1968 Titan Mk3 'Formula B' Car

Charles Lucas Engineering started life at the ex-BRP workshops at Highgate before moving to King’s Lynn and subsequently Huntingdon as their engine preparation and engineering business grew. The team were already very experienced in F3 having run the works Lotus 41s in 1966 and had continued into 1967 running a private Lotus and Brabham BT21. At the end of 1967, the team introduced their own car, the Titan Mk3 (the Mk1 was a 2.5 Maserati engined sports-racer and the Mk2 an F2 project that never got off the ground). Designed by Roy Thomas, the Mk3 was a conventional late 1960s spaceframe based car. Suspension was outboard with double wishbones at the front and the rear featured a top link with a reversed bottom wishbone and double radius rods. Although the Mk3 did not appear until the dying months of 1967, success was immediate with Roy Pike winning at Brands Hatch and finishing second at Oulton Park. This success prompted a flurry of interest amongst potential entrants for the 1968 season and a number were ordered for delivery in early 1968.

The customer cars were built just down the road by Arch Motors but the two ‘Works’ cars were carefully put together by the team at CLE and the 1968 Mk3 on offer here is indeed one of those cars. Originally chassis #3 (#6833), it was rebuilt at the end of the busy season and re-plated as #68318, however a letter is included in the file from the works confirming that this was originally chassis #3. It was allocated to Works driver, Roy Pike, the talented Pensylvanian whose testing and development skills played a major part in the team’s success.

1968 began well with Roy Pike scoring a dominant win (as well as pole and fastest lap) in Round Five of the MCD Lombank British Formula 3 Championship on the Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch in mid April. A week later, on 21st April, another win followed, this time in the XXVIII Grand Prix de Pau in France. Roy and #3 scored another victory in Round Eight of the Lombank in mid May, this time on the short circuit at Brands and the final win of the season came on 15th September at the IV Coupe de l’Avenir at Zolder against a big field of European F3 drivers. Numerous top ten finishes throughout the season meant that Roy and #3 finished eight in the Lombank F3 Championship in a well supported series that included eight drivers who went on to race in Formula 1.

We understand that the car was subsequently sold to a Ronald Householder of Oregon, US, who ran it in SCCA ‘Formula C’, a category for up to 1,100cc racing engines,for a few years before being converted by Ralph Ormsbee to ‘Formula B’ (1,600cc production 'stock-block' engines) and fitted with a Lotus Twin-Cam mated to a Hewland MK5/6 transaxle in big torque spec. It was later sold to Dennis Howell and subsequently to Chris Gruys who acquired it in 2012. Prior to taking to the circuits, he undertook significant recommissioning including new master cylinders, resealed calipers, skimmed discs, a rebuilt gearbox with new bearings and dog rings, a new Tilton clutch and safety upgrades such as a bag tank.

The car was actively raced in multiple events, including the 2012 LSR Charity Event at Laguna Seca, the 2015 David Love Memorial at Sonoma Raceway and the 2015 Thunderhill Titan Reunion. In 2015, the engine was sent to Ivey Engines of Portland, Oregon for a full rebuild after an oil pressure issue. The car's extensive history file chronicles #68318’s life from its time as a ‘Works’ car through four decades of racing in the US and will be available to read at our Documents Desk during the sale.

In 2020, the car was shipped back to the UK and participated in a successful ‘shake-down’ test at Donington Park. It remains in its American specification and is now offered in running condition but, as with any competition car, will require an assessment of the validity and currency of all the safety-related equipment and close inspection of the suspension and braking components before being used in anger.

The car could be used for hill climbs, sprints or Formula Libre, however once converted back to its 1968, one-litre, specification, it would make an excellent entry into the HSCC Historic Formula 3 Championship and presumably would be welcomed by the 1-Litre Historic F3 Racing Association, particularly as their President, Mike Walker, raced against Roy Pike in this car in 1968. Whilst currently not supplied with FIA paperwork, the well documented build details, the extensive history file, and the willingness of all to see it back on UK circuits should make the process fairly straightforward.

#68318 represents an outstanding opportunity to acquire a well preserved and well raced example of a winning Formula 3 car from the golden era of the F3 ‘screamers’.