Stephen Callow dropped me a line titled 'Timeire on the Isle of Man (Hill climb circa '73)', which is certainly one good way to get my attention.
Where did Stephen find this superb shot? He wrote: "A contact shared a couple of hill climb pics – September 73 we think." So that would likely have been after Conroy sold it. Or could it be Gerry Marshall in 1970 after all? What's interesting also is that the car appears to have a registration that I have never seen on it on any other picture: '658 CXP' or '658 CXR'. What can we make of that..?
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Timeire was the name of a one-off Mini Van based Special built by Irishman Tim Conroy and his father Patrick 'Pop' Conroy in the late 1960s. After getting in touch with Tim Conroy's son Martin some years ago I found out that the car used a 998 Cooper engine and was raced by Rob Mason at Brands Hatch before well-known racer Gerry Marshall took it to the Isle of Man for a hill climb in 1970. Martin also told me it was sold as a road car in 1973 and was written off and scrapped about a year later.
The one-off Mini based Timeire is seen here in a hill climb at the Isle of Man
Picture courtesy Stephen Callow
Detail shot seems to reveal registration '658 CXP' or is it '658 CXR'?
Picture courtesy Stephen Callow