An introduction to A40 Farinas in motorsport

[Keith Bennett]

This thread is devoted to, as the title says, A40 Farinas in motorsport whether rallying or racing. To set things in context, what better start than publically reveal eight pages from our Club member's quarterly magazine Farina News, number 155 (December 2018) which are devoted to this topic. (Exasperatingly, the thread's listing rises from the bottom upwards, so this first post will continue to sink to the bottom as later articles are added above it. D'oh!)

I think it's fair to say that Stirling Moss's sister Pat put the then new model firmly in the public's eye from 1958 with her successes aboard three BMC Works cars aided & abetted by navigator Ann Wisdom. Once the cars were seen by enthusiasts to be rugged, reliable and capable of endless tuning, their place in motorsport was - and continues to be - guaranteed.

So, here are the revelant pages from our magazine, covering the broad sweep of A40 Farinas in competition... further published articles in Farina News sent by Club members engaged in the sport (from those driving to Monte Carlo to those terrorising quiet country lanes around the West Country, and others willing to put their cherished A40s into some perilous situations, all in the name of motorsport), will appear here in the next few days.

For the double-page spreads, click on each image to enlarge it.

[Stoney13]

i remember that mag, and a few of the photos that i supplied, mine you most of my interest is in the drag racing line, its good to know that this mag is a piece of history in the making.

[RhysN]

As I am originally from NZ I thought to add a bit to this.
A40s were one of the "weapons of choice" for motorsport in NZ at all levels, from grass roots (grass track which is a very different thing to here in the UK) to top level circuit racing.
If there is any interest I'll sort out some pics.

[Dave the rave]

Indeed there IS interest.....sally forth with pics sil vous plait.....

[Keith Bennett]

Welcome to the forum, Rhys - I suppose none of "our" cars still engage in NZ motorsport at any level now?

[RhysN]

Many of the cars I know are posted on Scotty's pages of pics.
Anything with the Kumho windscreen banner are NZ. The cream coloured car, with and without a snout belongs to Brian Ax with my company sponsorship. That's the same car in both forms, and is faster with. He has owned that car for many decades, originally had Denny Hulme's championship winning Formula Junior motor.
The very modified body car is known as Fordina, has had Twin Cam Ford since the 1970's and still running in classic events in the South Island.

[njones]

Hi All, I'm new here. I've bought an A40 to prep for Long-distance Trials and perhaps some historic road events in the UK.

Without wanting to be bombarded with too many opinions, I could do with some starter guidance. I'd like to keep the car relatively standard and only mildly modified so immediately, 1) I need a new fuel tank - what do people use? 2) better seats - not buckets and preferably recliners 3) decent steel wheels - does anyone fit larger than 13"?
Does anyone have any redundant competition parts that may be of use?

My car is a MK2, unmodified, original and structurally very solid, however it's not very pretty, in fact it looks awful! It would take rather more than a tin of polish to improve, so that's not the plan. I want it to be mechanically sound, quite quick (within reason) with a decent ground clearance (certainly not lowered!). I'd prefer to keep the 1098 engine to start with, although am not averse to going bigger (say 1275).

Any simple suggestions (without reinventing the wheel) would be appreciated. I'm a driver, not an engineer........