Collecting rare parts for a Le Mans car

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It’s time for an update on the Le Mans Mini Marcos project, with the body currently being under repair in the workshop of Seventies Car Restoration in the UK and the engine and suspension being built by Mini World Center in France, there was not too much I could do myself on the car in the last couple of months. Or was there? Well, the ongoing search to parts continued, with some rarities still needing to be found. The petrol filler cap was a particularly mysterious one. I’d been searching for a cap in the right size for almost a year now and had been given all kinds of tip-offs about its origins. The only thing I knew for sure was that it was big. Very big, with the hole in the body being over six inches in diameter and the actual cap being at least 5 inches. I can tell you there aren’t many quick release filler caps in this size, but still it proved a real pain to find out where it came from. Mainly due to the tip-offs, since most of these pointed into the direction of a French lorry! Supposedly a Berliet or Saviem of the 1950s, but perhaps also from a Berliet or Saviem ‘camion citerne’, which is a petrol tanker and it made me think it might have been sourced from a coachbuilder in the end. I contacted clubs and experts – all to no avail - but eventually found a French dealer in classic parts who said it was indeed a Berliet-item of which he’d sold several in the past. But he couldn’t show me any examples and eventually it turned out he was wrong, too.

When I’d just acquired the car somebody told me the filler cap was a Ferrari item. I studied the old photographs that I had and compared them to those of Ferrari filler caps of the 1950s and 1960s and had to admit it was very close. But I concluded it was no match, as there were slight differences. But when I bumped into a Ferrari 250 Short Wheel Base at the end of the year, and measured up its filler cap, I had to admit it was exactly right, sizewise. I studied the pictures again and found out that it was indeed the same, only with a modified – and probably home-made - lock and hinge mechanism. Luckily for me these caps are still being offered for sale, but unluckily they are mighty expensive! When a good invoice was paid to me, I lived up to being a Le Mans car-owner and ordered one. It’s a thing of beauty and will be beautiful once installed on the car. The home-made hinge and lock mechanism now also needs refabrication but I already found the matching steel pipe and rubber tube in the right size to lead from the cap to the tank. Meanwhile, I also had the rare Sprinzel seats – both of them coming from different sources – retrimmed. Apart from these, I received parcels from anywhere containing all sorts of bits and pieces. Door seals, hinge gaskets and a hinge repair set are brand new just like the necessary 200 kph-speedo. The car also used a Veglia-Borletti tachometer, which I found through Ebay in the USA, while the right fire extinguisher came from France. The more down-to-earth Smiths gauges where found locally and I sourced the correct Citroën indicators in Holland also - not particularly easy since they made them in a number of variations. From the vague photographs showing the car’s steering wheel I concluded it was an Astrali-item and this was found in the UK through a mate. Another provided me with a steering column and door handles.

The headlights were a bit of an issue, too. I found out that the car used Cibie concaved headlights and these are very hard to find now, too. In the end a Dutch DAF-specialist (they had them too!) sold me what he said to be his very last new old stock items. Then there were the small Marchal driving lights used to illuminate the racing roundels during the night. I needed five of them and had been searching for affordable ones for months now, which proved to be a challenge but I am happy to say I have even more than five of them now! Last but not least the car came with stickers of BP and Dunlop in an unusual and now obsolete size and colour scheme plus a mystery decal. I studied the available pictures carefully and drew the conclusion that last one was from J.L. Marnat’s Parisian tuning and accessories shop. I reproduced them exactly with Photoshop on my computer and now have them strikingly reprinted. With quite a few of them together I couldn't withstand to make a photograph in this vein... To be continued.

(Words and picture Jeroen Booij)

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