The first car built was ordered for and driven by Gerry Hall
and sponsored by his fathers Alfa Romeo garage Halsales Motors in Sydenham
This car turned out to be a lucky start for the Piper company
well designed the car was quick and easy to drive straight out of the box
It was used for many thorough testing sessions by Piper at Brands Hatch
while a second car powered by a Lotus twin-cam was slowly built up
and we are told that it took an unofficial class lap record at one session
Around the same time a single seater Formula 3 car was designed
and built up using a sheet of Mallite
end grain balsa core bonded in-between light alloy skins
folded and braced with bulkheads to form the monocoque
Tony Hilder designed Pipers own style of wheels that were available in two weights
a light design for single seaters and a stronger version for the sports cars
The wheels had two fins cast on the inside of the spoke to disturb air around the brakes
The short spoke sports car style was used on the GTT road cars and a few early P2's
This design evolved a few years later when a split rim version was used on the larger engined GTR
A car was ordered by journalist Jerry Titus and shipped out to the USA
This car was fitted with a Buick V8
A hard top roof was designed for the Bobby Bell car
that used the GTT front screen with a re worked tail section
and this evolved into the full sports GT coupe with a lower roof line
Brian built himself a sports GT coupe for clubmans events
powered by a 1650cc Lotus twin-cam to replace the open car he had been racing
He then built a second car powered by a 1760cc fuel injected twin-cam
and included the lessons learnt from the modifications on the first car
and the first car was sold to and raced by Tim Lalonde
Brian's love of racing continued to grow
and he had developed his second Piper sports GT coupe as far as he could
Brian started thinking about the next Piper and he wanted to take this one to Le Mans
A Group 6 sports racer was introduced late in 1968 and named the GTR
The design was again by Tony Hilder and he used the facilities at Kingston College
of Technology where he would lecture and present evening classes
A model of the body profile was wind tunnel tested at Kingston College
and was the subject of a B.Sc Honours Degree in Aeronautical Engineering
The advanced design of the GTR included rear mounted water and oil radiators
and featured a double vortex trim on the tail section so that the radiators cooling air flow
exiting under the car was not disturbed by the air flow passing over the car
Within the double nose profile was a adjustable aerofoil to trim and balance the car
This closed cockpit rear engined Piper featured a central monocouqe
construction developed exclusively by Tony Hilder for Piper
The body - chassis tub was made with end grain balsa reinforced with polyester
as a core in the floor and bulkheads and laminated between the inner and outer walls
of the glass fibre shell with a polyurethane foam filling
that produced an immensely strong and rigid safety cell structure
with multi-tubular sub frames extending to the front
and to the rear that could carry all the twin cam Ford engines
or 2 ltr. BMW and the Martin and BRM power unit`s were also listed as an option
Brian`s own car would be powered by a Oldsmobile V8
Brian's V8 GTR was not completed in time so only the customers
1300cc Lotus twin cam powered Piper GTR was entered into the
1969 Le Mans 24 hour endurance event driven by Tim Lalonde and John Burton
Fitted with the customers own Piper rebuilt 1300cc Lotus twin cam
it was never going to be a GT40 beater
But with it's light weight and fuel efficient engine it was aimed at gaining the Index of Performance
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The GTR arrived in France up and running but not ready to race
and without having been track tested in the UK
The engine capacity had not been officially measured in the UK
and the engine was stripped and measured and stamped and re sealed between practice sessions
Unfortunately due to problems during practice when only one driver
found the time to qualify it failed to start the event
In practice it was lapping quicker than the Alpine Renault
but not as often
The GTR can be seen briefly at the start of the Castrol film
Le Mans 24 Hours 1969 - La Ronde Infernale
This can be seen on YouTube 33 seconds into the start of Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=861mRRktGZA
Since 1970 the ex Le Mans GTR has spent most of it's life in the USA
featuring in museums and in historic racing events and even as a road car
but a surprise late in 2004 saw it return back home to England
The driving enthusiasm behind Piper racing cars stopped with the tragic loss of Brian
and the company continued to produce and develop the line of GTT sports cars
at last this would bring money in without it being spent on the racing cars
Despite loss of Brian and the disappointment from the holiday in France
another GTR was ordered and built for jazz musician Chris Barber
entered by Chris Barber Racing and sponsored by Polydor Records
This GTR was powered by a 2 ltr. BMW engine and was driven by John Hine
in the 1970 RAC Sports Car championship
We believe that a couple of early Piper GTT's have been raced by customers in the past
but we don't have any period pictures or positive information about them
The cars could have been ordered as racers and built in race trim by the factory
but they were never raced from the factory or entered as works cars
A pair of P2's were raced in the Modsports series in the early 1970's
Again these were customer cars with the first built up from just a body shell and screens
and the second bought as a body with screens and a P2 chassis and connecting components
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