The John Pope Special

[jarkle]

I love my job and I'm very lucky in that allows me to get up close and personal with some simply stunning cars. Today was extra special though. Today I got to have a look at the John Pope Special. It's tucked away in a quiet corner of Bucks and owned by an Aston Martin dealer.

 

John Pope raced the car with an Aston DBS V8 in 1974, before going to Aston Martin who helped him stick two T04 turbos on it for the following season. 900bhp and all the wheelspin in the world was the result. It’s a Magnum bodyshell draped over and welded onto a DBS chassis with full Aston running gear.

 

The best bit? It was fully road legal and John drove it to most race meetings. Can you imagine trying to race this thing in your Mk3 Cortina circa 1975?!

 

Apologies for the shonky phone snaps, you'll have to buy Total Vauxhall to see the pro ones and read the full write up.

 

 

At speed the lights fold back to allow more air for the turbo setup. As you can see, it's tucked right down at the side of the engine. There's an intercooler on each side too, mounted in those 'gills' at the rear of the arch extensions,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

^The final two lines of this are well worth reading!

 

One of those days that’s pretty much perfect; gorgeous sunshine, an ice-cold beer and one of the most mental Super Saloon race cars ever built.

[trigger]

That's the business!, You could take someones legs off with those wide arches if you want careful out on the road!., So what's the story with it now?, Is it going to be restored or just left as it is in the corner of a workshop?

 

P.s i now have tangled monitor wires from spinning the screen around to look at the pictures.

[jarkle]

It runs and was given a good airing at Thruxton in April and Gregor Marshall might be taking it up Goodwood hill next year too.

 

It's for sale at the moment too, so if anyone has a spare £50,000 or so knocking around then it could be yours.

 

Apologies for the photo-fail. I take it there's no way of spinning them around without re-hosting?

[pbottomley]

Nice car... being a viva fan one has to like it more than most... however £50k is a lots dollar in anyones hands I hope it goes to the right owner and not the city wanker who needs to splash his bonus before its taken off him.

[Albert Ross]

I quite like the "WNK" Reg number!

[DSdriver]

I quite like the "WNK" Reg number!

 

strategically positioned for the benefit of low flying aircraft

[Split_Pin]

Yikes that's some motor!

 

All it needs now is wings to fly to the moon!

[cort16]

That's just fantastic. 900bhp sounds okay but this being Autoshite I'd prefer the 1.3 ohc.

[Lufthansa-Terminal]

Right way up

[Micrashed]

I really think I have dyslexia as I thought this thread was going to be all about:

[Pete-M]

Hmm, I have to say, if I had £50k I'd buy that, bin the Viva shell and drop the running gear into something a bit less hideous.