguishing feature, but the photo you offered could be B6 on display at Beaulieu

[@re]

I had it listed as a C-Type, probably as I couldn't find any pictures of a B-Type with open wheels. I took the picture myself in London a month ago, but didn't remember to ask what kind of Connaught it was. As I said: You know more about these cars than I do - so the point is yours!

[Allan L]

this is the C type, which has a space-frame chassis with a coil-sprung rear suspension and the characteristic high tail which was why it was called the "toothpaste tube" at the time.

[D-type]

Allan, are you sure?  That last picture looks like B3, Lesley Marr's streamliner that was rebodied into the 'toothpaste tube'

There was only one C-Type.  It was completed by Paul Emery after Connaught had gone bust.  It ran in one GP, the 1959 US GP from which it retired on tjhe first lap.  It was then supercharged and failed to qualify for Indianapolis.  I don't have a picture to hand, but I'm certain it didn't have a 'toothpaste tube' body.  As the C-Type had a de Dion rear end and inboard rear brakes, the original photo has to be a B-Type Syracuse

All the B-types had Alta engines originally, as opposed to the Lea-Francis engine in the A-type.  Hence the unofficial Connaught-Alta  name is sometimes used.

[neilshouse]

The car in the lower picture (above this post) is the C-Type, sometimes referred to as C8. The car is still raced in historic racing.

B3 was the car originally nicknamed the toothpaste tube for quite obvious reasons.

Connaught B3

[Allan L]

Yes the car in the photo I posted is C8, as resurrected by John Charles in the 1980s.
Johnny Johnson includes a number of photos of it in his book "To Draw a Long Line" and wrote:

'C' Series Connaught. This was completed in 1957 and represented Connaught's hope for the future, but the end came before the car could be raced. It featured a small diameter tubular spaceframe chassis and a lightweight form of de Dion rear suspension. This utilised fixed length driveshafts and the de Dion tube had a sliding joint to compensate. The car was some 2 cwt lighter than the 'B' Series; originally it was fitted with the 'toothpaste tube' type body, but this had been replaced by the body shown in the photographs when it reappeared in the'eighties, owned by John Charles.

Here are two photos of the rear ends from that book, showing that both are de Dion, but one is torsion bar sprung and the other is coil. Also shows that the B is not spaceframe but you can't see that the C is.

[D-type]

I stand corrected.  (signature justification again!)

[@re]

And I have certainly unleashed something here that is much bigger than I imagined