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The
Alexis Mk 20 on its announcement.
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Alex Francis began
building trials cars in 1953 and in 1959 he set up Alexis with Australian
Bill Harris to start producing customer cars including a Formula Junior
model. Harris had previously been responsible for the Flather 500cc F3 Special.
For several years the team produced a number of increasingly sophisticated
F Junior cars, the Mk5 in particular going very well. In fact a Mk5 was
sold to DAF to be fitted with their Variomatic transmission and it was raced
in F3 in 1964.
When Harris returned to Australia in 1965 Lotus 7 racer Allan Taylor took
his place and Alexis became a serious racing car constructor, and Team Alexis
ran cars in a number of formulae. Both F2 and F3 cars were constructed during
the '60s and some success was achieved, the highlight being Paul Hawkins
winning the 1965 F2 Eifelrennen. The Jim Russell Driving School took 57
of the Alexis Formula Ford cars for its pupils to learn on in 1967-68, however
by the start of the 1970s production began to slow down as other marques
came to prominence and Alexis faded from the scene. |
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The
Alexis Mk4.
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The
Alexis Mk5.
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The Mk6 was
designed by Bill Harris for use both in F2 and F3 but both the chassis
that were built were to F3 specification (The '65 F2 car was built
as the Mk7). The design was a continuation of the F Junior line
and the results weren't too encouraging with a best of 6th in a
race at Monza for John Ampt.
In addition
a number of Mk 4 and 5 F Junior cars were converted to F3 spec,
notably the MK5 that was run by the works in early season races.
The Mk4 was the 1962 F Junior car, featuring disc brakes and a Hewland
gear box for the first time. A single Mk5 was produced in 1963,
similar but smaller than the Mk4 it also featured fibreglass bodywork.
This was the car that would be sold to DAF.
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Another Bill Harris
design and again it was intended as a dual-purpose F2/F3 design, the Mk8
used a shorter spaceframe than the Mk6, it finished in front of the driveshafts.
Modified suspension with new uprights and revised Mk 6 bodywork was used.
Three cars were built but again results were disappointing with a best of
4th and 6th in the same race at Monza for Maglia and Blokdyk. |
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Allan Taylor was the
new designer for the Mk9, it was apparently a stronger car than the Mk8
and used a further modified bodywork but it still showed no signs of competitiveness.
Unhappy with the customer Cosworth MAE engines available Alexis began to
develop their own but with no sign of any improvement. |
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For the first time
for several years Alexis didn't produce a new model. |
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The
Alexis Mk12.
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Introduced
part way through the season the Mk12 was once again a conventional
design using a modern type space frame chassis with typical Alexis
suspension employing wide based wishbones at the front, the team continued
to persevere with their own version of the MAE engine. Three cars
were produced but it was another year without a breakthrough, the
best finish was a seventh at Chimay for Terry Ogilvie-Hardy who used
a Novamotor-headed Cosworth engine. |
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Ken
Crook in the Mk17 at Brands Hatch in September.
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Ken
Crook displays the neat lines of the Mk17.
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Once again it
was a mid-season debut for the latest Alexis F3, the Mk17, the chassis
is sometimes called a Mk16, this would seem to be an early designation
with the Mk17 intended to be a F2/F5000 car that was never built.
It had a more sophisticated tubular steel chassis than the Mk12
and it featured a slightly wedge-shaped body. On occasions it showed
some promise although once again the home brewed engines seemed
to lack in the horsepower department. Ken Crook did a lot of the
driving but numerous niggling problems prevented any real progress
being made.
Transmission:
Hewland Mk6 4-speed
Brakes: Girling
10.25 in diameter discs front and rear.
Suspension:
Front, wishbones and coil springs: rear lower wishbones, top links,
twin radius rods and coil springs.
Dimensions:
wheelbase 89 in. track front 54.5 in. rear 55.25 in.
Wheels: 13 in.
diameter front and rear.
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Ken
Bailey at Oulton Park in the Holbay-engined works machine.
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The
Mk17 was used again in 1970 but despite the switch to a Holbay engine
in the works car results weren't noticeably better with Ken Bailey
managing a best of sixth at Mallory Park early in the year. |
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Another
shot of the Alexis Mk 20.
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Based
on the previous year's Mk17 F3 chassis, the Mk 20 had revised front
suspension, side radiators and a wedge nose that gave a very neat
overall appearance, a Vegantune engine was fitted. Sadly it seemed
that very little development work was carried out and this was the
last F3 Alexis to be seen. |
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Drivers: |
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1964 |
Mk6
John Ampt, George Smith.
Mk5
John Ampt.
?
Bruno Deserti, Paul Hawkins, Roy Pike, George Smith, Henk van
Zalinge.
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1965 |
Mk8
Trevor Blokdyk, Jacques Maglia.
Mk6
Allan Taylor.
Mk4
George
Smith.
?
Manfred Zeller.
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1966 |
Mk8
Allan
Taylor.
Mk6
Allan Taylor.
Mk5
Terry
Ogilvie-Hardy.
Mk4
George
Smith.
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1967 |
Mk3
George Smith.
Mk6
Allan Taylor, Peter Watts.
Mk5
Terry
Ogilvie-Hardy.
?
Dave Walker
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1968 |
Mk12
David Cole, Trevor
Fowler, Terry Ogilvie-Hardy. |
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1969 |
Mk17
David Cole, Ken Crook, Dick Barker. |
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1970 |
Mk17
Ken Bailey. |
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1971 |
Mk20
Alan McCully, Allan Taylor. |
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