1959 NIKE Mk1 Formula Junior - FIA HTP papered

The late Ken Nicolls was a talented and creative engineer, passionate about motor racing and the man solely responsible for building Nike competition cars from 1959 until the early 1980s. To quote his daughter, Carole, who still hill climbs one of his early Formula Fords, 'We used to spend a lot of time at hill-climbs and sprints with dad: he wouldn’t come out of the workshop unless it was to go and watch something 'racing'. Between 1960 and 1980 we think he built 100 cars. We were based at Bideford in Devon then. There was a Formula Junior, which is still running, a sports-racer, then Formula Vees and then he went to Formula Ford. The Mk4, the Mk6 and Mk10 were all Formula Fords. There was a one-off Formula 5000 and more sports-racers.'

This superbly-presented 1959 Formula Junior was Ken's first proper customer car and, not surprisingly, has become known as the Mark 1. The chassis was based on a Cooper F3 with the wheels/hubs/brakes taken from a Cooper Bristol  (the original parts are claimed to be from Mike Hawthorn's Cooper Bristol but this can't be confirmed). It was built at the end of the front-engined period in Formula Junior and was Ken's only FJ car. It's race history in FJ is unknown but it's believed to have raced in Monoposto later in period.

Moving forward some 50-years, the car was found and recovered by Duncan Rabagliati and Peter Denty in 2011. Peter immediately began a full restoration to his normal high standards, and the Mk1 returned to the circuits when it made its debut at the 2012 Goodwood Revival with Duncan at the helm. It took part in various races between 2012-2015, driven by James Denty and Duncan prior to being purchased as a rolling chassis in 2016 by Simon Goodliff. There followed a number of outings in FJ championship races (always in the top five) through to 2022 including the Goodwood Revival in 2021 (fifth overall and a best of 1:30.5).

During this period, the Mk1 continued to be developed to remain competitive;

• New Swiftune 1,100cc engine in 2017
• Major engine update in 2019 with Swiftune with latest crank/pistons/rods – current specification and the car has three hours running at this level
• New AVO dampers fitted 2016
• New mag alloys, drums, hubs fitted in 2019 by Ian Nutthall (£10,000)
• New John Young straight-cut gearbox in 2017 (£5,000)
• New 5:1 differential fitted with 4 planet gear arrangement in 2017 (£2,000)
• New gears fitted to Elva based drop box (£2,000)

Now being offered by ex-Touring Car champion, Jonny Buncombe, this fully-restored Formula Junior is eligible for all major global rounds of this great series. It has a current FIA/HTP (granted in 2021 for ten years) and we understand, barring a spanner check, is set to go. Superbly-presented, we suspect that the late Ken Nicolls would certainly 'come out of the workshop' to look at his very first racer with a justifiable amount of pride.

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