I bought the car in 1996 from Bill Thompson, Sr who acquired it from a chap in No. California. Bill owned another Seven so decided to part with this one after having it for only a few months.

SB1308 was produced October, 1961. It had a 105E Anglia block. The car was sold to Peter Whurr, a London-boy and assembled by a Team Ecurie Ecosse mechanic. It was originally red in color. After a front-end shunt and a rebuild, he sold the car to a dealership. I don't know what happened next but it must have come to the States soon thereafter because I have an SCCA Colorado Hill-Climb dash plaque from 1963 and one from the Carrera Panamerica de la Oro from early 1964.

Although fairly nice looking when I bought SB1308, I soon found that all the proper racing bits had been removed or replaced with an odd assortment of things. The block was a 109E with DCOE 40's; Triumph Standard 4.40 rear (!). I spent most of the 1997 race season "sorting" through things - putting on "proper" rear fenders, changing the rear gear (4.11 now 3.9), new suspension bushings, Tilton race clutch, rebuilding the motor, etc.

(lovely photo at left Laguna Seca 2002 - Thanks to Jack Mahall) I raced it with some good success for about 3 seasons and then in 2000 undertook significant changes and transformed the car to what you see today (the only thing not replaced, rebuilt, plated or painted is the tub). The block is now a dry-sump 120E with DCOE 45's, with custom headers and exhaust by Coast Fabrication in Huntington Beach. The car has been fully sorted and is now quite competitive everywhere it runs. Tony Ingram of GB Components in Santa Barbara, CA gets the credit for guidance, assitance, support, and of course for building a fantastic motor!

The paint color is 1976 American Motors Yellow (think Gremlin) with Jaguar Green and English Red trim on the nose. The car had race #484 already on it when I got it. I kept the number because I was told by Bill Thompson that when the car came to this country it was run for awhile out of Dan Gurney's race shop in Torrance (for a friend - SB1308's owner possibly) and was numbered 484 because of other cars in Gurney's shop. I don't know if there is any truth to this. Once I get all of the rest of SB1308's history in place, I will contact Gurney to see if this is correct or what information he may recall.