Fox Hunt: 1970 Macon MR8 Formula Ford

Formula Ford, as unlikely as it may seem now, brought me closer to being on the inside of professional motor racing than anything I experienced before or since. After a 35-year lay-off from that particular single-seater category, it was both an eye opener—and somewhat familiar and reassuring—to go back and do it again. It was also a little bit scary!

This is a long story, so I will try to tell it as quickly and painlessly as possible.

When I left the United States in 1968 to spend time in the UK and Europe, I really wanted to do some serious racing. I did some racing, but it wasn’t serious. I had a few events with my road-going Lotus Cortina and did the racing school at Brands Hatch—Motor Racing Stables. They had fairly recently bought a fleet of Lotus 51 FFords, and I managed to bend one severely in my fifth lesson! I could have come back but they wanted some repair money. Instead, I went back to the United States, did two seasons with an Autodynamics F-Vee, and subsequently headed back to the UK. I picked up a Lotus 51…Renault box, totally nonadjustable suspension and a trailer for £500…cheap.

The intention was to do 10 races and get an international license and possibly move on. Formula Ford had been around a few years by then. I had seen Ray Allen, who won the first FF event…followed by Tim Schenken, and then all the rest. Karts had not yet arrived as the hotshot’s starter formula…so it was FFord, and everybody wanted to do well. Thus in two seasons, I managed some 25 to 30 races in three championships against the best of the up-and-comers….Those were great days. It was the most incredible formula.

Formula Ford had been carefully designed to be an “inexpensive” formula. There had even been a proposal that a complete rolling chassis should cost no more than £1,000, and that if you put up the money, you could buy another competitor’s car. Neither of those notions lasted very long. The first race, won by Ray Allen, took place in July 1967. While Lotus supplied the first chassis—the Lotus 51—there were a dozen chassis manufacturers by the end of 1967. The engine, strictly regulated, was Ford’s 1600–cc “Kent” engine, which remained the basis of the formula until replaced by the Ford Zetec 1800 in 1994. The chassis had to be a space frame, the wheels were Lotus Cortina 5-1/2J rims, and there were standard tires, though these changed over time.

It was an easy car to work on, with all the parts readily available, and so it grew very rapidly in popularity. In 1971, the top drivers contesting the main British Oxygen Championship included Tony Brise, Jody Scheckter, Tom Pryce, Andy Rouse, Ian Taylor, Tim Brise, Mike Wilds, Mike Catlow, Rob Arnott, Don McLeod, Julian Bailey, Syd Fox, and many others. Many went on to great things…all were very good drivers. While my Lotus 51 was not fast, it was reliable and I managed to race against all the above: guys who were all on the way, or wanted to be on the way, to being professional drivers. The racing could be summed up as cutthroat driving among generally friendly people. Everyone wanted to do well.

Not too surprisingly, I spent 1971 somewhere in the mid-field or back…well, mainly in back. There were some nice people there, too. They included Rojer Finch in an Alexis and John Dadswell in a Macon. We got to know each other very well, and are still friends. The following year Rojer, brother of actor Jon Finch, and I bought two Mirage Formula Fords and worked even harder. We moved up the grid and had a few good results. The Finch brothers got the first “Wella for Men” sponsorship into racing and had a new car built. I went off and did long-distance sports car racing, and John Dadswell carried on with the Macon for awhile.

Macon Formula Fords

Macon Race Cars was formed in the mid-1960s by Tony Houghton and Hilton McGee as a way of entering motor racing “cheaply.” The name is derived from the “Mc” in McGee and the “on” in Houghton. The company was a typically British small-racing-car constructor of the Sixties. There would be many more Formula Ford companies that would be very similar. An interesting variation on this story of the company’s origin is that Houghton’s partner, and from whom part of the name came, was actually Angus MacPhail, though McGee was also involved. There’s one for the detectives!

The very first Macon ever built wasn’t a car at all but a land-speed-record motorcycle and sidecar. Tony Houghton then designed and built his first Macon race car for Monoposto racing, which featured a kind of “geodetic” space frame. After the first Monoposto car came the first of the Macon Formula Fords, the Macon MR6. Straight out of the box, it was quite a neat and functional car.

Ray Allen, a protégé of Tony Lanfranchi, drove one of the first Macon Formula Fords. Allen, who won the first ever Formula Ford race at Brands Hatch, promptly won his first race in the Macon, aided no doubt by the development work carried out by another “famous” Formula Ford driver, Syd Fox. Syd went on to claim the Formula Ford lap record at both Thruxton and Lydden in the Macon. Syd was a valuable works driver, a good test driver, and, of course, he became well known in a variety of classes on the British racing scene for a number of years.

During early 1968, a few cars were sold to customers in the UK. Tony Houghton was then introduced to Fred Opert, the New Jersey–based importer of racing cars, and he started sending everything that he could build to Fred. “Everything” meant all that Tony could build by working around 18 hours a day helped by his friends Ian Webb and Derek Kneller in the evenings and on the weekends. Derek Kneller later went on to get a job at McLaren. Tony designed the cars by himself at a drawing board in his front room.

There were a large number of Macons sent to America via Fred Opert. Formula Fords were numerically the largest number of cars produced, but Macon racing cars were also built for Formula B, Formula Pacific, and Formula 2. Many complete cars were sold and the company also sent out many chassis/body/suspension kits to be assembled once they reached America. The chassis were all similar so they could have been assembled to customers’ requirements. The cars worked well in America and held track records at pretty well every racetrack where they were driven.

The original Macon bodywork was produced by another small English “cottage industry” racecar-builder, Centaur, in Southwold, Suffolk, and was from a mold used for one of the cars in John Frankenheimer’s film Grand Prix. It was from an early McLaren M4 mold that had been narrowed. Some of the early Macons featured an extra piece of bodywork that ducted air in front of the cockpit screen and up over the driver’s head to reduce buffeting, rather like an idea seen on the Lotus 49.

Macon was one of the few small constructors to invest in making patterns and casting their own rear uprights. They were to a good design and well made and, as such, several other Formula Ford manufacturers purchased Macon uprights to use on their own cars. Early Jamun Formula Fords as well as Huron and some Jomics were just a few of the constructors who took advantage of the Macon-cast rear upright.

There were some notable Macon drivers in addition to Syd Fox. Vern Schuppan had his first drive in the UK in a Macon Formula Ford, while Australian Alan Jones was refused his first drive by Tony Houghton due to “personality differences!” Tony himself drove Macon Formula Fords, although he tended not to travel too far from Brands Hatch, his local circuit. He was, however, invited to take two cars to the Brazilian Temporada series in 1970 where he entered them for Gabrielle Konig and Max Fletcher. Gabrielle, while quick, had a rather nasty accident rolling the car and breaking a bone in her neck, though she made a full recovery. Tony then immigrated to Australia, where he set up a kart circuit in Mount Louisa, Townsville, and he continued to race in Australia even after major heart surgery. Sadly, Tony died in 2000 after falling overboard in a sailing accident off the coast of Australia.

Other Macon drivers were Henry Clarke, Ray Howard, John Dadswell, Lee Hall, Gerry Brown, Keith Wilson, John Day, Craig McAlistair, and Roger Hamblin. All raced Macon cars in the UK with Vern Schuppan, Syd Fox, Max Fletcher, and Gabrielle Konig also racing in Europe.

In January 2004, Peter Alexander acquired the rights to Macon Race Cars and is now in a position to supply all owners of Macon cars genuine spare parts to keep their cars racing, having acquired all of the original jigs, molds, and drawings. A number of cars have been tracked down in the UK, America, and Europe, as well as Australia. The Australian Racing Museum is known to have two Macons, including an F2 car and a 1982 Macon FF1600. Peter Alexander, in addition to successfully racing the car you see here, is active in the historic Formula Ford association in the UK.

Driving the Macon MR8

There are two important Formula Ford events in the UK: the Formula Ford Festival, held for many years at Brands Hatch, and the more recent Walter Hayes Trophy Meeting at Silverstone. The tradition is that anybody who is anybody in Formula Ford will appear at one or both of these meetings. James Beckett at Silverstone is the driving force behind the Walter Hayes race and, sometime in 2006, he suggested it might be interesting for Vintage Racecar to do a test from behind the wheel. I met Peter Alexander at the Walter Hayes meeting and we agreed it would be nice to do a test on a “proper” historic car, and that he would make one of his Macons available. When he said Macon, my head snapped around, and I told him about racing against John Dadswell many times in his Macon. “Well, John plays golf with my dad,” said Peter and that started the train of thought that led to Peter entering me in the next Walter Hayes, dragging John Dadswell out of deepest Kent for the occasion to the first race he had been to in some years.

Now, 35 years is a long time to be out of a formula like this one, if you even want to keep your head above water. The competition consists of many drivers not old enough to drive road cars! I had my photo taken on Saturday with Wayne Boyd from Northern Ireland…he was 50 years younger than me and a whole lot faster!

Knowing that the action at the Walter Hayes weekend was likely to be fast and furious, I made a point of going down to see the car long before November. As it turned out, things changed and I would end up driving a totally different car. It turned out to be chassis number 120, an MR8 which had been Syd Fox’s works car, and it had been very effective in period. Syd Fox, for me, was a name to conjure with. I had raced against him—well, in the same races—many times in 1971 and 1972. He was driving a Hawke by then, and was an immensely competitive and forceful driver. When Peter Alexander met Syd, over in the UK from living in Spain, he told him that the Macon was easily the best Formula Ford he had driven, and particularly this very car. It seems that Syd only departed from Macon as he didn’t see eye to eye with Vern Schuppan. Schuppan had a few accidents and Syd felt that took time away from the preparation of his own car.

Chassis 120 was sold to America just after the 1970 or 1971 season, and raced for a number of years in the ownership of several people. One of the great things about Formula Ford in those days was that you could have a car that would be eligible for races and championships for several years. That is one of the reasons that many historic cars are as quick as the latest ones, even though they might be years older. Peter Alexander located the car in the United States and brought it back to the UK. It won the Historic Sports Car Club Historic Formula Ford Championship outright in 1999 and 2000, in the hands of Paul Sleeman. Alexander now races it periodically with some considerable success. It seemed the epitome of historic Formula Ford racing for Vintage Racecar to have an exciting taste of.

Back in the Saddle

This is how the Walter Hayes Trophy works: It is essentially a “knock-out” event. Now, that is a particularly appropriate word to use in relation to Formula Ford, as the category has a long history of very tough racing. I spent more evenings than I care to remember rebuilding suspension parts taken off the previous weekend! However, this year’s tournament would turn out to be fairly well behaved in that respect—fairly well.

We were fortunate to have a test day on Friday, which provided the chance to do two things: feel my way back into a competitive single-seater, and see just how hard the competition would be driving. Peter Alexander and mechanic Simon were on hand from the outset to get the very best out of cars and drivers. This is plural because Peter was also running a 1996 Jamun for young Mark Davies, a serious up-and-coming driver very keen to be at the front. Though I was doing the race mainly for the purpose of this test, Peter was clear that he didn’t want me to hold back and take it “too easy.” He knew the Macon could do well and wanted it to do so again.

The testing day allowed me to get to grips with that “stuffed in a small space” feeling that comes with FFord, as well as with the very close dicing out on the Silverstone circuit. Over 160 cars were entered for the Walter Hayes, and most of them were testing, even though they had raced all season. That is serious business!

I never got over how responsive a well-setup Formula Ford felt. Everything happens quickly, but still doesn’t take you by surprise. The cars always had a lot of “feel” in them, and the Macon was no exception. For me, the Hewland Mk8 4-speed gearbox was one of racing’s best inventions. It was such a jump up from the Renault box…which wasn’t bad…but you really learned how to shift gears with a Hewland. I was always amazed that no matter how much abuse I gave mine in the Mirage in 1972, it never once let me down. In fact, it was the smoothness and predictability of the box that made my return to FF all the easier. You could go into Copse Corner at the end of the Silverstone straight and concentrate totally on handling. If in traffic, you could bang down to third without the car getting unsettled. When it’s wheel within wheels, that is important.

Peter’s Macon has the Ford 1600–cc unit…a crossflow, of course, tuned by Auriga. This is a dry-sump engine built to the FFord regulations, and it produces 108 bhp. That figure hasn’t changed very much…the engine in our Mirage had 105 bhp.

The test day produced what I thought was a reasonable though not quick time, and it got quicker during each session. I still can’t get beyond the fact that it wasn’t my car, so I didn’t quite try the daring moves of some of the opposition. At the end of the day, we went for a slight change in gear ratios, and some attention on what seemed to me to be a slight flutter just before reaching the rev limit. That meant a richness adjustment. Such is the commitment of the team; there was also a pretty thorough strip down and nut-and-bolt check…I’ve never experienced that before, especially when I ran my own Lotus!

Qualify and Racing

The Walter Hayes Trophy involves qualifying and six heat races on Saturday: six heats times 30 cars…a lot of Formula Fords! The slowest cars from the heats get into a Sunday Storm race…on Sunday. The next group gets into a Progression Race, from which most of the semi-finalists come. A few at the back of this group get into a Last Chance race, and a few may also get to the semi-finals, and from there to the Final. What is important is to get as far to the front in every session, because that is the only way you will get ahead to the next round. Even I understood that.

There were no fewer than 26 pre-1980 cars and 16 of these were proper historic pre-mid-’70s machines. Though there was a class for the historic cars, all the heats and races were run on the same basis, so to move toward the final, you had to beat at least some of the newer cars. Fast boys like Peter Dempsey were in 2005 Rays or 2006 Spectrums or 2005 Van Diemens. That was a tall order. I decided that I had to return the car in one piece, get at least into a second run-off race, and beat some of the other historics. All else would be cream on the Macon cake!

While managing to get around in the 69-second range in testing, qualifying was somewhat slower…not quite last but not far off it, to be honest. That really put the pressure on for the heat because there would be work required to get to the next round. The car ran perfectly, brakes well balanced, and superb handling, which inspired taking some of Silverstone’s corners a lot faster than I had in testing. The real issue was about how close you were prepared to be to the opposition, and even thinking about that lost you ground. But in the heat, we progressed from 22nd to 17th, partly due to the inevitable first-lap entanglements that are always there in Formula Ford. The fastest lap was several seconds less than mine. What I couldn’t believe was the sight of the modern, lower cars with much wider suspension…they look very different to the 1970 variety…especially when you are sitting right behind them. But, they are more fragile. Sadly, my teammate, after a very encouraging early showing, where he was about 6th quickest, got tangled and seriously damaged, ending up in the hospital for a check-up. FFord is tough.

When the grids came out on Sunday, I had gotten the Macon into the Progression race. I expected to be sitting at the back, only to get a surprise in the assembly area: The grid was reversed! There were a few cars in front, but 20 newer, faster machines behind. This would be exciting.

There’s nothing quite like the first few laps of a Formula Ford race. All the guys behind were desperate to get past to make it into the semi-final, and those of us at the front wanted to survive. I managed to keep the incredibly reliable and well-behaved Macon in front of the howling pack for a lap or so, my aim being to get past the historic class cars in front. While all those “children” went sailing past in the next eight laps, I reeled in the Lotus 61, the Mallock, a Van Diemen…a Van Diemen? And another, and then a few threw themselves off. All the time the Macon pounded on and provided the quickest time so far for me. In spite of being the only person in the entire event with an open-face helmet, the car did its job. I missed the next level by one car, but was 4th among the historic cars. In hindsight, I should have finished lower down in the heat and got on pole…or been forced into the Sunday Storm, where I might have finished nearer the front and then got into the semi…. Formula Ford for me was always what if!

I was really pleased to see John Dadswell there to cheer on one of the “ole back markers”!

But let me put my excuse for my performance into this story. Just to show how long it was since I was involved in single-seater racing, I managed, while pushing the car back to the garage from scrutineering on Friday evening, to run over my left foot! Now, you can’t shove your foot into half of your shoe without consequences, so my races were done with three broken bones, and I’ve just only stopped limping. I think I got the “hard man” award!

Buying and Maintaining a Macon Formula Ford

The Macon MR8 is currently up for sale at £16,450 sterling. That’s in the $29,000 bracket. Lolas and Merlyns are going for far more than that, and there are some Macons around for a bit less. That buys a car with serious period history and the ability to win in the right hands…not mine…as has been proved already.

One of the great things about Formula Ford is that there will always be races and championships, and they are welcome at hillclimbs as well. They go on for years with reasonable maintenance and parts are available all over the world. Macon as a company still exists, so replacement parts can still be made and supplied. FFord has always been an ideal category because of the ease of maintenance. I never became a master of changing gear ratios…I always dropped them…but it’s not difficult.

The racing is always close, partly because the regulations were written properly, and because it is not difficult to detect cheating. And there isn’t much satisfaction in cheating in FFord. That comes from having a car that makes you work to bring the best out in yourself against similar cars.

Specifications

Chassis: Space frame

Body: Fiberglass

Tuner: Auriga

Weight: 927-lbs

Engine: Ford Crossflow

Displacement: 1,600-cc

Oil system: Dry sump

Power output: 108-bhp

Gearbox: Hewland Mk8 4-speed

Brakes: Girling with Ferodo pads

Wheels/Tires: 5.5” x 13” all around. Front: Avon ACB9 5.0 x 22, Rear: 6.5 x 23-13

Resources

I owe a great deal to Peter Alexander (www.PAmotorsport.com) and to Simon for being so well looked after at Silverstone, and for help with the history; also to James Beckett for his work at the Walter Hayes Trophy.