(more info here)The Lea-Francis Special Project
based on a 1927 14/40 1 LFS Lea-Francis tourer, this car is a genuine pre-war special started circa 1937, completion having been thwarted by the start of WW2.
The donor car would have appeared thus
(more info here)
The only pictures I have of the chassis under construction taken, I believe, in 1937/8 (see original log book issued in 1927)
Log book 
Click to enlarge images
It was the brainchild of Basil Drummond Parsons, working as a bank clerk, but hankering after an engineering career (he was later to start his own business specialising in mechanical automation). This enterprise absorbed so much of his time that the old (not so very old then) car languished under a deepening pile of extraneous household items.
I got to hear of the car ("a twin-cam two-seater with k/o wire wheels") from our local garage owner who, for some reason, was loath to divulge the whereabouts of this mythical beast. I persevered, however, and finally got to meet Basil in or around 1960. Having dug the project out from under heaps of lino and old carpets, I was confronted by an amazing sight; streamlined and low, with the impetuosity of youth, I immediately became intrigued by the prospect of buying and progressing the build of this car. The body was very rusty having been only protected by a quick coat of aluminium paint to the exterior applied twenty years before. One of the rear wings had not been finished, and there was no hardtop. There were no instruments, wiring or floor, but it was relatively complete mechanically. The engine was a mass of aluminium oxide, and was difficult to see properly and was seized.
Basil wanted £35, I offered £25 and we shook on £29!
I lacked engineering knowledge, and my only experience to date was to have assembled the worst special in the history of special building (see 'Cars I have owned'). I disassembled the car to its basic components, and wire-brushed and painted everything in pretty colours! At least my actions stopped the rot, and, having rebuilt the engine in a spare bedroom on the second floor of my parents' house, fitted it all back together. I had the luxury of the car's handbook, although there were differences (ie. the rear axle depicted was split whereas a banjo type was fitted to the car). Click here for sight of the handbook
The day of the engine startup dawned, and I set up a tape recorder, wired up the SU fuel pump, set the magneto to retard and turned it over by hand. On the third swing, it started!! the tape (which I still have somewhere - does anyone have an old mono open-reel machine?) clearly records the first beautifully quiet running which rapidly deteriorated into a fearsome rattle as the valve shims settled down under the hammering, and the clearances became too great. Actually, this is the Achilles heel of this engine, and I need not have worried too much about the noise. Another problem relates to the position of the oil pump high up on the block. I had had the foresight to prime the system so we had oil pressure from the moment of firing up.
I next fitted the bodywork back on the rolling chassis after taking a suitable number of pretty pictures. I finished the rear wing, but decided against the folding hardtop as Basil was a diminutive figure, and was able to sit very close to the heavily-raked steering column, and down between the chassis rails. I was too tall to adopt this driving position, and opted for a more laid-back posture which made the hardtop impossible as conceived (see drawing). In 2006, the hardtop build commenced, see below under Status - August 2004 - Progress.
Anticipating engine oiling problems, I fitted a separate electric priming pump with an oil-cooler in the circuit. The idea was to switch on the pump before starting the engine allowing about 10lbs of pressure to build thereby protecting the big ends at the critical moment every engine faces when being started from cold.
I also fitted a electric water pump as the lowered radiator would have reduced the effectiveness of the thermo-syphon driven water circulation. To 'spice up' the lighting, I fitted two aircraft landing lights, one of which had a 20amp bulb! The dipping mechanism was the fold-away feature of such lamps. It is probably just as well they were never used on the road as the lamp could easily light up a cloud, never mind the effect on the eyes of someone coming in the opposite direction. A novel (as I thought at the time, soon to be dispelled at the patent office) feature of the other traditional Lucas headlamps was the fact I linked them to the steering, calling them 'eye lights'. This idea was later to be used on the Citroen DS top-of-the-range model in the 1970's.
To cope with the extra current requirement, I fitted an extra dynamo and two batteries; the complications this decision caused to the wiring were diabolical. A friend crashed his TR2, and I bought and fitted his instruments which looked reasonably in vogue. Only very recently, I was given Basil Parsons' original sketches (he died in 1994 - more of this later) which may be seen here. Also included here is a picture of Basil's first conception of the car's bodywork. He had told me of his idea that the body should flow in a straight line from headlamp to tail lamp. He made a model of this concept which I had not seen until a few weeks ago. The family home had just been sold, and his daughter who now lives in Australia, was visiting in order to clear out various belongings; amongst these, she had found this model which she decided should stay with the car (I consider it only to be on loan). Happily, following adverse comment from friends, he dropped the rather bulky design in favour of a much more interesting, almost 'art deco' approach.
The tyres are a bit flat
after 63 years!
I protected all the inner bodywork surfaces with a coat of resin and fibreglass mat. In spite of this, on the only occasion I drove it on the road, it sounded a bit like a base drum on wheels. After this, I decided performance was second on the list of needs (it was already heavy as the bodywork was made in mild steel, the complex curves made up of a patchwork of beaten elements welded together) and I made a front to back undertray which weighed a lot, but which would keep the underside clean and assist with sound problems.
I spent hours filling and flatting the body in preparation for final cellulose finishing.
At this point (1966), Team Lotus was to move to Norfolk. Anticipating the needs of my hoped-for future car collection, I bought a property with garaging for four cars with workshop space and a 3-car carport. The Leaf was towed up a few months after I moved in (much to the relief of my parents who finally got their garage back!), but I was so busy socialising, buying, building and writing off various Lotus' and trying to make the old house habitable (and, oh yes, I nearly forgot, getting married!), the old Leaf took a back seat.
Whilst I wanted to stay with Lotus, after four years I was virtually obliged to move as there were no openings either there or, for that matter, in Norfolk. I succeeded in landing a job with a new Ford plant, Advanced Vehicle Operations. I was the twelfth person to arrive, and looked forward to an interesting future; the job was good on paper, but was an absolute disaster in reality. I managed to last nearly three years before leaving - anything would be better. AVO had nearly 30 accounting staff to look after the accounts, forcasting etc. of a plant employing 130 people. Everything had to be done exactly in accordance with their 'Finance Manuals' which were designed for plants the size of Hailwood, hence 30 accountants!
I managed to find what I hoped to be temporary work whilst we sold our house, but it took 4 1/2 years and three more jobs! It was during this time that I received the first of about three calls from someone wanting to buy the Leaf. My neighbour, John Fellingham (known as the 'Racing Vicar') had been showing the car to interested parties - to this day, I do not know how our 'Bob' got to hear of the car - I only wish he hadn't as his intervention has caused much difficulty in my life. From the outset, I made it clear that I would never sell the car.
When we finally sold the property in Essex, we returned to the house in Norfolk which had been rented for seven years, and was in a sorry state. We decided to renovate, but the project cost three times the 'back-of-the-envelope' estimate, and we were back into a mortgage situation. At this time, I heard again from Dr Robert Elliot-Pyle, the phantom caller after the Leaf. As on previous occasions, I turned down his offer for the car, even though the money on the table was becoming quite serious, About a year after this, there was a knock at the door. It was a cold, wet November night; the time was around eleven o'clock, and we were getting ready for bed. This tall stranger thrust something into my hand which I was staggered to find was a large roll of banknotes. He explained that he had come to buy the Leaf ..... padding up to the front door was a young girl of about eleven with no shoes who turned out to be his daughter. I gave him back his money, but we were obliged to put them up for the night. The next day, he lost no time insulting the project from every viewpoint, and kept on badgering me to sell. The offer was increased, but I am pleased to say I sent him packing. I left for work expecting him to leave soon after. I was surprised to receive a call as soon as I arrived at work when 'Bob' upped the offer yet again. The offer was probably three times what the car was worth, and actually got me thinking ..... 'what did I like about the car - yes, its styling potential'. Thinking quickly, and not really expecting him to respond, I upped the price and said he could have the rolling chassis and I would keep the body. To my utter dismay, he accepted, and I had made the worst decision of my life. Next weekend, he came to Norfolk with a trailer, we lifted the body from the chassis, all the while Bob was tut, tutting the chassis mods. He indicated he would render the chassis into its basic components by knocking out the rivets, and indeed, about three months later he advertised the 'kit of parts' in Motorsport. I believed the original Leaf was lost forever.
I bought a late twenties Talbot 14/45 rolling chassis, but the torque-tube arrangement did not lend itself to being lowered, so I sold it to Ian Polson. I bought another complete 14/45 saloon, and started to renovate it, and about four weeks later bought yet another 14/45 rolling chassis. Ian Polson had seen the advert for this chassis, but had been unable to travel to see it. For the next two years, he pressed me to sell it to him, but I had not altogether dropped the idea of converting it for the (Leaf) body. Finally, in exasperation having explored all sorts of alternatives over about a year, I said to Ian, .... 'if you can find my Leaf chassis, I'll do a swap'. About three months later, he called me to say he was ready to do the swap as he had located and bought many of the parts including the chassis, but not the engine , gearbox or brakes/wheels. We did the swap, and I got the main items back costing me nothing. (With the second Talbot rolling chassis came a new set of pistons which I sold for virtually the same price I paid for the whole set of parts.)
I next needed to find the engine and gearbox; I finally located Dr Terry Parker, who had at one time owned one of the two or three original LFS cars (the other three or four are specials), and who had bought the remains of my car from Elliot-Pyle. As far as I can see, Bob had only used the big brakes before selling the car on, and had made a bad error because he had not done his homework properly, and found the parts he expected to be useful to him were not on the car. The whole episode had been nothing but a destructive waste of time, and I must accept the blame for selling and allowing the project to be vandalised; with Terry Parker's generous assistance, I have bought back the engine and gearbox, and found the large size brakes, although not in quite as good condition as the originals. The other parts 'missing' are listed at the end of the site, and if you can help with any of them, I will be eternally grateful.
The Second Rebuild
I didn't take many pictures of the chassis and axles when I got them back, however, the chassis and body are reunited here
Having built and rebuilt several cars, I am now better equipped to do a better job on the Leaf project. As stated, the chassis is untouched, and I have had it blasted, zinc-sprayed and painted/cured. I am avoiding the lurid colour-schemes, my only concession being to have the chassis in deep green, the fuel tank crimson with all other fittings in black.
Back from blast/zinc
treatment - the front axle beam and springs can be seen on the left.
The current state of progress may be seen from these photographs (October, 2000).
Click here for the list of parts (with some pictures) which are desperately needed to make progress.
