1976 Davrian Mark 7a

Thanks for the interest.

Always one for spending too long reading before getting my hands dirty, thought I'd add my take on the history of Davrians and my car among them....Apologies to those who know the story, hope it might be of interest to some...

So, for those not familiar with Davrian, they were born out of the fertile imagination of structural engineer Adrian Evans back in the mid-60s. It's a story of amazing creativity, giant-killing competition success, bankruptcy and the eventual suicide of its founder. Quite a story in fact.

What made the cars a little different compared to others at that point of the 60s was the all-fibreglass monocoque, and in its original form, with no metal chassis or subframes. The Hillman Imp was used as the basis, providing engine and front and rear suspension - and looking at the Davrian floorpan its hard to avoid the conclusion that Evans just rolled an Imp over and laid glass on top to produce his mould...Styling of the early cars was always relatively good, excepting the front headlight areas which proved to be a bugbear right through the cars many 'Marks'. Sold predominantly as a bodyshell kit but also available as a 'complete' car, Davrians were notorious for their exceptionally poor quality of (interior) finish - this usually meaning the absence of any interior whatsoever...... I think it's fair to say this reflected Adrian Evan's own mental focus on the 'bigger dream' and complete lack of interest in detail finishing...... Importantly for the story, this type of detail finishing work would eventually become the specialism of a purchaser of a couple of early cars, Tim Duffee, working as a freelancer to begin with but later employed as factory fixer much later on.....

While the factory was based in Clapham there was a real commitment to circuit racing, and versions of the car held lap records all over the country in 1-litre (imp-engined) form. Interestingly the cars also had a turbo association from really early days, one of the magazine tests back in the day focusing on the turbo-imp factory 'demonstrator' - subsequently race also I think,

The mid-70s began a move to Wales and a series of false starts for continued production after new premises failed to materialize. Being in the middle of nowhere in Wales, the competition focus predicatably expanded into rallying, especially as the shell was adapted to fit a wider variety of engines, the mini units that were accommodated from 74 later being joined by Renault and then Ford xflow/twincam/BD engines all following. It's fair to say that the cars were immediately competitive on tarmac and in the forests, although in truth at this point there were probably less than half a dozen or so cars being campaigned regularly in Wales. My car dates from this period, being Tim Duffee's own car, which he built with rallying in mind. I'm guess its around the 500kg mark with no engine and box. With him being a fan of the Renault Alpine he put a 16ts engine in the back and took the car forest rallying, earning a bit of success with the car as a 1600.

For 'Davrian Developments' the early 80s finally brought a move to a heavily (Welsh government) subsidised factory unit in Wales and an extremely ambitious shot at some kind of 'mass production' of finished cars based around Ford Fiesta / Escort XR3 mechanicals in a rear/transverse layout......Bankruptcy followed..but not before lots of delayed or failed promises and deliveries

Back in the 'real world', existing owners of Davs continued to rack up championship successes,

The Davrian floorpan, subsequently re-clothed in new bodywork, commenced production as the Corry Cultra in Ireland before that project too was also abandoned.

After the closure of the factory, workshop manager Tim Duffee and his 'Team Duffee' outfit were still serving the extended family of Davrian owners, when he struck upon the idea of putting a really quick driver in his car - in the shape of Geoff Kitney. The car was repainted in his sponsor's Zenith motorsport red, and on tarmac the pairing began to get some very encouraging results. Kitney believed he could go even quicker with more predictable handling, and he and Duffee began working on a replacement Mid-Engine version, baptized the Darrian when finished. This car, still produced in Wales, is probably the most successful tarmac rally car ever in the UK and is still winning every weekend all over the UK..... It's a real shame that the originator of the design, Adrian Evans, is no longer around having very sadly taken his own life in the early 90s.

The reality too is my car is a very long way from its glory days, and is in need of a lot of work just to be driveable....so plenty to learn along the way!

The car I have, Mk7a in its Renault-powered days

Same car but in later, tarmac setup, Cosworth BDA and Hewland in the back, West Cork around 1985

Originator of the Davrian, Adrian Evans, early to mid-70s at a guess

Well enough of all that fancy-pants history, as we all know in the end it all comes down to that moment when you have the car safely back home in your garage with the door closed, deep breath and say to yourself.....O. Kaaay...

So this post is the car 'as found'. I'd managed to kid myself that there couldn't possibly be any need for any welding on this project.....how wrong that was....

Earlier cars used an imp crossmember and arms to mount the rear suspension. The Mk7A variant dispensed with that using specially fabricated box-section arms distanced further apart than on the Imp, gaining track and allowing bigger gearboxes to be slotted in. Shagged standard imp fitting shocks just visible, two 'boxes' above this are for Escort Grp1 Bilstein shocks, the car running a total of four shocks and Imp type 4" springs rather than coilovers at the back - a design that was carried over to the early Darrians.

All original interior...

This is the rear 'luggage area' behind the seats and behind the rear screen, it can't be accessed from inside the car. Under the foliage, hydraulic handbrake cylinder, oil coolers, extinguishers and rad header tank etc live in this compartment.

The car ran a 'dropped' steering rack mount

Standard Imp type front arms - rather than the box section fabricated type from Davrian tha many other competition cars used. Just about visible is the drop link for the anti roll bar.

Modified hubs and disc setup, with cooling..